OK, after having reviewed Boulevard’s Single Wide IPA a while ago, I got a second chance to have it at the Peanut downtown on Saturday night before the roller derby (yep, you heard ALL of that right! lol). I just bought some Sierra Nevada Torpdeo recently, too, and reviewed that, and mentioned that I would like to do a head-to-head of several IPA’s sometime soon. I have some Avery’s IPA and Anderson Valley, too, in the fridge. Hmmm….

Anyway, my first impression of the Single Wide was that it was a pretty mild IPA. The Torpedo was like getting hit in the face with a nylon full of hops, but what I noticed about the Single Wide that is different from Torpedo is that the bitterness seems to start low and really build a lot throughout the pint. During my first few sips of the Single Wide this weekend I found myself thinking, “Is this really Single Wide? I wonder if they gave me the Boulevard Pale Ale instead?” But about 1/3 down the glass the hops really started building and by the second half of the glass I felt like I was drinking a bitter bomb.

So, definitely two different animals. If I get a chance I’ll try to do a sampling of the four IPA’s I mentioned in the same sitting, but I can’t make any promises. IPA flights are tough, too, because your palate can definitely suffer from hop fatigue, so maybe I will have to do one each day and take good notes.