Sidecar IPA

About Sidecar IPA

Sidecar by Sierra Nevada is an India Pale Ale with 6.8% ABV.  Sierra Nevada was founded in Chico, California in 1979. Sierra Nevada offers many fine beers, some are seasonal, and some are year-round. The most well known is most likely their Pale Ale. Distribution is fairly large, but I don’t have data on Sidecar. I did find it in my local grocery store in Portland, OR. Malts used in Sidecar IPA are: Two-Row Pale, Caramel, and Acidulated. They also use actual orange peel.

While I’ve never been a fan of fruit in beer, this one seemed like it would be refreshing. Plus it was orange peel, which sounded strong and a bit bitter, which was appealing.  Lastly, the idea of orange, or an accompanying orange or lemon slice with my beer, was reminiscent of days when I could drink heffeweisen, which is of course an unfiltered wheat ale and clearly off limits to someone with wheat allergies.

Sidecar Results

Take a look below for the results for Sidecar IPA. As you can see, clear lines show under the positions C and O. Lines are not present in position T.

Result: negative for 5ppm

If you want to know more about the test kit and how to read results, see the Testing Kit page.

When I drank this, it tasted very refreshing. If you have a hot summer day and you cannot drink heffeweissen, I might recommend this. Not comparing an unfiltered wheat ale to an IPA , for sure they are two different styles. Just saying the summer factor was there for me in a similar way.