Entrepreneurial brewers, especially German emigrants bought their knowledge and techniques for brewing lager and adapted to the conditions of California and the result is Steam beer. As time moved on and refrigeration became widely available lager became more dominant until steam beer became a thing of the past. Anchor Brewing which has existed and nearly disappeared multiple times introduced Anchor Steam in 1971 which was based on the pre-prohibition recipes of the late 1800s. Showcasing Northern Brewer hops and fermented with lager yeast at ale fermenting temperature Anchor Steam is a truly unique beer.

Sierra Nevada created this IPA with the use of a "Hop Torpedo", a device that was developed to aid dry hopping. Previously, the brewery had been using nylon sacks to dry hop their beers, securing them to the fermenter. After pulling them out after the dry hopping period, Sierra Nevada found that there where still dry spots in the pellet hops. This was of course, not very efficient and the maximum amount of flavour and aroma wasn't being extracted from the hops. The brewery fabricated a "hop torpedo" that was essentially a stainless steel tube that is packed with whole leaf hops. Fermenting beer is pumped through the torpedo and back through to the fermenting vessel. The speed, time and temperature of the circulation allows a fairly good degree of control for extracting hop flavour. Torpedo Extra IPA was Sierra Nevadas first year-round IPA and was released in 2009. Hop shortages meant the beer had to be allocated and demand has outpaced supply ever since.