The Beer Chaser

Once again, I am rating an IPA from a well recognized brewery in the craft brewing scene: Stone Brewing Company. And once again, I have had very little experience tasting their beers. This will no longer be the case after imbibing this nectar of the gods!

I had know about Stone Brewing for years only because I had a co-worker that had one of their bottles of Arrogant Bastard Ale on his desk. Hell, I didn’t even really know the Stone Brewing part – just that the beer name was fitting for the individual who had it in his office.

Anyways, Stone Brewing Co. made it to the top of my “must try” list after seeing one of the founders Greg Koch in the movie Beer Wars. He came across as a very passionate, savvy, and humorous beer maker. The Escondido, CA brewery has a loaded schedule of monthly beer tasting  events, active blog, bistro and much, much more.

I was psyched to have my first formal taste of one of Stone’s beers. This IPA comes in with a 6.9% abv with year round availability. The brew will be 12 years old this August. The slightly hazy body is topped with an average and creamy off- white head that slowly diminishes throughout the drink. The heavy hop aroma lends to a strong pine taste with some slight perfume notes. The taste is offset with some slight hints of malt and hay. The yellow-orange medium body is slightly carbonated and lends to a creamy mouthfeel that makes this beer so delicious. The bitter brew is full of flavor and has an astringent finish to leave the palate tingling.

Shortly after trying this flavor out, I quickly plucked and added Stone Pale Ale and Stone Ruination IPA (100+ IBU!) to my fridge. So, be on the lookout for a Brewview on those guys. Obviously, I loved the beer and am jacked to try their entire line. Stone Brewing does command a price for their product, but I am certain that anyone who invests that money on the purchase of one of their superior brews will definitely feel that the money was well spent. Salud!

Tags: American pale ale, craft beer, Greg Koch, IPA, Stone Brewing

This entry was posted by Mike on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 7:30 pm and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.