http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvosvdWfmas
Baird / Ishii / Stone Japanese Green Tea IPA Collaboration
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Tag Archives: stone brewing
Stone Pale Ale
So apparently one side effect of these Beer 2.0 sites/apps I’ve been checking out is a renewed desire to try beers I haven’t gotten around to and to rediscover beers that I may have had some time ago and forgot about.
This one seems to have evaded me until now. How can that be? Stone is a brewery I rather like, and pale ales are right in my wheelhouse.
They say:
Our flagship ale, Stone Pale Ale is our Southern California interpretation of the classic British pale ale style. Deep amber in color, Stone Pale Ale is robust and full flavored. A delicate hop aroma is complemented by a rich maltiness. This is an ale for those who have learned to appreciate distinctive flavor. Stone Pale Ale is great by itself, or with food that requires a beer of character.
The color is a nice amber with orange highlights. Nice, fluffy head. Lotsa malty caramel in the aroma with some fruitiness; pineapple. Malty taste with a strong bitter aftertaste.
I like it. I want to have this again.
Stone IPA
Beer-a-Day #326 
Medium amber with a little chill haze. Big hop aroma, with grapefruit and toast. Big hop flavor and delicious.
They should just call this “hop head’s delight”.
Stone Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale
Beer-a-Day #303 
Deep, nearly opaque amber color with a good inch of creamy-looking head. Piney and resiny aromas, with a bit of vanilla I think. Nice, big hoppy flavor with a little bit of sweetness in the finish.
Oh, I’m worthy brother.
Stone Brewing Levitation Ale
Beer-a-Day #287
This is a leftover from O-fest weekend. Score!
Deep amber and a solid head. Piney and resiny hops; I mean, the aroma is just loaded with them. Big hoppy flavor but still just session weight. I could see myself drinking that a lot.
Stone Levitation
It has been said that gravity sucks…so in the defiance of gravity, Stone Brewing brings us Levitation Ale. The beer promises to bring big flavor at only 4.4% ABV and Stone has yet to disappointment me. (except for the price on their Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale)
Levitation pours a rusty red color with a thick head of foam. There are lots of strong, complex, aromas coming from my mug, mostly of hops but some toasty malts, too.
You are hit with some big hop bite and a flood of flavors to fill your mouth. It is only on the finish where you get a cleaner, and smooth finish, but still a tingle from the hops and carbonation. You can pick out some earthy & grainy notes and some yeasty flavors as well; all good.
This is considered an American Amber and is over the top on hops for the style (but I’m good with that). This goes high on my list for a session beer. Thanks again, Stone.
Wil Wheaton @ Stone Brewing – July 23
Wil Wheaton, author, screen star, and geek icon, will be reading some of his work on the evening of July 23, 2009 at the Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens.
in which we combine wil wheaton, books, and beer. (mmmm … beer.)
Wait. That’s not what I was going to say. I mean, yes, it’s personal, but that’s not what’s awesome about this time. What’s awesome about this time is that I’m just the opening act for Rifftrax! They’re doing The Matrix: The One That Really Sucks Out Loud And Makes You Want To Punch Babies. (No, not that one, the other one.) For the six of you who don’t know: Rifftrax is a few of the guys from MST3K doing that thing they do so well, only this time they’re doing it LIVE. I think it’s safe to say that it’ll be awesome.
I start at 6pm. I plan to read for either 20 or 40 minutes, depending on how many people show up, and what they’re in the mood to hear me read. I’ll be prepared with stuff from Happiest Days of Our Lives, and stuff from Memories of the Future. I’ll also be prepared to stare into an empty space, wipe a single tear from my eye, and go drown my sorrows in beer. (That, by the way, is one of my default settings and is not specific to this event. It is a class feature, if you will.)
I wish I could go but, alas, it’s on the wrong coast. Details here. More here.
Session #26: Stone Smoked Porter
Session #26 is Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em, hosted by Lew Bryson.
There may be more smoked beers than are dreamed of in your philosophy, Horatio; it’s not just rauchbier lagers from Franconia. Within the last year, I’ve had a strange smoked wheat beer, light and tart, that local brewers insisted was a re-creation of a Polish grodziski beer; a lichtenhainer, another light smoked wheat beer; several smoked porters; the odd Schlenkerla unsmoked helles that tastes pretty damned smokey; and, yeah, several types of smoked lagers. You’ve got three weeks, is what I’m saying: go find a smoked beer.
If you follow my writings on Hop-Talk at all, you know about me and porters; but, I promise not to go off on the porter style. I will treat this brew as a specialty brew and nothing more. I will comment on my enjoyment of drinking smoke flavoring which I am going to hate.
wait for it…..
I loved this. I am surprised by how great this beer is, but not by who made it. After all, Stone tells us outright that they don’t make beer that everyone will like, rather, they make beer that only some will absolutely LOVE; otherwise they are just on the road to mediocrity.
It does not taste smokey, yet the hint is there. It is complex, strong, and a fine dark ale. I congratulate Stone for hitting the porter style on the head. This is a dark beer, strong, with roasted flavors abound but none overpowering the beer on the whole.
Stone claims only malted barley, hops yeast and water, so some of the barley may have been smoked, but they certainly did it to the perfect degree. I don’t feel like I am drinking ashes.
Stone suggests serving with chocolate or even with a good PB&J. (they recommend sourdough, all natural peanut butter, and blackberry preserves) I had mine with some smoked Swiss cheese… it really goes with anything.
Only 5.9% ABV and my wife loved it too – bonus!
I will pay the premium for this beer and give a 4.5 on the unofficial Hop-Talk rating.
IPA Bake Off
Back in October we tried an Octoberfest bake off (a taste test) and it wasn’t that successful. Nice.. not thrillin’, but nice. So when a different group of my friends suggested a blind IPA taste testing, I wasn’t very optimistic; but of course I was game anyway.
Surprise! Not only was it a great evening, the winners and losers made it all that much more interesting. We scored them differently than I had done previously, not just on an overall impression like the unofficial Hop-Talk rating system is built upon, but rather a much more detailed method using a standard beer judging sheet. It is based on an overall score of 50 points made up of several categories.
Here are the results. I rounded the averages of the four of us playing judge…
My comments after the tasting go like this…
Rogue - Yes, it stood alone at the top.
Stone – One of my favorite IPA’s. My score for it probably would have been higher but I hadn’t just taken a break in tasting for a slice of Buffalo Pizza… probably not the best idea and probably affected the overall result.
Butternut – We were all surprised by this one, but me most of all as I really don’t like Butternut’s other brews. I’m going to have to go back for this one.
Middle Ages – While we all know and love this IPA, none of us expected it to rate so high. Glad to see it up there.
Sam Smith – I nailed the import.
I had a great time doing this… I don’t know if the flavors varied that much greater than the octoberfest styles, or if the method in judging was what made it so much better. In any case, the casual nature and long evening in which we took to do it was one for the books.
Special thanks to our servers, Ellie & Katie, and their scientific strategy to organization assuring accurate test results. (We will excuse the Yuengling Porter incident.)
Hops shortage made manifest
If I had any doubts about what would happen with the the hops shortage, I just got a very concrete example.
Yesterday, I paid $16.99 (+ tax) for a six-pack of Stone Ruination IPA.
I will certainly be savoring these.
