(I'm also getting used to my new digs for a little while, not the best lighting or camera angles.. deal with it)
Stone - 16th Anniversary IPA - brewed with lemon verbena and lemon juice. 16 goddamn years, wow. In the scope of craft breweries, this is quite a damn long time, and they've left quite an impact. That being said, constantly doing collaboration brews, anniversary beers.. can be taxing to create something unique each time..let's see what Stone can do.
10% ABV and 85 IBU Double IPA (clearly) - this pours a lovely golden orange color with an average fluffy white head. This is a straight-foward typical Stone aroma here - mild sweet caramel malts and a ton of citrus, tropical hops. If you're familiar with Stone, you'd probably be able to pick this as being by them. The lemon verbena is highly present here with touches or the rye malts used and floral hops. The body is very light for a 10% brew, a bit sharp actually. Stone has always made incredibly drinkable beers and this is no exception. The lemon verbena/juice plays into the hop profile very well, but the hops themselves and the malts seem to have faded a bit. Stone IPAs have always meant to be drank relatively fresh and over the course of the 9 months since this was bottled, it's become a bit muted. Because of this, the citrus takes a very predominant role and comes off a bit too forward. Fresh, this would be fantastic. Aged this long...it's not terrible, but probably not the way Stone intended. It's still a great example of how Stone envisions beer - hop, citrus forward, malt playing the secondary role... but just doesn't feel up to the 'Anniversary' tag.. they could have done more
- - 7 Hops
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