Stone 10th Anniversary IPA

Formerly brewed at Stone Brewing Co.
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Escondido, California USA

A thankyou to Kook for lobbing this one back from the U.S.
Served up at backyard patio temperature at a small tasting here in Perth.
Bright as bright it presented, a shimmering amber with a good dense white head that I had money on was laboratory adjusted. Nose was like crushed gum leaves, an oily, acrid and piercing sap from ’a tree my mother warned me not to touch as a youngster’ and some humid, gaseous mown lawn clippings. Subtleties don’t stand a chance but are evident like that ever present U.S. pine-nut thing and maybe some leftfield roggenbrot notes. Honestly raw and unrelenting in the mouth, like paint-stripper ’hop-style’, this does not work. Woeful comes to mind though it is intriguing as a pasteurised, filtered product (and think of product as in something the consumer buys in bulk, I mustn’t be that person! - I am also not that next rater I have tabs on will rate 3.9+, just to not cause a dive), that the intensity still has held and the malt now has been phased right downwards as second bait - beer, who needs malt!?!
Light pale honey note upfront, some burnt white bread, maybe. Big hops, resinous, almost untrue (as stated earlier). Heavily grassy, acrid, sour, sharp and not together norm for a palate to take. There is no peak of bitterness as the IBU’s must be measured in length and not degrees. Length - piney, tangy, sour, a lot of singled out alcohol and heavy vodka-like warmth. It has a good kick, but it is lazily prepared and advancingly poor for a beer like this to mark anniversaries let alone be a celebration of all things U.S. Not a good anniversary ale at all, I’m only honest.
(! pint, FL.Oz, date unknown)

From the 3 of the anniversary brews i’ve tried 8,9,10,this is the best one.Had this one in a bomber at the Peach.This is the most drinkable of the 3.All the Stone stuff smashes ur face but this one is a treat has a citrus bite to it first off but easy on the finish,malts present,great carbination, not enough to kill the fish just right..Two thumbs up!

Bottle (650ml). Shared with biegaman, blankboy and mds - my bottle. Hazy copper, average off-white head. Lovely blend of alcohol, sweet juicy malt and restrained pure resin hops - nice. Taste - more an ASA - big lively alcohol, "red" malt and moderate resin hops - long shifting fizzy finish. Solid body, very carbonated, definitely alcoholic mouthfeel - very nice beer, but I2PA? I don’t think so ....

picked up a growler from the brewery, after I missed it in bottles. Woudl have picke up a dozen bottles if i had the chance. Strong would be an understatment. While i have had higher percentage beers, I’ve never had an assualt on my taste buds like this. Strong citrusy hoppiness with enough malt to prevent this from killing you. As it warms, you can really taste the alchol, but not in a bad way.

even though atlanta folk came and stole this all from us, i’m glad they were willing to share or else i would have had to gone medievel on someone’s ass. anyway, it was a dark gold with a peach smell. tastes like peaches & flowers & hops. this shit is fan-fucking-tastic. if i could marry stone, i would

Very piney, strong smell. I love it. When in California, this beer is the way to go. Really strong...hits the spot!

Bottle from cbkschubert. Thanks Craig! A very disappointing brew. Odd funky smell that seemed like it was about a year past it’s prime. Flavor is very "cherry lollipop" flavor and nothing much else going on. Odd aftertaste. I was hoping for something better.

22oz. bottle. Strongly hoppy, citric aroma, plenty of pineapple with hints of tangerine, quite ripe and juicy, along with fainter suggestions of pale, lightly toasty malt sweetness, cake, pine, honey and some background alcholic fumes. Clear dark golden color with light amber highlights and a fading head. Flavor profile is a bit sweeter than expected, plenty of malt here to start but this is quickly infused with the expectedly large amount of hoppiness, fruity and powerful with more pineapple noted and touches of grapefruit. Smooth, slick and lightly syrupy palate, body is of course quite full. Flavorful and fairly well balanced but somehow didn’t "wow" me the way some other examples of this style have and do. Still pretty tasty, however.