Stone Cali-Belgique IPA (Cali-België)

bottle, courtesy of Dennis Flynn at Lily’s NYC. off-white creamy head, lightly hazy yellow golden body. aroma is light grapefruit rind, sweet crystal malt, and some faint banana. flavor is piney hop, some earthy malt, and a rounded citrusy bitter finish.

This beer was very good. It reminded me of a slightly more expensive and harder to get version of Bell’s Two Hearted. This isn’t meant as faint praise - I love Two Hearted, common though it may be. A golden yellow with a bright white head that quickly fades to a scummy coating. A light but sweet citrus aroma backed by a good framework of maltiness. Flavor is more hop citrus, and delicious. Mouthfeel is pretty light and not at all sticky. Really good, but I’m not sure it is worth the trouble for those of us here in the Midwest.

Hazy gold,fast fading white head.Lt cat piss nose.Spicy yeast start,piney hop mid,lasting citrus/bitter hop end. Interesting !!

Pours gold amber w/ thick white head. Aroma is delicious hoppiness with a balancing touch of caramel malt. Flavor was much maltier than I was expecting with a bitter grassy hop finish. Body is a bit weak. Wish the hop flavor was more pronounced and delicious.

FIRSTLY: What’s with all the mediocre ratings for this beer? Is it just simply because it shows finesse and restraint? This is as good as any other Stone IPA I have tried! And they all get 4+ each to their own I suppose. Well, oh my, this is a tasty treat. I had my doubts about this (God, I do NOT know why...) but I did I should learn to trust more in Stone Brewing Co’s consistency. Not only am I pleasantly relieved, but I think I may have found one of my favourite Stone beers to date! It looks perfect in the glass, glowing rich golden with a fat creamy almost pure white head standing two fingers high. The aroma! The aroma is sweet, with grapefruit, herbs and the faintest - but most definite - trace of Belgian yeast reminiscent of Saison yeast or Westmalle Tripel. The flavour is excellent, classic Stone, somewhere between their Levitation pure blood grapefruit and their IPA... but then, whats this? in comes the clear flavour of a belgian beer, once again reminding me of the aftertaste from a sip of Westmalle tripel or perhaps Saison Dupont, this comes in very pleasantly tempering the full on Hop attack and mellowing it to a creamy grapefruit/cream cocktail. It is soft and voluptuous in the mouth, it looks as if it’s going to be overly effervescent but no, it’s creamy and mouth filling, defying your preconceptions when looking at it in the glass. The beer takes you o a journey of the best parts of Stone’s hop science then into sweet, herbal, spicy, citrusy, Belgian territory, finishing on a refreshing relatively bitter end with notes of resin, soap and Belgian yeast, balanced like I say with a burnt candy/sugar sweetness hovering over the death of the flavour. Stupendous people! This beer rocks. It is a great all year rounder, but especially brilliant on this sunny warm day. I will state - though there is probably no need - but as is to be expected the alcohol is kept low in the mix and well hidden. Bravo!!!

Bottle. Copper / amber with white head. Love that Belgian yeast smell. More sweet with lower bitterness than a usual IPA but enjoyed this a lot. Nice sweet car mel flavour with a fresh spice and hop thing. Quite a dry long finish. Nice.

THOUGHTS: I think they did a better job with this than Victory did with Wild Devil. These Belgian style IPAs are really fun, because we get to taste a new style as it is being created. Not as good as I think these beers will be in a few years, but very nice. Still nowhere near as good as Green Flash Le Freak. More and more of the IPA shines through as it warmed. TECHNICAL: Bottle. Mine was labeled Belgiê. Poured a clear, medium orangey copper like a new penny with an average, off-white head that mostly diminished but kept a decent sheet for a while and left excellent lacing. The aroma was very light caramel malt, light to moderate pine hops, and some barnyard, earthy, dusty yeast. The initial flavor was rather sweet, bitter and acidic; while the finish was sweet, acidic, very bitter and fairly sour with and average to long duration. There was caramel malt, pine and citrus hops, funky, sour yeast, and leather. The light to medium body was very dry with fizzy carbonation and a slightly metallic, slightly chalky and moderately astringent finish.

Lovely take on the Stone IPA brewed with Belgian yeast that adds a more citrus light flavor and sweetness that balances the bitterness of the "Stone" hops.