Stone Levitation Ale

Brewed by Stone Brewing Co.
Style: Amber Ale
Escondido, California USA

Bottle with typical extravagant Stone label text (footnotes even!). Rich amber color with a nice head. Pronounced aroma as soon as I popped the top. Really nice malt body, a bit doughy. I actually thought it was restrained in its bitterness; maybe my bottle wasn’t quite so fresh. I like the balance a lot.

On tap at Coasters. Pours dark orange with a very thin off-white head. Aroma of some citrusy hops. Bitter flavor of some pine but also some grapefruit rind. I tried this on the same night as Magic Hat’s Roxy Rolles and, while very similar, this one I give a slight edge to in terms of flavor. A very good amber ale.

Bottle, Rehills, Newcastle. Bursting with fresh hops. Grassy and lemony, sharp and bitter, with a rich, malty mouthfeel. There was just a hint of yeastiness about it, which was not offputting, but would dissuade me from drinking too much of it

Bottle.

I’m a sucker for these lower abv beers, especially May through September. Pours a copper-brown, piney nose. Quite dry with earthy flavors and dried fruit beneath a pine-needle blast. Also some metallic notes. It makes me think of a Fuller’s London Pride that Stone somehow got ahold of. Nice beer to open immediately after getting home from a bike ride. Definitely worth picking up a six of this to have around the house.

Poured from a 12oz. bottle into a pint glass. The color is a dark amber with a light brown head with some nice lacing. The smell is a bit of wet hops. A real malt presence gives an interesting flavor. The taste is quite mellow. It is malty with som slight hopieness. It has a bit of a grassy flavor with some earthy feel to it. The feel is quite light for a Stone beer. A nice soft crisp refreshing beer that is still strong in flavor.

Draught at Barley’s in Greenville. Pours deep reddish orange with soapy whitish head. The aroma is fruity hops, tangerine, spruce, and a touch of melon. the flavor is lots of canteloupe, some apricot, and a bit of soapiness. The finish is somewhat cottony. It has a long aftertaste with that piney Chinook taste that all Stone beers have.

One-third pint, gravicask. Deep, dark amber body with a bubbly, off-white head. Rather sharp aroma of dried fruity with malts behind. Mid-bitter orange shells in flavour developing into a bitter, pine hoppy ending. Medium bodied. A flavoursome session beer (GBBF, 04.08.2009).

An amazingly hoppy beer for a 4,4% ABV, but the body is, of course, pretty thin. Hopping is powerful, piney and citrusy, leaving a dry mouthfeel. Impressive and easy to drink. Merci Dumb Dom!