Stone Ruination IPA

Bottle. Hazy, light orange beer with a thin white head. Sweet honeyed aroma with some grape and orange to add complexity. Flavor starts...sweet honey paired with oranges and spices and finishes with a huge lasting bitter kick in the teeth. I enjoy the original flavors but the at first the aftertaste is almost too strong like having battery acid in your mouth...but then again, thats what you want in an IPA.

Cloudy yellow color with a nice white head that settles a little to fast. Some lacings. The smell is very hop forward, but still rather balanced. Lots of hop resins and citric notes. It goes a little perfumy, but not overly so. Hints of pine-needles. However, the hops seem a bit faded and have probably lost some definition since the bottling. The malts get through really well with a nice complementary caramel-like sweetness and aromas of white bread. Loads of hop resins and grapefruit in the mouth. But again, the hops seem to be on a downward slope, so I guess this bottle isn’t completely fresh. A hint of tobacco and more floral and grassy hop notes. The malty backbone is fresh with a pleasant semi-sweet taste of caramel and white bread. The finish is very very bitter with lots of hop resins and pine-needles. The bitterness actually gets a little overpowering since the hop aromas doesn’t seem to hold up. Medium body with a slightly sticky mouthfeel. Refreshing carbonation. A very good DIPA with lots and lots of hops and complex flavors. Despite the massive bitterness in the finish it really manages to come off quite balanced. Too bad I suspect that this bottle was a little old. Serving type: bottle (Copy of old Beer Advocate review)

Poured from bottle into Nonic Imperial Pint. Slightly hazy orange-yellow with quickly forming and vanishing head, but leaves nice lacing behind. Aroma of toasted malts and some citrus. Smells bitter, but fairly weak for a DIPA and weaker than the standard Stone IPA. Faint whiff of alcohol. Somewhat sweet toasted malts, citrus hops, slight pine, and very high bitterness, especially at the aftertaste. Both sweeter and more bitter than the standard Stone IPA, but less actual flavor. Medium body, pretty smooth, somewhat dry, moderate carbonation. Nice, drinkable DIPA, especially considering the low abv (for a DIPA). However, the lack of true hop taste as opposed to simple bitterness will lead me to choosing others in the future. This really seems more like a standard IPA with stronger bitterness and a slightly higher abv (really, 7.7% is not that high for a DIPA).

I poured it out into the glass and it produced a very nice golden color. Transparent characteristics with a fine white head. In my opinion, a great looking brew. Smell? First red flag. It smelled somewhat of oranges, but it seemed a little stronger than that - in a bad way. It was a little sweet but every time I kept smelling it I was reminded of orange cleaning product. Not pleasant. Taste? Second red flag. It had a very strong taste of hops with a strange fusion of oranges in it. Problem was that it tasted just like it smelled. It reminded me of cleaning solution and I did not enjoy it at all. I had two other people try it and they agreed with my conclusion. The texture was actually nice if you rule out the other characteristics. It was a pretty smooth beer with an interesting contrast of flavors. Although it was a little too sharp.

Beautiful brew here. Beautiful golden color to the beautiful lingering hops make this one of the best IPAs I have ever had. First time around for me with this one and I hope it is not the last. I would rate this right up there with Dogfish Head’s 90 minute IPA.

A hop-head’s delight. Bronze color with a smallish but persistent off-white head. Potent floral nose. Flavor is ridiculously potent hop and the bitter hop finish lasts longer than the taste of a cigar lasts in the mouth of a non-smoker trying a potent cigar for the first time. Only hopeless hop-heads need try this one.

Bottle from Beers of Europe. Pours an orange/gold colour with a white head. Aromas of citrus, hops, quite floral. Interesting. Huge hop attack in the taste. Flavours of citrus, summer fruits, light malts, caramel. Mouthfeel leaves a strong impression. Finishes unsurprisingly hoppy with an underlying bitter-sweet tang. Very nice.

This hops-infused beer pours a light golden brown color with a small ring of a head. The smell is instantly citrusy and bitter: orange, lemon, grapefruit. Tastes exactly as an IPA should: bitter. There are also many other notes including oranges, pine, caramel malts, and of course, hops. It is relatively smooth, could be better, but not bad considering it is a double IPA.