Stone Ruination IPA

Brewed by Stone Brewing Co.
Style: Imperial/Double IPA
Escondido, California USA

650 ml bottle. From the US. HHOK blind tasting. Thanks Brandman.
Hazy amber colour with small to average white head. Strong hoppiness in aroma with pine/birch/wood, resin, grapefruit and some American hoppy sweetness. Flavour is dry hoppy with resin and sweaty birch (vihta). Long lasting hoppy aftertaste.

This is such an excellent beer. It’s hoppy tongue slap is quite enjoyable. The flowery aroma is refreshing and finishes strong.

Perfect hoppy aroma. Great head and color. Very light orange color. Could be a little darker but that’s being picky. Aroma lets you know you are in for something special. Ideal IPA aroma. Awesome taste. Lasting palate (there’s a reason this beer is called Ruination :) One of my all-time favorite IPAs. Which makes it one of my favorite overall beers. Could drink this all the time. Highly recommended for hop heads.

smells like hops. opaque amber. solid lacing with an inconsistant white head. strong hops and backseat malts, grapefruit and indistinguishable spices. awesome 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.