Collective Distortion IPA
Stone Brewing in Escondido, California, United States 🇺🇸
IPA - Imperial / Double Special Out of Production|
Score
7.12
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India Pale Ale Brewed with Elderberries & Coriander
Collaborators: Kyle Hollingsworth, Homebrewer & Keyboardist for The String Cheese Incident / Keri Kelli, Rocker & Publican / Mitch Steele, Brewmaster, Stone Brewing Co.
We all enjoy turning things up to 11, and that is represented in this collaborative offering, an imperial India pale ale ably backed by Nugget, Comet and Calypso hops and amplified care of a healthy dry-hopping with Australian hop Vic Secret, adding citrus and tropical fruit oomph. To give this modern masterpiece some soulful, classic character, we traced the roots of brewing to the days when Old World herbs were used to spice beers and added coriander and elderberries. To stand up to that sumptuous spice and blaring bitterness, we included golden naked oats, which are lightly roasted and bring body and enhanced mouthfeel to the beer like a steady, unbreakable backbeat to an incendiary solo.
Developing this beer with two professional musicians from such different backgrounds was a fun and unique experience. Besides loving to play music, the three of us also share a common love for craft beer, so we were all excited to combine music and brewing. The jam sessions with Team Stone after each brew day were awesome, and it was an honor to share the “stage” with Kyle and Keri. The historic throwback of using elderberries to spice the beer, in addition to hops, was an interesting choice and makes this beer distinct and unique.
Collaborators: Kyle Hollingsworth, Homebrewer & Keyboardist for The String Cheese Incident / Keri Kelli, Rocker & Publican / Mitch Steele, Brewmaster, Stone Brewing Co.
We all enjoy turning things up to 11, and that is represented in this collaborative offering, an imperial India pale ale ably backed by Nugget, Comet and Calypso hops and amplified care of a healthy dry-hopping with Australian hop Vic Secret, adding citrus and tropical fruit oomph. To give this modern masterpiece some soulful, classic character, we traced the roots of brewing to the days when Old World herbs were used to spice beers and added coriander and elderberries. To stand up to that sumptuous spice and blaring bitterness, we included golden naked oats, which are lightly roasted and bring body and enhanced mouthfeel to the beer like a steady, unbreakable backbeat to an incendiary solo.
Developing this beer with two professional musicians from such different backgrounds was a fun and unique experience. Besides loving to play music, the three of us also share a common love for craft beer, so we were all excited to combine music and brewing. The jam sessions with Team Stone after each brew day were awesome, and it was an honor to share the “stage” with Kyle and Keri. The historic throwback of using elderberries to spice the beer, in addition to hops, was an interesting choice and makes this beer distinct and unique.
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7.5/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
22 oz. bottle. Crystal clear amber color with very thin head retention. Aroma is awesome! Berries, pine and floral hops, massive dry hop, pine and herbal blast.
No coriander spice, thank god! The flavor is bright and flavorful and just light the aroma. Floral, Pine, herbal, and hints of berry. Hints of dank, green grassy and weed like. This is damn tasty.
No coriander spice, thank god! The flavor is bright and flavorful and just light the aroma. Floral, Pine, herbal, and hints of berry. Hints of dank, green grassy and weed like. This is damn tasty.
Tried
from Bottle
on 21 Jun 2014
at 16:10
7.4/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
Very nicely done DIPA. Pours orange with good head and lacing. A little booze, comes together well. Some citrus hops here as well. Tap at Scion.
Tried
from Draft
on 19 Jun 2014
at 08:16
5.5/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 4
Overall 5
10oz pour at Scion DC. Pours amber with some white head. Nose is mostly grapefruit zest, a little stale smelling actually, dried orange peel, a hint of wet paper bag. Flavor crushes you with bitterness, blood orange, grapefruit, mild herb, soap. Bitter finish. It’s bitter for the sake of bitterness and lacks a complexity we’ve grown to expect from other Stone offerings.
Tried
on 18 Jun 2014
at 11:46
6.1/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
On Tap at BItterCreek Boise. Slightly hazy light amber Big heavy malty and bitter aroma. Full bodied and plenty of IBUs This is Stone right ?
Tried
from Draft
on 13 Jun 2014
at 20:48
7.2/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7
White-yellow/gold. A-pine, some sweet lt/med malt. T follows with a drying finish.
Tried
on 13 Jun 2014
at 14:00
7.1/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 8
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7.5
Bottle. Pours a clear amber with a head white head that dissipates slowly to the edges and laces slightly. Aroma has lots of pine with some light spice, a bit of light fruit and a backing caramel note. Flavor has more of an earthy pine note with earthy grains and light fruit backing and hints of spice as well as caramel.
Tried
from Bottle
on 09 Jun 2014
at 18:22
7.2/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 6
Overall 7
Pours a dark amber-gold, with mid-sized head. Aroma is mainly grass, with some hints of fruit (could that be pineapple?) and citrus. Flavor is bit-ter! Some fruitiness, but a lot of pine, some berry, some grassiness. A very bitter beer. Better than I’d hoped, what with the coriander and elderberry. Like to try a beer with Vic’s Secret that’s unadulterated.
Tried
on 09 Jun 2014
at 15:25
10/10
Tried
on 08 Jun 2014
at 19:35
3.6/10
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Appearance 4
Aroma 5
Flavor 3
Texture 2
Overall 3.5
On tap at the hollywood gardens. Barely any aroma. Darker than pale yelow, more like an orange colored thing. Initially bitter but does not come on like a double ipa. Not as syrupy or cloying as most. Yes, quite bitter and it grows during the session but its mopre like a regular ipa,
Tried
from Draft
on 08 Jun 2014
at 04:05
5.2/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 5
Flavor 4
Texture 6
Overall 5
Pours a deep amber color with a very light beige head. The liquid is quite clear. The head is creamy and sticky. Things go downhill from here. The aroma has a good dose of hops, predominantly grapefruit with some herbal and spice flavors. It’s ok but not very juicy and a bit boring with all of the wonderful DIPAs around, nowadays. There’s sort of a harsh edge to it, as well. It’s something that I associate with (D)IPAs that lean a little too much toward bland bitterness than more delicate hop flavors. The malt comes off too strong for my taste. It’s mostly just caramel sweetness but there’s an unfortunate bubblegum note to it. Noticeable booze. The taste is similar. Fairly strong hit of bland bitterness. Some nice spice in there, but it’s mostly lost. Lots of grapefruit rind. Not too sweet but too much caramel for me. It doesn’t hide the alcohol well. Mouthfeel seems a bit heavy with a good deal of hop oiliness. It’s just not very drinkable due to the taste, and that’s somewhat hard to separate out from the feel. This is a miss from Stone. I get little to no elderberries or coriander, both of which I quite like. I’ve skipped a few recent Stone beers, and while this one sounded interesting, I don’t think that I’ll be going back for a bit.
Tried
on 07 Jun 2014
at 21:20