18th Anniversary IPA
Stone Brewing in Escondido, California, United States 🇺🇸
IPA - Imperial / Double Special Out of Production|
Score
7.18
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The Hoppiest Golden-Brown IPA on Earth
As we compose the text for this celebratory beer—a golden‐brown India pale ale dry-hopped exclusively and abundantly with El Dorado hops—we stand ready to leap from the precipice of all we know into a new era for our company, our beers and, most importantly, our fans. It’s one that will see us exploring new territory, both geographically and creatively, as we evolve from pacesetters for the American craft brewing movement to cross‐planetary champions of the worldwide cause of craft, hoisting our banner to proclaim artisanal beers’ vast superiority over stripped‐down, business-driven, industrialized, fizzy yellow mediocrity. We thank you for shadowing us for the first 18 years of our journey, and welcome you to join us for next leg and all that follows.
Several iterations of this beer were created before we settled on this recipe. Using a small amount of English Brown Coffee Malt in a double IPA seemed like an interesting idea to me, and was inspired in part by the success we had brewing Aleman/Two Brothers/Stone DayMan Coffee IPA and The Alchemist/Ninkasi/Stone More Brown Than Black IPA. The malt character is rich and complex, with hints of cocoa and coffee that don’t interfere with the hop intensity. We used one of our favorite new hop varieties, El Dorado, 100 percent in the dry-hop stage, which provides a distinctive lemony character in the aroma and taste.
As we compose the text for this celebratory beer—a golden‐brown India pale ale dry-hopped exclusively and abundantly with El Dorado hops—we stand ready to leap from the precipice of all we know into a new era for our company, our beers and, most importantly, our fans. It’s one that will see us exploring new territory, both geographically and creatively, as we evolve from pacesetters for the American craft brewing movement to cross‐planetary champions of the worldwide cause of craft, hoisting our banner to proclaim artisanal beers’ vast superiority over stripped‐down, business-driven, industrialized, fizzy yellow mediocrity. We thank you for shadowing us for the first 18 years of our journey, and welcome you to join us for next leg and all that follows.
Several iterations of this beer were created before we settled on this recipe. Using a small amount of English Brown Coffee Malt in a double IPA seemed like an interesting idea to me, and was inspired in part by the success we had brewing Aleman/Two Brothers/Stone DayMan Coffee IPA and The Alchemist/Ninkasi/Stone More Brown Than Black IPA. The malt character is rich and complex, with hints of cocoa and coffee that don’t interfere with the hop intensity. We used one of our favorite new hop varieties, El Dorado, 100 percent in the dry-hop stage, which provides a distinctive lemony character in the aroma and taste.
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7.4/10
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Appearance 10
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 6.5
Draught at The Beer Junction, Seattle
Dark amber color, clean. Mild caramel aroma. Caramel flavor with hints of bread, cake, maple syrup, although fairly dry; strong hopping, a bit resiny, not much fruity.
Nice beer, not surprising.
Dark amber color, clean. Mild caramel aroma. Caramel flavor with hints of bread, cake, maple syrup, although fairly dry; strong hopping, a bit resiny, not much fruity.
Nice beer, not surprising.
Tried
on 28 Sep 2014
at 01:20
6.9/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
32oz growler from Whole Foods Falls Church pours a translucent light brown with some sudsy white head. Nose is kind of interesting, smells like when you’re home brewing and cut open the packet of hops - and a green vegetal character, also has a ton of sweet leaf tea in the aroma, lemony, some malt, ice tea powder. Flavor sort of follows along, reminds me so much of ice tea packets you add to bottled water, tannic too, lemon, some orange, vegetal. Tannic finish. Kind of weird.
Tried
from Growler
on 26 Sep 2014
at 18:55
8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
Purchased at Bottles and Cans in Chicago, IL; enjoyed at home on a gorgeous early fall evening. Happy to have had this one. Appearance is a dark caramel brown with a thin white head that rims around the glass. Aroma of mostly malt and a bit of pungent hops, definitely grabs you. Taste is good, more barley wine than IPA, definite caramel notes but nice bitterness along with it. It is pretty good stuff.
Tried
from Bottle
on 24 Sep 2014
at 17:48
6.4/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
Sampled on draft at 3R6P this beer poured a hazy brown color with orange highlights and a small foamy beige head that left a bit of lacing. The aroma was somewhat bitter with fruity hops and tart citrus. The flavor was tartish and citric with a bit of a malt presence and faint toffee and black pepper. Medium length bitter citrus finish. Medium body. Alcohol well contained. Ok.
Tried
from Draft
on 24 Sep 2014
at 15:35
7.5/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 8
Bomber share @ Zwanze 2014 ML Fontainas, thanks Matthieu. Ambrée, col blanc fin. Arôme est malté, fruité noir en rétro avec un léger bouquet houblonné et un agréable ajout anisé. Palais est malté, note de fruits noirs assez prononcé tout comme un côté anisé. Houblonné côté ouest assez typique, qcq pointes de pin et résineux. Plus une impression d’american strong ale, fini est légèrement amer avec un houblonné prenant et qui perdure. Malts restent dans un style pâle, cara, pointe de choco et crystal dark.
Tried
from Can
on 21 Sep 2014
at 11:19
6.8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 8
Thanks to Mathieu87! Sampled 650 ml. bomber @ Italian Beer Week-end / Zwanze 2014 CML. Hazy amber, little head. Huge metallic note in the nose, weird, lots of weeds, grapefruit in the back; Taste is odd weeds, herbs, metallic, herbal hops on top of cheep chocolate, touch brown bread malt base with plenty of organic brown sugar. Metal & organic brown sugar body. Okay but I feel like I am starting to understand Stone less & less. I have no idea where they were aiming at but certainly it wasn’t this?
Tried
on 21 Sep 2014
at 02:31
7.1/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 6.5
Bottle from the Lazy Dog Crystal clear red amber color with a huge fluffy off white head with moderate retention. El Dorado hops huh, I get mostly a spicy minty almost menthol out if this one, on top of some resinous pine and green onion. Light bread and caramel in there too, I think. The flavor holds all of what I found in the aroma with the malt just a touch easier to find. Interesting beer for sure, but I’m thinking that the hops don’t work for me.
Tried
from Bottle
on 20 Sep 2014
at 20:13
7.9/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
Bomber. Pours a fairly unique color. I’m trying to think of other beers I have had that are this deep brownish amber and maybe a couple of weizen bocks might be close? Aromas are briskly hoppy... lots of resin. Flavor is also sharply pine-like up front before moving toward a little bit of caramel and toffee with some sweetness and then ending resiny again.
Tried
on 20 Sep 2014
at 18:46
6.1/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 5
Flavor 5
Texture 10
Overall 5.5
Bomber, thanks brenn79. Bottled 8/4/14, about a month and a half ago. Aroma consists of toasted marshmallow, chocolate, cola, bread, orange candy circus peanuts. Pours hazy orange-amber with a medium beige head with good retention and a little lace. Taste is sweet and savory with some dry hoppy bitterness on the end. Flavors of licorice/cough drop, alcohol. Cloying. Mouthfeel is creamy, body is full. Very odd beer; no way is this an IPA in any form. It’s like a hopped up imperial brown ale more than anything. Not too impressed with this one.
Tried
from Bottle
on 19 Sep 2014
at 23:00