Japanese Green Tea IPA
(has 3 batches)
Stone Brewing in Escondido, California, United States 🇺🇸
Collab with: Baird Brewing Co. / Ishii Brewing CompanyIPA - Triple Special Out of Production
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Score
7.30
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Collaborators: Bryan Baird, Brewmaster, Baird Brewing Company / Toshi Ishii, President/Brewmaster, Ishii Brewing Co. / Mitch Steele, Brewmaster, Stone Brewing Co.
Our style of brewing has always been about taking chances. It’s an extension of our “What if” mentality, wherein we ask ourselves what would happen if we did things differently in the brewhouse, such as fermenting with a different strain of yeast or, in the case of this beer, incorporating whole-leaf green tea imported from Japan. The answer, embodied in this IPA when we first released it in 2011, was something truly magnificent, delicious and well worth brewing again. But what if we changed it up a bit? This time around, we exchanged Pacifica hops from New Zealand for Helga hops from Australia. The result is an IPA that’s as bright, herbaceous and bitingly hoppy as the one that’s had our fans requesting its return ever since its depletion from store shelves, but with a modern, hop-driven twist that makes this second draft unique and tasty in its own right.
Our style of brewing has always been about taking chances. It’s an extension of our “What if” mentality, wherein we ask ourselves what would happen if we did things differently in the brewhouse, such as fermenting with a different strain of yeast or, in the case of this beer, incorporating whole-leaf green tea imported from Japan. The answer, embodied in this IPA when we first released it in 2011, was something truly magnificent, delicious and well worth brewing again. But what if we changed it up a bit? This time around, we exchanged Pacifica hops from New Zealand for Helga hops from Australia. The result is an IPA that’s as bright, herbaceous and bitingly hoppy as the one that’s had our fans requesting its return ever since its depletion from store shelves, but with a modern, hop-driven twist that makes this second draft unique and tasty in its own right.
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7.6/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 6
Texture 10
Overall 7.5
Bomber. Aroma is very herbal; also licorice, dough. Pours a cloudy orange-yellow with a one finger off-white head that lasts a minute or two before collapsing. Taste is sweet and herbal before quickly turning highly bitter. This is as described: a weird tea/IPA hybrid. A little bit vegetal, maybe. Mouthfeel is velvety, carbonation fairly soft, body full. Different and good. Edit: this really started wearing out its welcome after awhile. What was initially intriguing got tiresome. Unique concept, but I know I won’t buy it again. It still has enough going for it for me to appreciate what they did here, though.
Tried
on 03 Mar 2015
at 01:56
7/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 7
Bottle from Ayottes Slightly hazy orange/amber color with a white head. Spicy earthy herbal aromas. The tea strikes me as a harsh bitter, decent brew but not one of my favorites.
Tried
from Bottle
on 02 Mar 2015
at 18:45
7.1/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 6.5
Light Amber color. Big frothy white head. The green tea is faint behind pugnent grapefruit notes. The green tea is very noticable at first and then balances out with solid malt backbone and aggressive hoppiness. I sense a touch of crystal malt. The finish is long and bitter with linger green tea notes. Compared to the previous version this version has more noticable green tea character, which is a plus, but overall this beer doesn’t do a lot for me unfortunately and I find it a bit boozy.
Tried
on 25 Feb 2015
at 04:30
8.5/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 9
Texture 8
Overall 9
On tap at Nakameguro taproom. Served in a stemmed tulip. Pours a hazy golden orange color with a nice soapy white head. Really nice resiny/floral nose ith a slight macha undertone. The macha is there but very subtle. Strong line needle taste and a modest amount of sweetness from malt but smashed by the bitterness. Texture is kind of powdery like powdered green tea at kaiten sushi. Nice long dry aftertaste.
Tried
from Draft
on 20 Feb 2015
at 10:43
8.2/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 9
22oz bomber pours with a crystal clear copper to gold body that supports a near white head of foam. The modest aroma offers up spicy onion, cantaloupe, tangelo and a mild level of earthy tea. The taste starts smooth and subtle for a brief moment. The hops unfold with juicy citrus lined thinly with mango and then the bitterness wells up with spicy dank onion, grapefruit and then floral notes just as some booziness bubbles to the surface. Into the finish a pleasing earthy tea dryness intercedes amid the hop bitterness and fading juiciness. Wow, such a big beer with restrained booziness and less than intense hoppiness. Solid.
Tried
from Can
on 15 Feb 2015
at 23:11
8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
bottle - Pours mostly clear gold and smells of piney and herbal hops. Hops dominate the bitter flavor with more pine character and some citrus. It’s got a big malt body to support it. Once again it’s another excellent IIPA from Stone. It’s a style they’ve long since mastered. Perhaps my taste buds are defective though as I couldn’t taste anything I’d call green tea. Really good regardless.
Tried
from Bottle
on 14 Feb 2015
at 18:49
7.2/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 6
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7
On Tap at Bier:Thirty Hazy light orange amber. Big fresh hoppy aroma. Strong tea flavor. Bright and bitter. Quite good.
Tried
from Draft
on 13 Feb 2015
at 16:08
7.6/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 6
Overall 7.5
Etched glass bottle. Pours yellow gold. Nose/taste of straight up green tea with citrus and light malt. Medium body.
Tried
from Bottle
on 12 Feb 2015
at 00:28
5.8/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 5
Flavor 5
Texture 6
Overall 7
Pours clear blonde, small white head . Smell is fish , like intense sea-scent without the salty aspect . Taste is bitter , fish , intense. Not what I look for in beer though ...
Tried
on 11 Feb 2015
at 20:53
7.8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 8
Bottle. Orange malt, green tea, and orange peel aroma. Cloudy amber with large off-white head. Sweet orange tea, malt and moderately bitter earthy grapefruit peel flavor. Nice balance. Really like this blend.
Tried
from Bottle
on 11 Feb 2015
at 18:30