Stone 10th Anniversary IPA - Stone Brewing Co.

Jason

Massachusetts

4.2/5  rDev -2.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 3.5

22 oz bomber with a really expensive silk screened label. Clear copper hue, slow bubbles to the top and a head that will not go away. Tangerines, wild flowers, spearmint, ripe peach and a ruby red grapefruit aroma. Big sweet herbal hop oils evolve into more pungent and bitter flavors of tobacco and citrus rind. Slightly viscous and creamy mouth feel with a full body. Lots of malt, sweet underneath but a warming peppery alcohol helps to keep it in check. Towards the finish is that bitterness that comes back for more ... lovely if you like hoppy which I do.

Serving type: bottle

12-07-2006 03:59:43 | More by Jason

Billolick

New York

4.47/5  rDev +4%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Bottled version, purchased at New Beer in NYC, nice looking bottle, but I'm a sucker for the whole Stone scheme of things. Anyway, this much anticipated treat was poured into a worthy chalice and upon examination revealed itself to exhibit the following characteristics:

A- pours pretty tame/typical almond amber, pretty clear, golden hues, the head is tan, tiny bubble and not particularly long lasting. This one leaves moderate, thick and scattered lacing.

S- Plentiful sniffs of grapefruit rinds, oranges, candi sugar, and "some" alcohol, ha!

T- More grapefruit, brandy, vanilla, honey, gin, hoppy oils. This brew is fresh, big, bold and brash. DIPA, to the core

MF- smooth, large and inviting, this one just says, "drink more of me"

D- A treat to sip, the 10% quickly going to my head, it will be a sad day when this one is but a memory.

Overall, this is heady, stunningly tasty brew, great job STONE, why not make this one a regular player on the Stone team?

Serving type: bottle

09-15-2006 21:35:28 | More by Billolick

ppoitras

Massachusetts

3.98/5  rDev -7.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

22oz bottle purchased as a single from Julio's, Marlboro, MA. Labvel #5 of 10.

Poured into an imperial pint glass, formed a 1" tan head over the clear copper brew. Head fades at a reasonable pace, with ample sticky lacing. Aroma is pungeant tangerines and a touch of pine, with lots of underlying sweetness. Flavor is syrupy to start, but quickly overpowered by the immensely fruity yet prickly hops character. Mouthfeel and drinkability are a bit limited just by the intensity of the flavors, at least for me. Probably this will not be such a problem after some subtle tongue-numbing sets in. Certainly an impressive beer for an impressive occassion.

Serving type: bottle

11-14-2006 22:06:25 | More by ppoitras

weeare138

Pennsylvania

4.13/5  rDev -4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Much thanks to egajdzis for opening up the latest Stone creation. Those of us who know Eric, know that he's one of the biggest Stone fans out there and always grabs the latest offerings. Split the bomber, while I continued to be cleaned out playing roulette...
Appears an opaque amber with a foamy, bubly off white head that slowly fades out. Scattered lacing is left all around the glass.
Smell is of huge biscuits, caramel, grassy, herbal notes, rich, piney hops with citrus. There is a little bit of Ruination being evoked in this beer with it's intense aromas.
Taste is of the mentioned aromas with sweet and bitter notes all over the place. Sweet, woody, bready, sourdough-esque.
Mouthfeel is medium bodied, bready, sweet, sugary, and bitter.

Serving type: bottle

09-05-2006 17:10:24 | More by weeare138

Zorro

California

4.5/5  rDev +4.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

This beer is a burnished orange brown in the glass with not much head formation. I poured this a little cold at first but after about five minutes this becomes a crystal clear shade of dark amber.

Extremely rich aroma from the glass. Strong hop aroma as expected, this is much like the best Double IPAs. Sweet with a lot of hop aroma this is sensed as mostly tropical fruit. The scents of pineapple and mango are the strongest. A bit of pine and lots of grapefruit are detectable. Sweet to the nose I can't unravel the malt mix here is simply smells like pineapple juice.

Taste is spicy and full of melon flavor at the beginning. Melon flavor remains a major flavor but is joined with grapefruit and pineapple. Mango/peach joins the mix after a while along with mint and menthol.

Excellent Mouthfeel.

Outstanding drinkability. A new member of the best super IPAs in the world. In the same class as Pliny The Younger and Dreadnaught. I just happen to know where an under valued case of this is located, I must buy it.

Serving type: bottle

10-08-2006 06:08:22 | More by Zorro

Viggo

Ontario (Canada)

4.38/5  rDev +1.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 5

Pours a clear orange with some reddish hues, thick white head forms, nice lacing and stubborn head. Smell is sweet toffee, huge pine and floral hops, like the Stone I know and love, they never disappoint, some alcohol in the finish, couldn't stop sniffing this one, great complexity and balance. Taste is sweet up front, toffee, some grains, then hops, big West Coast floral and pine, nice play between the malts and the hops, some booze in the finish but it makes you appreciate this beast more. Mouthfeel is medium bodied with medium carbonation. Didn't blow me away like I was expecting but was very nice, excellent craftsmanship. If I have it again I won't drink Ruination before. Thanks a lot biegaman!!

Serving type: bottle

11-17-2006 23:22:38 | More by Viggo

Bighuge

Minnesota

2.63/5  rDev -38.8%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 2

Slightly hazed orange-copper. Thin and creamy off white head. Lacing is adequate. Aroma is comprised of alcohol, caramel malt and tropical fruits. Alcohol is the easiest to pick out. Taste starts out boozy and ends boozy. The Green Flash IPA I had before this was much more enjoyable. Hop traits in this are ghostly. I get a tropical fruit melange of sorts. But the alcohol overrides it all. Fussel-like in nature. To me this is what Arrogant Bastard would taste like if it were 15-20% a/v.

Hands down, my least favorite of their Anniversary beers. And not even in the same ballpark as their 5th Anniversary IPA.

Serving type: bottle

03-10-2007 05:05:42 | More by Bighuge

DrJay

Massachusetts

4.58/5  rDev +6.5%
look: 4 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Enjoyed from my Arrogant Bastard glass. Clear orange/amber colour with a long-lasting beige head. The foam was composed of bubbles of mixed sizes, though the smaller ones tended to cling in solid sheets to the glass as I sipped. Pine resin hit my nose just after I cracked the bottle and was still strong after the pour, but by this time other aromas were present. Grapefruit became an equal to the pine and chalky, floral hops became more apparent. The only hint of malt came in the form of a sweet orange aroma. A solid malt backbone forms a good flavour base with a bitterness that's nicely balanced. There's a bit of caramel and toasted malt in there that really plays well with the hopping. Notes of hops fade in and out, particularly oranges, grapefruit, and pine. Alcohol is quite warm at the finish and slightly stunned my tongue on the first sip - it's quite pleasant after that. Full bodied with middling carbonation, just on the edge of syrupy. Now that's a big IPA. The aroma is absolutely spectacular. And the malt flavour and alcohol combination was reminiscent of some finer American barleywines while still letting the hops shine. Definitely worthy of Stone's 10th Anniversary.

Serving type: bottle

09-05-2006 00:15:55 | More by DrJay

HopHead84

California

3.6/5  rDev -16.3%
look: 4.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5

Thanks to Mike and Mike for cracking the 3L. Poured into a snifter. Appears transparent dark orange with a fantastic frothy, creamy, sea foam head. Excellent retention and nice lacing is left behind.

The nose is citrus hops with a slightly sweet caramel malt presence. There's s decent amount of oxidation that can really only be described as stale cardboard. This bears similarities to a barleywine, but the oxidation isn't at all complimentary.

The flavor still has a moderate grapefruit and pine bitterness. The malt is slightly sugary and that cardboard oxidation is again evident. Booze is strong. Bitterness, cardboard, and booze linger in the finish. This beer has seen better days.

Serving type: bottle

11-17-2009 08:13:24 | More by HopHead84

biegaman

Ontario (Canada)

4.63/5  rDev +7.7%
look: 4 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.5

Pours a translucent yellow, some haze. Decent, rocky head. Explosive bouquet that boast a nearly overwhelming (if it weren't so appetizing) amount of tangy, floral hops. Flavours as citruisy but balanced well with a hefty malt bill to back it up. Alcohol smooths out the hop bitterness, and the flavour really hides the alcohol - the two play off eachother so well. Tremendous. Not too far off from their Ruination which we had prior to this, but I found I enjoyed this much more. What this has that makes it so spectacular is dimension. It is (to me, seemingly) as complex as IPA or DIPA's get. Sure there is a lot of hops, malt, big boozy body, but this posses something most* other DIPA's dont - complexity and dimension. What a pleasure!

Serving type: bottle

11-10-2006 17:38:21 | More by biegaman

Georgiabeer

Georgia

4.13/5  rDev -4%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Pours a sslightly hazy dark golden/medium amber with very littl head and some spotty lacing. The smell is surprisingly faint, but there are notes of orange citrus and cherries as well as an underlying beeswax aroma. The flavor is more powerful and trhe beer has become somewhat integrated by now. No notes of dominant alcohol, but the hops have faded slightly into a waxiness. Somewhat grainy and with plenty of sweet malt, orange and grapefruit, and almonds as well as the beeswax again. Slick mouthfeel with some creaminess there as well. Coats the mouth, but its not sticky or unpleasant. Pretty drinkable at this point, but obviously one to be carefful of with the abv what it is. This beer seems a little more integrated than some of the big hoppy Stone's I've had while still retaining some of its hop proffile.

Serving type: bottle

02-23-2007 00:43:23 | More by Georgiabeer

Dogbrick

Ohio

4.33/5  rDev +0.7%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4

Thanks to cmaruschak for sharing. The beer is a clear orange-amber color with a thin ivory-colored head that stays for a bit. Thin spotty lacing on the whole glass. Piney hops aroma that has floral and citrus notes here and there. Rich and smooth mouthfeel with a nice sweet malt base that props up a juicy, resiny hops flavor. Sweet fruit (peaches) shows up at times too. As with most Stone beers, the complex flavor profile does not affect drinkability at all. The finish is hoppy with a good malt base. Overall this beer seems to fall somewhere between a normal and double IPA. While not solidly in either category, it is still a very good beer.

Serving type: bottle

08-05-2007 20:48:11 | More by Dogbrick

JohnGalt1

Idaho

4.28/5  rDev -0.5%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4

22 oz picked up a long time ago at Erickson's for $6.. it still has the price tag on it... poured into my Smokestack goblet. I am reviewing this tonight as my ongoing cellar clearing project.

1" finger head sticks around for a while and sticks like champ to the sides of the glass.. very nice lacing.. Brew is hazy bright orange.

Aroma is still fairly hoppy, but obviously is showing some age.. citric grapefruit with pale malts and a background brown sugar note.

Flavor is very much like a fairly fresh American BW.. piney and citrus hops with quite a big punch of maltiness and some caramel... finish is long with a sorta floral hoppy/yeasty fruitiness to it. The body is still fairly thick and the carbonation is pretty creamy.

I loved this beer immensely when fresh.. maybe my all time favorite DIPA.. right now, it is still drinking fairly nicely... again, it is much more like a big BW, but I am not complaining.. I am a happy camper.

Serving type: bottle

09-03-2008 08:02:47 | More by JohnGalt1

tavernjef

Minnesota

4.5/5  rDev +4.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Bright agate ruby brown with a medium head of creamy, lightly yellowed froth thats dense and firmly fluffed. Resides ever so slowly to an always presense skim and bubbles along the collar. Big streams of stringy lacing stick strongly along the glass.

Aroma is of muted tropical juiceyness favoring pineapple, peach, and mango. Pine sap highness retreats into the warmth after sitting for a bit. Somehow maintains and creates a certain thickly luster of darkly sweet vapors that are pleasingly tropical and rounded. Nice nose.

Taste follows suit with a big lolly pop lick of tropical fruit flavors that are sweetened in a low mannered dullness that keeps it from being overly juicy in any fashion. Dark and candyish all the way with a wallop of tangy undertoned mango, peach, orange, tangerine, and pineapple all wrapped up in an caramel cooking sauce. Piney stuff floats about, more so in the finishing areas where it tends to grab a slight bittering bite mixing with a citric peel, oil, and pith nudge. Warming throat tingley things develope late under the blanket of tropical laden malt tones. A well-rounded tropical treat.

Feel and body of this brew is pretty solid with a firm hold of malt that is darkly set with sweetened sugaryness of tropical fruits and caramel. Low ended piney oiled bitterness bends the balance together nicely, more so in the finish. Good malt body filled with a welcoming warmth as it fills the belly and the mind full of dancing tropical candied fruits, maintaining a very nice muted tang and dark wave of citric/piney bitterness.

Happy Anniversary to Stone Brewing. Keep em coming. This one is another keeper that's sure to soak your palate with malt laden goodness. And it has that certain hoppy twist and fare of other Stone brews that makes it oh so wondefully drinkable.

Big thanks to cvschaller for the hook up!

Serving type: bottle

10-28-2006 00:05:34 | More by tavernjef

largadeer

Kentucky

3.83/5  rDev -10.9%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4 | overall: 3

A: Clear copper, darker than you'd expect an IPA to be, with a substantial blanket of foam on top.

S: Tropical and citric fruits combine with hops and alcohol for a pretty interesting aroma.

T: An extremely fruity, sweet entry becomes more citric and eventually finishes with intensely bitter hops and a slight alcohol kick.

M: Thick, slightly oily and chewy and with moderate carbonation - this is probably the heaviest IPA I've ever had.

D: Even for the style this is pretty heavy, boozy stuff. Not something I could drink a lot of.

A subtle beer it's not, but it has a remarkably complex, layered character. I generally prefer my DIPAs less sweet and fruity, but despite not necessarily matching my criteria for a perfect beer I have to give it points for being unique.

Serving type: bottle

05-31-2007 21:16:07 | More by largadeer

gford217

Georgia

4.58/5  rDev +6.5%
look: 4 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Bottle courtesy of dave12285 poured into a tulip.

A: Pours a hazy copper with a dense tan head that lingers for q while leaving some delicate lacing. Honestly, it looks a lot like an American barleywine...

S: ...and it smells a lot like a barleywine as well. There is an initial citrus hop aroma, but definitely subdued. The smell is dominated by the caramel malts with butterscotch and brown sugar as well.

T: The taste is much like the smell. I never had it fresh, but I imagine there was a huge hop kick in this at some point. Now it's almost all malts with a touch of citrus up front and some earthy hop bitterness in the finish. Lots of sugary sweetness and some dark fruits as well.

M: Mouthfeel is medium bodied with decent carbonation, but it is very smooth and sticks to the mouth throughout.

D: This beer has aged very well in my opinion though it's certainly more of a barleywine than an IIPA at this point. Regardless of category, this is a great beer.

Serving type: bottle

09-16-2008 23:45:26 | More by gford217

scruffwhor

Illinois

4.38/5  rDev +1.9%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Appearance- Pours a hazy, anti-freeze like amber/deep copper hue thats so hazy, I couldn't see the bubbles. Good head seen throughout teh entire 22 ozs.

Smell- I've never had a beer that smelled do much of exotic fruits as this oone. I really liked it. Leave it Stone to blaze a trail or make a path in in brewing.

Taste- The fruitiest IPA I've ever had. very unique for such a style and such a brewery. This brough out a very different balance of malty sweets and hops bitterness.

Mouthfeel- Smooth yet very thick and sort of weighed down my palate. But very interetsting in the sweetness and bitterness contrasts.

Serving type: bottle

11-22-2006 04:45:05 | More by scruffwhor

Slatetank

Pennsylvania

4.18/5  rDev -2.8%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 4

Thanks to akorsak for this - I tasted this when fresh and took notes recently of the cellared version -shared w/ octopus87. Poured chilled into a goblet and 1/2 pint and savored for a couple hours.
A - an extremely hazy deep apricot amber w/ a 1/2 inch band of pale rocky head. The cap settles to a ring, there is a moderatelly high amount of lace w/ a very fine bead.

S - A huge fruit note -plums, ruby red, mango, and pineapple in the nose w/ subtle pine in the nose. The nose is of a 10% IIPA so it has an odor of alcohol, mild cedar type woody scents and more grapefruit - the malt gives a kind of candy accent

M - The feel is viscous, w/ a heat of most barleywines w/ equivalent abv. The acidity is high and astringency is also intense. The malt is very sweet to cushion the hop intensity w/ a very bitter boozy finish

T- The malt is rich in the taste, but high in alchol flavor as it is swallowed, pepper and flowery resinous hop tastes w/ a citrus accompaniment. The flavor is of bitter herbal hops, there is a woody essence that permeates the taste buds w/ acidity of hops surfacing w/ a fruit taste like pineapple and rum. The hops contribute highly w/ slight pinesap qualities, but nice bitterness w/ the dark sugar of the malt. The flavor is very pleasing w/ considerable complexity and strength

D - A great IIPA, fun to drink even when sampling at two years old. Definitely a West coast double Ipa with hops oozing out of every possible place. The drinkability is good considering the abv. The attention given to matching malt to the intensely bitter hops is what makes this so good, you don't get the feeling the recipe is all about hops even though slanted in that direction steeply.

Serving type: bottle

04-29-2009 01:42:22 | More by Slatetank

TheLongBeachBum

California

4.43/5  rDev +3%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

10th Anniversary Ale, August 2006 - Sampled FRESH!

Served after a 5 year chronological Vertical line-up of the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th past Anniversary Stone brews over the last few days. Now I get to finally sample the latest Stone 10th Anniversary India Pale Ale offering.

Presentation: Slick and rather downbeat simplistic Bottle design. Long gone is the large numbered 80’s stylistic affair from the 7th, 8th and 9th. The Tenth has the winged Gargoyle in a silvered upstanding poise, proudly raising his Birthday Pint high. Scripted text below “Stone 10th Anniversary India Pale Ale”. 10% Alc/Vol. The reverse contains one of ten designs, mine is #9 of 10 with a write up from Karen Westfall.

Appearance: Dark amber body, perfectly lucid with a striking clarity. Backlit on the desk, the body of this IPA projects the warm comfort of a Saffron sunset, glowing with a faded ember red as it lowers the heart-rate and relaxes the imbiber. The dissolved conditioning is average in strength but nicely punctuates the body with creamy swathes when swirled; it also supports the thinning head which covers but breaks over the surface. The thick ring dirty white halo remains throughout and rings the glass edges like the rope border on a Cricket Ground…..a “Four” indeed.

Nose: Gorgeously attractive soft fruity tones are immediately blasted with a pungent warming alcohol odor as you bury your nose into this one. Oranges, sweet boiled candy, fleshy tangerines, mandarins, Satsuma’s and other hesperidia. Fruit Salad backbone is bolstered with a massive blast of double digit ethanol, which is currently very raw. Sweetness has a healthy dollop of Earthy Pine Oils which suggest a medicated background.

Taste: Young, brash, cocky, urban and “up for it”. No punches are pulled, this is one champ that starts young and intends to stay at the top for some time. Right now, it will take a few knocks and learn some lessons along the way, but you know that it could make a great champion. The ingredients are all here.

Mouthfeel: Oily and menthol in the finish, whilst the earlier trend is of a high alcohol orange tainted English Barleywine. Distilled Pine needles lend an organic and Earthy nature.

Drinkability: Initially the well spaced out sips build into a more frequent natured quaffer. Despite its rough edges, and there are some, this has a solid Drinkability and rather appeasing “Crack” like quality.

Overall: It is very interesting that Stone refer to this as just (sic) an India Pale Ale, I’m glad in a way that they avoided the Imperial, Double, “mine’s bigger than yours” monikers. A good old fashioned Stone Anniversary, firmly back to its roots. It will be great to watch this one grow up.

Serving type: bottle

08-26-2006 06:14:40 | More by TheLongBeachBum

dirtylou

Washington

4.5/5  rDev +4.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4

22oz bomber, received from BigErn (and 2 more bottles from lou91 to share once the madison BA scene wakes up from its nap)

appearance: pours into my New Belgium chalice...big dark copper-amber body with a fluffy beige head and pretty solid lacing...enticing beer that I have been anxiously awaiting from Stone

smell: 2 nights in a row of amazing smelling ipa's...like the hop whore this is a bouquet of dripping green hops, big grapefruit-citrus aroma, high pine presence. Unlike the hop whore, this beer clearly appears to have a nice malt/booze balance, that makes it undeniably Stone

taste: This is a very nice DIPA indeed...strong pine up front with a bitter grapefruit hop compliment, pungent green hops...great caramel malt balance which leads me to consider this as bordering a barleywine. I have 3 bottles and might let one die down a little to see if the barleywine in it comes out a little more, that is if I dont drink it all! Booze presence is noticeable in a nice way and bitterness is moderate. Mmmm

mouthfeel: moderate-high bitterness, medium-low alcohol presence, pungent and juicy hop creation

drinkability: high

Serving type: bottle

09-19-2006 23:35:26 | More by dirtylou

Bitterbill

Wyoming

4.43/5  rDev +3%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

Poured from 22oz bottle a clear reddish gold with a lot of bubbles and a huge head of foam that shrinks slowly until there's a solid layer with lots of lacing. Very attractive DIPA in my glass indeed!

The smell is a big hit of hops and spices with a side of malt sweetness. It leaves me shaking my head and saying, inaudibly, that this is gonna be a very tasty brew...

The taste is nothing short of BIG on super bitterness from the hops *and* BIG on super caramel sweetness from the malt. I *really* can't seperate the 2 and say that one is dominant over the other and...that makes for some really tasty goodness for my palate as I'm a big fan of both really hoppy and really malty beers. And the 10% abv is merely a statistic, imho. This one is *very* drinakable.

Ahh...I think Stone has done themselves proud with this 10th Anniversary IPA. And I'm *so* glad that I made the effort to get some. Damn good stuff!!

Bottom line: I'd have to rank *this* one amongst the best of the style I've tried to date. See some? Get some!

Serving type: bottle

09-24-2006 19:20:53 | More by Bitterbill

TurdFurgison

Ohio

4.65/5  rDev +8.1%
look: 4.5 | smell: 5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 5 | overall: 4.5

The artwork continues to impress on Stone bottles. On this bottle the Stone demon strikes a stoic pose, proudly raising his beer mug in homage to me. The marketing worked, I was humbled by the salute and bought a couple bottles.

This is one sweet ipa. I poured it into a Ruination glass because it seemed appropriate, and it showcased the clear orange hop resin covered by a thick foam with a spitty consistency. Pine needle and grapefruit-like hop aromas are balanced by sweet malts for a perfect score on smell. The flavor was huge, very hoppy and malty and everything, a little bitter in the after-taste but I guess it's hardly avoidable.

The mouthfeel was thick and coating, another perfect score. I didn't taste the alcohol, but I'm starting to feel it so I guess it's there. This is a top-notch IPA, I completely recommend everyone tries it before it's gone.

Serving type: bottle

09-02-2006 00:20:59 | More by TurdFurgison

bluejacket74

Ohio

4.5/5  rDev +4.7%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.5

Served in an oversized wine glass, the beer pours a copper/orange color with about an inch off-white head. It smells very hoppy, like citrusy and piney hops, and a sweet sugary smell, kinda like brown sugar. Mostly, this tastes like citrusy and piney hops, but I can also taste pineapple, grapefruit and caramel. There's also noticable alcohol warming/feeling with this beer. It's sweet and hoppy at the same time, very nice. The mouthfeel is full, and it's slick and a bit syrupy. The drinkability is very good, but the alcohol catches up to you after a little while. I think this is a pretty good beer, I wish Stone would make this one a regular beer of theirs.

Serving type: bottle

01-01-2007 01:07:43 | More by bluejacket74

tpd975

Florida

4.35/5  rDev +1.2%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 4.5

Welcome to Florida Stone. Had this one at the kick off party at the OTH.

A: Pours a nice bold goldish orange hue with a nice solid one finger head. The head dies down rather quickly but does manage some lace.

S: Nice sweet malty aromas with hints of summer fruits and apricot. Bold pine notes with a touch of citrus.

T: Wow this has held up nicely over the past three years. Tons of sweet malt up front. Hints of apple skin and butterscotch. It don't take long for the hops to introduce themselves. Bold resinous pine with touches of citrus.

M: Full in body, rather thick for the style. Nice carbonation as well.

D: Liked it so much I had two pints. Wonderful brew, glad Stone offered it up at the welcoming party.

Serving type: on-tap

11-15-2008 23:18:18 | More by tpd975

LilBeerDoctor

New York

3.43/5  rDev -20.2%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Reviewed on 8/15/08. Bottle courtesy of adrian910ss. Pours a mahogany brown with a small tan head. Aroma of bitter hops, sweet malt, citrus, and stale urine. Flavor is quite malty and sweet, also got some apple skins. Kind of muddied as I didn't find it complex in flavor. Ok but not one of the better Stone offerings.
6/4/7/4/15 (3.6/5)

Serving type: bottle

12-27-2008 23:05:32 | More by LilBeerDoctor