Picked up a six pack for the first time last night. Apparently they use hop bursting and there is not a typical 60 min or FWH bittering addition. 65 IBUs for a 4.5% ABV beer seemed a bit heavy handed to me. Had a great tropical/stone fruit aroma. The flavor was strange in my opinion. It wasn’t necessarily very bitter but the bitterness had a biting sensation and flavor that I have not really experienced. I thought I read that it has magnum hops in addition to many other which seems to be strange for hop bursted beer… Anyway, I couldn’t really get past the strange bitterness. I felt like it was the most prominent note and took my attention away from the hop flavor/aroma.
I had a Boulevard Pop up session IPA in the fridge which I tried after the Stone version…it was much better in my opinion and more what I like in a “session IPA”
Yeah I really like the Boulevard one but after taking a look it is only 40 IBUs in a 4.3% ABV beer. I am curious to see what others think of the the Stone version. Maybe it was just strange to me…
I picked up a 6 of this while I was on the road. I got heavy floral/stone fruit notes with the hop flavor. I understand that it’s a session beer, but it lacked hardly any body at. I do give thus a positive review. I like drinking session IPAs while doing yard work in the summer. I think this would be very refreshing in that circumstance. My only complaint is that Stone probably won’t can it. Again, it’s easier to deal with cans while doing summer yard work. Until they do can it, I’ll just stick to my cans of SNPA and Founders All Day IPA.
Tried it again this weekend. Your are very right about the lack of body. I couldn’t taste any kind of malt whatsoever. The aroma is great but everything else is just too pungent for me. I got heavy bitterness and a lot of grapefruit flavor.
Yeah I think it is mainly a distinction for lower ABV pale ales with a SG:BU similar to an IPA. Doesn’t seem to fit in a category so I guess they want to distinguish it in some way. Most I have seen are between 4-4.5% ABV.
I don’t go out of my way to find commercial IPA’s any more, but my interest has now been officially piqued. My IPA’s have pretty much become hop juice at this point, so it will be interesting to see someone else’s take on it.
+1 - I don’t like any of them I have tried including “All Day IPA” and “Zombie Dust” everyone seems so crazy about. They are horribly unbalanced beers. I can drink one, then I don’t want to go back for another. I find regular a standard pale ale much more sessionable. Hell, IPA is more sessionable to me. I can drink IPA “all day” no problem.
Really? Could have sworn it was under 5%. My bad. Still was very much underwhelmed. Might be it was pumped up too much. Was terribly unbalanced. Just didn’t enjoy it.
+1. That’s my issue with Zombie Dust. I had a pint or two of it fresh, and liked it well enough. But I hit the Citra overload by the end of the second one. I like it in a blend sometimes, but not solo in IPA quantities.
I’ve gotten around my distaste for Citra to some degree. To me the beer tasted very thin. I could have sworn it was under 5%. Don’t know where I got that. Thought it was from the bottle! Weird.
Had Stone Go To recently. Aroma and flavor was 70% onions and garlic, 20% fruit/citrus and 10% 2-row. Wouldn’t buy it again. These are the hops they used: Mosaic, Citra, Ahtanum, Cascade, Crystal, 06300, El Dorado, Magnum, Sterling. Maybe they didn’t use enough varieties of hops?
I think it tastes like biting into a very bitter grapefruit but I like the aroma very much. With a complete lack of malt flavor, they may as well have used hop extract in water…
