Brewer- Stone
Brewing Company
Beer- Enjoy By 9-13-13 IPA
Style- American Double/
Imperial IPA
ABV- 9.40%
Back-story- Stone in
widely known for their aggressively hopped beers whether it is Ruination or
even Arrogant Bastard, no one could make the claim that Stone is afraid of
putting too many hops into their beers.
So Stone decided to push things a bit forward with their obsession with
hops and begin producing the Enjoy By series of imperial IPA’s. The point behind the series is to get the
freshest beer possible into the hands of the consumer and for the consumer to
enjoy this tasty beverage while it is still fresh. The problem with many craft beer stores is
that the wide variety of beers means that many can and will sit on the shelf
for a long period of time and therefore, not be fresh. The very visible ENJOY BY date stamped on
the front of the bottle avoids these problems and you can be ensured that it is
a very fresh product, in this case a fresh and aggressively hop forward beer.
Description- Enjoy
By 9-13-13 pours a golden amber color with creamy white head that smooth’s out
leaving a slow moving heavy lacing on the glass. The aroma is absolutely dominated by hops of
the freshest variety, a slight hint of dankness and resin backed with strong
citrus and tropical fruits, something like peaches and grapefruit come to mind,
all wrapping around a sweet grain bill in the background. The taste is absolutely wonderful, but also
surprising. The first assault on the
palate is not hops at all, but instead a sweet and soft malt profile before the
hops comes in on the attack. The hops
are on full display here with ripe peaches, grapefruits, orange, mango,
nectarines, pine, and grass all hit the palate at once and make for an
enjoyable and stimulating experience before finishing long and dry. The mouth feel tends towards the medium to
full side of the spectrum, but this is expected for a beer to handle the
heftiness of this many hops. Speaking of
the hops, while this may seem to be a one-sided affair as far as balance, the
more you sip the beer the more you find that it is actually quite balanced. This is an absolutely stunning beer, let
alone a world class IPA! If you can find
some do yourself a favor and get it!
Food pairing – Food
pairing for an aggressively hopped beer such as this one can be challenging and
any light dishes will easily get overpowered, that being said I cannot recommend
strongly enough to enjoy this beer on its own to pick up all the subtle nuances
occurring within. One of the best types
of dishes to enjoy with Enjoy By is Mexican, and I mean REAL Mexican dishes not
Taco Bell. Another pairing with this
beer would be a nice Venison steak dinner with a tart cherry sauce, the
caramelized meat would be great with the malt bill and the tart cherry sauce
will meld seamlessly will the wonderful fruit flavors emanating from the hop
bill. Honestly though, this is a beer
that I enjoyed alone as I wanted to take it all in and enjoy every last sip
without any competing flavors and with good reason, it is an absolutely amazing
beer!
The Final Word – This
is by far one of the best IPA’s that I have ever had, hands down. This is certainly an IPA that ranks up there
with Russian River’s- Pliny the Elder and The Alchemist’s- Heady Topper. The unbelievable
freshness from the hops is on full display in this world class beer. The bitterness can be overwhelming for some
of the uninitiated, but certainly not for all the hopheads out there in the
world. I cannot speak for all of the
Enjoy By releases, but I can speak for the Enjoy By 9-13-13 and say that this
is an absolutely stunning beer and it is unfortunate for everyone out there who
did not get a chance to try this beer while it was at its peak freshness. However, there will be more Enjoy By
releases, just hope and pray that it will be in your area and if it is grab it
will you can and drink it as soon as possible.
Rating-
Where can I get it? - Although the freshness date has passed, you
may still be able to get hold of a bottle of 2, the Enjoy By 9-13-13 was made
available in the following states: CA (Bay Area and central), CT, DE, IA, ID,
IL, IN, KS, KY, MA, ME, MI, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NV, NY, OH, OR, PA, SC, VA, and VT
No comments:
Post a Comment