Stone 5th Anniversary IPA

Formerly brewed at Stone Brewing Co.
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Escondido, California USA

2001: Heavily clouded, atumnal rust. Intense tropical fruit and freshly baked cookie aroma, prevalant hoppy oils. Sweet buttery shortbread intro and tropical fruits provide a nice cushion against the citric bitter finish. Plenty of hops but plenty of balance too. I tasted this next to a Ruination and the 5th definitely has more yeast complexities, although that may have something to do with the fact that it was 18 months old.

beautiful copper color with an off-white head that lasted the entire beer. HUGE aroma very well-balanced between the caramel malts and hops. aroma didnt have tremendous citrus/pine qualities, but was more along the line of a resin. flavor was dominated mostly by a grapefruit with a very long bitter aftertaste. awesome beer...thanks to the Silky one for this!

Slightly cloudy orange/amber. Thin but creamy, persistent head and nice lace. Nose of resiny, citrusy hops dipped in caramel. Medium bodied, chewy with resiny hop flavors, orange rinds, thick caramelly malt all balanced nicely when you consider the abv%. A damn good imperial IPA and one that has probaly mellowed since being bottled showing what it must have been when first bottled. Thank you psychprof!

some time in sept. 02: Thanks to Marc for the opportunity to try this one..a creamy malty sweet aroma with mellowed hoppiness..crystal clear copper in color with a thin layer of big white bubbles..unbalanced up front and unbalanced at the end but in opposite ways (although being balanced isn't too important in an IPA IMO)...starts way more maltier than it ends..big thick body..creamy mouthful..heavy..warms the throat..carmal-like notes in the background..with hoppy twang in the finish..and some alcoholic trails on the way..I'm not quite sure this will get any better with age because the ageing so far has gotten rid of most of the stone signature 'Hop -Onslaught' I have come to love...still quite worthy though Re-Rate 12/01/02: This bottle still had loads of hops, a thick sticky mouthfeel, and a thick alcohol induced carmel background..

Scrumptious! Starts off thick and sweet and creamy and becomes super hopped (as expected). The malt and hop combo is like an intricate dance - they tend to play and wrestle with each other throughout. Didn’t notice the strong alcohol til I stood up - "whoa!" Typical Stone quality.

whoe hops are there, malt quickly calms the hops. finnishes with a nice combnation of the maltiness and hops

Bottle. A hearty amber color with a white head. Rich, full, chewy, sour, hoppy, pine, citrus and smooth middle.

Pours a deep copper color with an off white head. A malty sweet aroma with mellowed hoppiness. Taste is syrupy sweet with a solid hop bite. Long orangy aftertaste and a big hop burp.