Stone 5th Anniversary IPA

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

Out of the 3 litre bottle at the 2005 RBSG. Murky orange with big foamy head. Nose of old hops. Flavors of oxidized beer and dried fruit, with the citrus nature of the hops still identifiable. The hops are showing their age, and add my name to the chorus that say if you still have one of these, it isn’t getting any better.

Deep golden color with nice head. Excellent IPA, which I usually don’t care for. Couldn’t believe that it’s 8.5%. It’s masked well.

RBSG ’05 - a cloudy orange color with a white soapy head. some citrus and pine hops in the aroma, which is pretty much what the flavor profile was as well, but added a base of sweet malts to counter some of the hop bitterness. you could taste that this was a couple years old, and was probably alot better in its prime, based on how good it still was now.

[Magnum at RBSG] Hazy, yellowish orange with dotty lace and a bubbly white ring. Oxidized cereal grain aroma with ethanol, candy, and lemon notes. Also a touch of pine hops scent. The flavour is salty with hops yet with surprisingly low bitterness. Pumpernickel, some pine and subdued citrus. Probably aged too long. Medium body and moderate carbonation.

For being four years old this still has quite a hoppy punch. This was getting some cardboard qulaities to it and becoming somewhat astringent, though. There were still nice signs of the grapefruity hops, balanced out by the toffee flavored malts. Decent beer, I’m sure it was better a couple years ago.

Bottle sampled @ RBSG 05’ (Montréal) Grand Tasting
Golden color, nice head, nice lacing. Nose of cherry and clean grassy hops. The flavor is balanced, aggressive, a bit old, but I can really taste what they were going for here, one of Stone’s better IPAs. Better than the Ruination at least.

Bottle... Almost four years old...RBSG2005... Hazy orange ale with a small, khaki head. Good retention. Although the hops have probably mellowed over the past four years, there are still some wonderful notes of grapefruit, pineapple, evergreen, toffee and orange peel wafting from the glass. There’s still a decent hop bite on the palate, but the caramel malt has seized control. Full-bodied and oily with lively carbonation. Lengthy, mostly sweet, but somewhat bitter finish. Still a great brew, but I bet it was even better in it’s prime.

07.08.05 RBSG Orange-amber pour, sticky head. Nose is surprisingly ketchup-like, banana, spicey hops, some spruce. Thin body and very dry. Flavor is not at all what I hoped it would be. Must have been better a few years ago.