Stone India Pale Ale (IPA)

Brewed By: Stone Brewing Co. in Escondido, California

Purchased: Single 12oz bottle from Jewel-Osco from Chicago, Illinois; 2012

Style/ABV: India Pale Ale, 6.9% 

Stone's IPA may just be the definitive "extreme" West Coast IPA. I've had this beer before, along with a bunch of other Stone beers that I have not quite wrapped my brain around yet in a review. There's very little to complain about with respect to this beer. But before I dive in, let me throw down some quick info about Stone:

Stone Brewing are one of the more prominent breweries in the American craft brewing scene. They were founded in 1996 in San Marcos, California, and moved to Escondido, California where they recently expanded their operations. Stone was founded by Steve Wagner and Greg Koch. Koch has a reputation among the craft beer community for voicing his opinion, not putting up with shit, and standing behind his beer.

Stone's India Pale Ale was first released back in 1997. So this is a brewery staple, a West Coast staple, and one of the most recognized and acclaimed American IPAs. This beer is brewed with Columbus (pungent aroma), Chinook (medium-heavy, spicy, piney, and grapefruit), and Centennial (floral and citrus) hops. This beer clocks in at a pretty mean 6.9% ABV, and packs a solid 77 IBUs. Word on the street is that this beer is dry-hopped for 2 weeks as well, so you can expect lots of hop aromas and hop flavors in this beer. Everybody who reviews beer has already reviewed this beer, so let's cut to the chase and dive in. 

Stone India Pale Ale (IPA)

The beer pours with 3-fingers of white/slightly off-white head. The head has thick bubbles that have a dish soap bubble consistency. The body of this beer is a yellow/gold color, with hints of orange or copper. The beer is slightly hazy and has solid carbonation. As the head dissolves there is nice lacing on the glass, and head retention seems to be pretty good. The bottle is also very nice, as with all Stone Bottles.

The aroma on this is big hops, and you can definitely tell that this has been dry hopped for a while. There is also a hint of bready or malty undertone. I'm pulling out a lot of grapefruit, pine, orange rind, a touch of sweet malt which lends itself to some tropical fruits, and definitely some earthy/floral/pine hope notes. You do pull out a bit of that pungent and dank orange. 

The taste is a good reflection of the smell, with a lot of big herbal, earthy, and spicy hop notes. I'm even picking up a hint of mint! There are also a lot of big citrus notes in here, and this beer packs a pungent kick when you taste the 77 IBUs. There is a nice malt wave that kicks in, which really helps ground this beer and add some complexity. I'm tasting pine, earth, herbal, tea, orange rind, grapefruit, pungent orange on the back, and some sweet malt. This is creamy and smooth but has the undeniable sweetness and thickness associated with the big American IPAs. 

This isn't a clean beer per se, but it has a lot of tingly carbonation and a pretty smooth body. This is medium-full, drinkable for a 6.9% ABV IPA, and finishes with a wonderfully pungent and dry finish. There is alcohol warming on the back end which is nice too. This has great palate depth and big complexity. You get carbonation, hops, malt, and earthy hops on the front; this rolls into more earthy hops and spicy hops (mint, baby!); and the back ends with some pungent citrus kick. This really develops nicely across the palate, and the finish is spectacular. 

Rating: Divine Brew 

Score: 91%

I feel like I have been handing out "Divine Brew" ratings like candy these days. The obvious reason it appears that way is because this blog is clearly biased: I'm drinking a lot of acclaimed and accomplished beer. I feel pretty grounded though, and the Stone IPA is definitely worthy of Divine Brew status. This weekend I enjoyed Dundee's IPA (which is a below-average brew that doesn't capture anything right about the style) and Goose Island's IPA (an average to above average brew). So it's not like I'm out of touch when it comes to scoring IPAs. 

Anyway...this is a very accomplished brew with big hop notes that have a lot of complexity and balance. Add in the fact that this beer is drinkable, available, and cheap, and you have a winner that you can and should stock in your fridge year-round. I find that Stone is often my go-to beer for random Friday or Saturday nights. I like to pick up a Stone bomber. And when I want to get my palate blasted with my hops, I know that Stone will always deliver. So there's that. This is a really good beer and definitely one of the definitive American IPAs. If you want to get into IPAs, you owe it to yourself to check this beer out.

New Belgium Snow Day

Brewed By: New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, Colorado

Purchased: Single bottle (12oz) from Jewel-Osco in Chicago, Illinois; 2012

Style/ABV: Black IPA, 6.2% 

I've been wanting to try this beer for a while, so I'm happy to have finally picked this beer up. Better late than never, right? New Belgium put the brakes on their 2° Below Ale to roll out their Black IPA, Snow Day. I'm not sure if we will ever see 2° Below again, which is unfortunate because that means I won't be able to review it. I actually liked the 2° Below, and I'm sad to see it go. Snow Day is an awesome name for a beer, and it conjures up all sorts of romantic imagery about a winter that we currently are not having in Chicago (the temps are just way above average...not that I'm complaining). Before I talk about the Snow Day any further, let me introduce New Belgium:

New Belgium is based out of Fort Collins, and opened in 1991 when founder Jeff Lebesch took his home-brewing into the commercial world. For reference, New Belgium is the thrid-largest craft brewery in the United States. You can read more about New Belgium if you check out their website.

Today's beer, Snow Day, is a seasonal offering from New Belgium. This is a Black IPA, so this beer has subtle chocolate and caramel flavors, as well as big hop notes from the Stryian Golding, Centennial, and Cascade hops. Clocking in at 6.2% ABV and packing 55 IBUs, this is a reasonably sized beer. Let's dive in and see if this is a worthy replacement for the 2° Below.

New Belgium Snow Day

The beer pours with 2-fingers worth of gray/chalky/off-white head. The head has some soapy and funky bubble consistency, and it is leaving some nice lacing. Head retention is nice with a nice cauldron effect chilling in my glass. The body of this beer is a dark ruby red or brown. You can see visible carbonation, so I would guess this is filtered. The carbonation is medium. 

You smell a lot of hops in the nose, along with some darker and more assertive malts than you would not typically get with a regular IPA. I smell chocolate, tobacco, wood, earthy notes, and maybe a wheat note. I'm pulling out hop comb, pine comb, pine needle and evergreen forest, with a twang of grapefruit or tropical fruit. 

My impression upon first sip is that there is quite a bit of roasted malt on the back end. You get caramel, roasted malt, chocolate, and hops on the front. I'm tasting wood, tobacco, sugary pine, forest, roast and nuttiness, hints of chocolate, pulls towards earthy coffee, and a lot of bitterness (for the 55 IBUs). 

The mouthfeel is medium-light thanks to the carbonation which stretches the palate depth a touch thin. This has low to moderate complexity, but the flavors that this beer does impart are really nice. The 6.2% ABV isn't all that noticeable, but the 55 IBUs provide a solid kick. I would definitely session this in the winter months, or pair this with some football food. You get hops and carbonation and then malts on the front; this rolls into the woody, earthy middle; and finishes with that roasted back end. The finish is a touch dry with no really noticeable alcohol warming (your mileage may vary). 

Rating:  Above-Average

Score: 77%

This is a nice replacement for the 2° Below. A lot of breweries crank out an IPA during the winter time, and that is fine. But what differentiates this beer from your typical winter IPA is that this beer uses those darker malts to impart some roasted and chocolate notes. That translates into something that is a little more heavy, and features some flavors that I might desire more so in the winter months. Honestly, hops remind me of pine trees and snow. The big dark malts remind me of sitting by the fire on a snowy night. So mission accomplished. This beer kind of teeters between being average for the style, and above-average. I think Snow Day's drinkability makes this beer sessionable - add in the fact that this beer is very cheap to pick up - and this is a winter winner. I'm happy I got to try this beer, and I look forward to next winter when I can hopefully drink this beer during an actual snow day. 

Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter

Brewed By: Flying Dog Brewery in Frederick, Maryland 

Purchased: Single 12oz bottle from a 4-pack bought at Jewel-Osco in Illinois; 2012

Style/ABV: Baltic Porter, 9.2%

Flying Dog has one of the more interesting brewery stories. The brewery began as a brewpub in Aspen, Colorado, which eventually became a brewery in Denver, Colorado. As Flying Dog expanded, they opened a second brewery in 2006 in Frederick, Maryland. In 2008 the brewery shut down their Denver location. What makes Flying Dog interesting is the founder, George Stranahan. George Stranahan is a "physics professor, scholar, amateur photographer, philanthropist, entrepreneur, activist, and all-around rebel." At least according to the website. He was inspired to name his brewery "Flying Dog" after climbing the K2. Apparently he and his mountain climbing colleagues were drinking some beer at the Pakistani hotel bar after their climb. George noticed a painting on the wall of a dog with wings - a Pakistani artist's take on the English Bird Dog. George liked the dog, and named the brewery after it.

George Stranahan also happened to be buddies with Hunter S. Thompson (is an intro really needed here?). Stranahan was Thompson's neighbor, friend, and "co-conspirator" before Flying Dog Brewery existed. Tonight's beer, the Gonzo Imperial Porter, is inspired by Hunter S. Thompson. The brewery made the beer in 2005 to commemorate Thompson's passing. The last piece of the puzzle is Flying Dog's artist, the guy who puts all the crazy stuff on the bottle labels. That guy is Ralph Steadman, and he was introduced to George by Hunter S. Thompson. Flying Dog has had all sorts of controversy regarding their label art. That includes Ralph Steadman's first effort for the company: the Road Dog Porter label which said, "Good Beer, No Shit." Take that, censorship!

You can and should learn more by checking out the brewery website. It's a cool brewery page with good info. And everyone owes it to themselves to get acquainted with Hunter S. Thompson. As mentioned, today's beer, the Gonzo Imperial Porter was inspired by Hunter S. Thompson, and created to commemorate his passing. The beer is fucking huge, clocking in at 9.2% ABV and packing 85 IBUs. The beer page says the beer is brewed with Warrior and Northern Brewer hops, and it is described as having a roasted chocolate, coffee, and vanilla palate.

I won't drag on too much about semantics because I spent so much time talking about the brewery. This beer really beckons the Porter vs. Stout debate: that is, what's the difference? That's a lengthy discussion for another day. Since the BJCP has a section for Porters that is different than Stouts, it is likely that this beer would qualify as a Baltic Porter due to the complex malts, the huge ABV, and the complexities. BeerAdvocate did categorize this beer as a Baltic Porter. However, this beer also packs 85 IBUs! That is Imperial IPA hoppy. Actually, to be more accurate, that is Imperial Stout hoppy. Because this beer makes such strong use of hops, it probably is an outlier as far as Porters go. And that sort of brings us back to the Stout vs. Porter debate. Ratebeer dumped this into their made up "Imperial Porter" category, and I'm happy they have it. I like paying attention to styles differences, but the BJCP's three Porter categories is definitely pandering. Anyway, let's review this beer.

Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter

Damn. This beer pours wonderfully. This beer is dark dark brown, approaching black in low light. In bright light this beer has hints of ruby-red that escape the corners, but the body is still dark, dark brown. The initial pour reveals 4-fingers of super foamy and thick, ice-cream float consistency head. The head is dark brown/dark coffee brown in color. After pouring the rest of the beer, I'm left with 2-fingers of very thick, very creamy head. There is also a ton of sticky lacing on my glass. I think the most impressive part about pouring this beer is that the head cascades like Guinness, and you see a storm of carbonation turn into beer. This is really a gorgeous beer. I can't see any carbonation because the body is so dark. But I'm really impressed with head retention on this 9.2% ABV beer. 

The aroma on this is really interesting. I'm getting a lot of big malts, but there is a candy-like or earthy hop quality really coming off the nose. For what it is worth, this smells a lot like an Imperial Stout. I'm pulling out boozy roasted malts, wood, unsweetened bitter chocolate, coffee, vanilla, a faded candy hop note, and earthy hop tones. There is also a touch of raisins or dark fruit.

There's a lot of carbonation, a lot of big malts, and some serious hop bite on the back end that really drive this beer. I'm getting big roasted and burnt malts. I'm tasting campfire, vanilla, wood, coffee-essence, bitter chocolate, dark raisins or prunes, black licorice, and definitely hops. I'm pulling out some orange or citrus, and some earthy hop notes. This beer has huge, Imperial Stout like malts. They are nicely balanced by huge hops.

This drinks like a medium-light to medium-heavy beer. The mouthfeel is not sticky: it is carbonated, and pretty smooth on the front of the palate. You do feel some alcohol warming on the back end, and there is a woody/roast sensation that dries out the palate as you drink this beer. This has great palate depth, and I would say this beer is medium to highly complex. The front palate is smooth, vanilla, wood, and burgeoning roasted and burnt malts; the middle is roasted and burnt malts, the bitter chocolate, hints of fruits, and some hop bitterness; the back is more bitter and roast, with lingering roasted flavors. Roasted and dry with warming on the finish. 

Rating: Above-Average

Score: 89%

There's a lovely quote on the bottle:

"Good people drink good beer." -Hunter S. Thompson

Flying Dog has done Hunter S. Thompson proud. This is a really intriguing twist on the Porter/Stout style with the 85 IBUs and the big hop bite that cuts through this. This is remarkably balanced though, and the hop bite cuts through in a very subtle way. I'm really enjoying the balance between the big malts and the hops in this beer, and I think it drinks remarkably well and pours remarkably well. The 9.2% ABV will definitely keep me from drinking 4 of these in one sitting, but this beer is robust enough that you could "drink" it instead of sipping it. Having said that, I'm impressed and will likely pick this beer up again down the road. So give this beer a shot if you are into extreme beers.