Stone’s Enjoy By Enjoyed Later – A Look at Aging IPAs

stone-brewing-575-e1324314358290-200x200For Part 2 of my exposé on aging IPAs, I conducted a taste experiment to put the very problem of oxidation into practice so I could train my palate to recognize the flavors of an IPA that’s well past its prime (that’s what I tell myself anyway). To this end, I purposely aged one of the freshest beers around, Stone’s Enjoy By, 10 months past the enjoy by date and compared it to a 2 month old edition and one fresh off the truck (the 02.14.14, 10.31.14, and 12.26.14 respectively).

If you don’t know, the name of every bottle is the date by which you better drink it else Greg Koch will personally come to your house and punch you in the solar plexus (his teary, disappointed dad eyes are the worse part). To avoid this, I hid my two aging Enjoy By bottles in a dark, temperature-controlled place along with my other cellared beers.

Now, let’s address what some of you are probably thinking. Why use Stone’s Enjoy By when any common IPA would most likely have a simpler and more consistent flavor profile? And why commit this level of beer abuse against a wonderful IPA that has only given the world glass after glass of joy? If these thoughts haven’t crossed your mind, I suggest you just get on with it and skip to the Experiment and Findings section. For those that want due diligence, I shall explain.

Continue reading “Stone’s Enjoy By Enjoyed Later – A Look at Aging IPAs”

Last Week in Untappd – 11/17 – 11/23

This was actually a busy beer weekend for me, but I stockpiled written beer reviews that will release over the next few weeks rather than check them in with a few brief comments. So, Untappd (drewsbrewsreviews) is a little light on check-ins. That will change with the impending Black Friday event at Capone’s unleashing the flood of fantastic beers that will surely culminate in the Untappening. I look forward to highlighting the best of my favorite yearly event, so that’ll be ready next week. In the meantime, here’s what I checked in the week past.

Narwhal - BBASierra Nevada– Narwhal (Bourbon Aged)
Location: Bulls Head Pub
Style: Imperial Stout (Bourbon Aged)
Score: 3.5/5
Original Comment: Buttery bourbon, vanillian, roast aroma, med mf, dark malt, chocolate/vanilla, raisin/plum finish, lingering heat. Decent, but too expensive.

Additional Comment: My “too expensive “comment is slightly disingenuous as I didn’t actually pay for it. A friend of mine did and was kind enough to share some with me. Plus, this was also purchased at a bar, which comes with a markup. That said, there are very few beers I will pay $30 for, and this is no where near one of them. A price around $12 – $15 seems about right based on what I had. Narwhal is on the lower end of imperial stouts I enjoy, I like mine on the heavier, near Russian Imperial levels, and Sierra Nevada’s imp stout is too thin and dark fruit heavy for my tastes. Obviously, if Narwhal is your jam, I can’t see you disliking a bourbon barreling of it. The difficulty in landing a bottle, at least around the Lancaster PA region, makes this a buy it when you see it beer. Mostly likely you aren’t going to see it again anytime soon.

Continue reading “Last Week in Untappd – 11/17 – 11/23”

Stone Brewing – 18th Anniversary IPA Review

Stone 18th AnniversaryAll You Need to Know

Brewery: Stone Brewing
Style: Brown IPA
ABV: 8.5%
Cost: $11 (24oz)
Glassware: Tulip, Pint
Temp: 45°F
Availability: Limited (One and done)
Purchased@: The Fridge

Quick Take: Impressive malt and lemon/orange body the rampages through your mouth to the delight of this IPA lover…at first. Your mileage will vary depending on how intense you like the lemony sweetness of your beer and your feelings towards West Coast IPAs. Not really a bitter is better crowd beer either as the bitterness is along for the ride when this lemon comet of a beer takes off across your taste buds. I’m glad to have tried it, but the one bottle is enough for me this year.

→Full Review

Episode 9 – Stone – Grapefruit Slam IPA – 2nd Opinion

This is a follow up to the previous episode and features my fellow beer hunter, Chris. Two opinions are better than one, so here is another take on the same beer. This isn’t meant as a full-fledged review but as a way to feature a different palate than mine and give you a fullerer (new word!) perspective on the beer.

Episode 5 – Stone – Enjoy By 02.14.14

Episode 5 of Drew’s Brews Reviews is here! The beer review show you never knew you wanted and no one needs. It’s another new brew from Stone because this one’s got a timer on it. I reviewed this as soon as I could as Enjoy By 02.14.14 will hop-splode if not reduced to liver juice by the given date. Beers not named Heddy Topper can’t get any fresher, so I see if brewery to mouth in only a few days is the future of IPAs.

Continue reading “Episode 5 – Stone – Enjoy By 02.14.14”