Stone offers an "e"mperial IPA for their 14th anniversary beer. I don't know what the emperial style is so I just opened er' up and dug straight in.
The first thing I notice is that the nose is not very lively on this beer. It's sort of crisp but subdued if that makes any sense...on second thought that is what I'm getting if it makes any sense or not. ;)
Anyhow it's got a crisp nose of nondescript nature in my glass. The color is super hazy straw and I'm totally digging it. I'm immediately curious about the malt bill here but setting that aside it's time for a taste...
Taste - all hops. Straight up aggressive and if it wasn't you would wonder if it was a Stone offering right? I'm having trouble figuring out these hops. They are not typical citrus C hops or even the pineys mostly found in big IPA's. This one is a lot more like an English Bitter. Clean and sustained hops bittering is the main focus of this beer to my taste. I starting thinking ESB but to be honest it does not taste that big to me for some reason. I was expecting (and it might be) a big beer over 9% and 90 IBU's but for me this beer comes off smaller than I expected. That very well might be saying something about how well crafted it is if they are pulling off an almost invisible balancing act here. It does have a hot finish so I may be over thinking it. Well, whatever the case this beer strikes me as an ordinary bitter ++ and not an ESB ish beer and neither is it a West Coast IPA either.
It's a bit of a head scratcher but this part is clear.. If you don't like assertive hop bittering this one is not for you.
Mid way into the glass I'm pegging bitter tangerine as the main hop flavor but not a citrusy tangerine. More like a spiced dirty tangerine....Mmmmmmm doesn't spiced dirty tangerine sound delicious? :)
Well, it's pretty freaking good I tell ya!
I've never had a bad Stone product and that trend continues on... 14th anniversary, viva la Stone!
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