{"id":937,"date":"2010-07-01T10:00:54","date_gmt":"2010-07-01T15:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/?p=937"},"modified":"2021-08-26T10:19:57","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T15:19:57","slug":"review-stone-14th-anniversary-emperial-ipa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guysdrinkingbeer.com\/review-stone-14th-anniversary-emperial-ipa\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Stone 14th Anniversary Emperial IPA"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/p>\n Stone says:<\/p>\n “On the palate, peppery hops assert themselves early and often, with malt sweetness making a brief appearance before being beaten back by a long, complex, and decisively bitter finish. What better way to contemplate the fate of empires past, present, and future?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Stone 14th Anniversary Emperial India Pale Ale Sayeth the Guys:<\/em><\/p>\n Karl:<\/strong> Since this is a hyper-traditional, all-imported-English-ingredients fancypants kind of tea-and-crumpets kind of beer, you’ll allow me the use of words like “bollocks” and “bloody hell” and “take the piss” in this writeup, yes? Good, because sadly I actually use them from time to time in real life so this actually won’t be too much of a stretch for me. Pip-pip.<\/p>\n Now, I like a good piney, hoppy beer. And one way you know you’re dealing with something that’s going to bring the hops to the table is when you can crack open a bottle and you get that nice rich coniferous smell (only a language\/beer dork like me would bring “coniferous<\/a>” into a beer review) that hits you right in the face. I like the smell of pine as much as the next guy but on first whiff, this beer smelled like bloody Christmas. Like a full tree condensed into one huge whiff of pine needles and some small berries and even some twigs. Okay, maybe not twigs per se<\/em> but definitely some bark. Maybe I’m exaggerating a bit…but maybe I’m not.<\/p>\n Onto the Emperial itself. It poured a nice minimal head with a touch of lacing, and a proper light copper color. In the glass, all that pine I just spent 5 dozen words describing had dissipated into a lemony scent with some pine in the background – a little like Pledge glass cleaner that can get you properly pissed.* The taste had a lot less citrus than I was expecting.\u00a0 Give it a few minutes, and dogs bollocks, there’s that orange flavor I could tell was trying to break through the mix! It just had to get a touch warmer, and out it pops. Very nice.<\/p>\n The other thing I wanted to mention about this beer is that it reminded me of one of Michael Ruhlman’s<\/a> rules of making stock from his Elements of Cooking book<\/a> – that when it’s done right you should be able to read the date on a nickel at the bottom of the stockpot. It should be clear, it should be free of sediment, and it should have clarity. And when I looked at this beer, I thought just that – I could read a damn nickel’s date through this brew. Nice and clear, no cloudiness, and for the depth of flavor and character that the Emperial had, it could have easily been a thick cloudy mess.<\/p>\n
\nEnglish IPA, 8.9% ABV
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