Decided to try one of the beers from my recent order from the Brewdog Online Shop, so I chose Stone’s Ruination IPA, since I’ve been wanting to try out their products for some time. California-based Stone Brewing are one of the larger and more famous craft breweries in the USA. The bottle promises an extreme IPA, with a bitterness of 100+ IBUs. This beer has gotten some great reviews on both Beer Advocate and RateBeer, so am really looking forward to trying this out. I don’t have any information on the malt used, but it has been hopped with Columbus and Centennial. There are no indicators of freshness (e.g. bottling dates or best before date) on the bottle, but hopefully this one is quite fresh. Let’s see how it tastes!
| Stone Ruination IPA | |
|---|---|
| Appearance |   |
| The beer pours with a golden-amber color, is slightly hazy, and forms a slight off-white colored head, that quickly collapses to leaving lots of lacing along the glass. | |
| Smell | |
| The aroma is dominated by citrusy, floral and resiny hop tones, with slight undertones of honey and caramel. A slight presence of alcohol as well. | |
| Taste | |
| The flavor is, as expected, also very hop-dominated, with resiny, citrusy and earthy hop tones in the front. There is a slight caramelly maltiness to counter the hoppiness as well. The flavor ends with a spicy, dry and bitter finish. The beer isn't very balanced, as I feel there is too little maltiness to counter the, quite harsh, bitterness of the beer. Still, the hop flavors are great, and I would really like this beer if it had slightly less bitterness, or a bit stronger malt backbone. | |
| Mouthfeel | |
| The beer has a smooth and medium-full body, and a moderate carbonation level. The bitterness slightly decreases the otherwise great drinkability. | |
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| Overall a great beer, packed with hop flavors and huge bitterness. The reported 100+ IBUs can definitely be detected, and are a bit on the high side for me. I think this one could be even better with slightly more balance. This wasn't really worth the price I paid for it, but would definitely buy again if it were available locally for half the price. | |
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