I saw this in the store and picked up a couple of bottles. At $4.99/bottle I was a little hesitant to buy two, but figured the dozen or so 22 oz. bottles they had would soon be scooped up, so if I ever wanted to have any, now was the time. At 10% ABV (10th anniversary, 10 ABV,...get it?) this beer is definately meant to make a statement. Upon purchase, I ran straight home and chilled these beauties for a couple of hours. It wasn't until the Seattle vs. San Diego game (8pm) that I popped one open to test. Upon popping the top, I was slammed in the face with a wave of piney, citrus aroma that screamed IIPA,...this was gonna be good. I swirled a cup-or-so volume in my glass and took a big whiff and was hit by a maltiness I didn't expect. Hmmm? I took healthy swig and rolled it around my mouth,...Shazaam! This is probably the biggest IPA I've ever had. Over the top hops and extreme maltiness give it a balance, but drinking it is on par with a single malt scotch rather than a beer. Big, Bigger, Biggest! is what the folks at Stone seem to have been going for and they hit the mark square between the eyes.
My palette was shot halfway through this monster (22 oz. bottle), but I couldn't stop drinking it,...sniffing it,....rolling it around my mouth,...it was kind of a self-torture of sorts - a few mouthfuls in, my taste buds were either charred from the bitterness of the hop additions, or numb from the saccharine sweet maltiness. That's not to say that I didn't like it,...Let the record show that I LOVE it, but it's kinda like jumping from caffeine to crack in comparison to your typical IPA,...Once you've had a taste, you're hooked
This is definately worthy of purchase. Although you really could split a bottle of it between a couple of hop-heads (3 even) and all would have their hop-jones satiated, this beer is pretty balanced. It's just a VERY big version of balanced. If a standard IPA is a sunday drive along the coast,...Stone's 10th Anniversary IPA is pole position in the Indy 500! This is a white-knuckler-of-a-beer,...meant to drink while sitting down and not operating any heavy machinery.
Salut!
