Single Hop IPA: Stella
Bridge Road Brewers

330ml bottle poured into a half pint.

L - pours murky amber, with a thick white frothy head. Decent head retention.

S - sweet malts, more floral (wild mint, lavender) than fruity aromas. Although there is a faint watermelon odour.

T - bread like malts and pine bitterness. In the middle, nut like flavours mixed with a slight lemon and aniseed sourness makes its way in. Short albiet bitter and dry finish.

F - soapy texture, medium body and carbonation.

O - respectable, but I personally prefer the more fruity hop types.

 

 

A: Pours a cloudey dark copper color witha good head that fades very slowly with nice lacing.
S: Aroma of citrus, fruit, mild malt sweetness and herbs.

T: Taste of grapefruit with a subtle fruit and malt sweetness. Good bitterness and a dry finish.

F: Mediume body, crisp, smooth and very well balanced.

O: Very enjoyable IPA. Well worth checking out

 

A maybe-slightly-too-warm pour yields a golden body with a massive four finger coarse head.

Somewhat one-dimensional nose of pine/citrus. A little pinapple.

Big dry bitter hoppy flavour, pine driven. Some pineapple maybe, but struggles agains the hop bitterness. Did I mention BITTER?

Medium bodied, and lightly carbonated.

Too bitter for this palate, and not complex enough. But hey, it's a single hop IPA.

Appearance - 3.0
Pours a loose two fingers of white foam head which quickly receded to a thin layer over a slightly hazy light amber body, leaving no lace.

Smell - 4.0
Lovely, fresh aroma reminds of noble hops. Without the resiny, citric hit of an American IPA, instead there is ripe peach, melon and a slightly floral note.

Taste - 3.5
This is one intensely bitter beer that surely must challenge for bitterest Australian beer (beaten only, pehaps, by Mash 500). A little savoury, biscuity malt character is completely overwhelmed by a sledgehammer's whack of bitterness, along with hop flavours of peach and melon.

Mouthfeel - 3.5
Light bodied with prickly carbonation, leaves a slight oiliness in the mouth.

Overall - 3.5
Nice enough beer, but just too bitter for all but the most dedicated hop-heads. I know IPAs are supposed to be bitter, but I see this as being out-of-balance.

Pours a bright honey gold. Not much bubbling, but a white head. Yeast cloud on second pour.

Big, big aromas of passionfruit, pawpaw, perhaps a little lime. And heaps of pineapple too. Can't get much malt aroma through all the fruit salad.

Fruit salad again in the flavour; some bitter seediness like passionfruit or guava. Very resinous and hugely bitter. Although West Coast in style, a lot of South Pacific is in there also.

Medium to light body, with a bitterness that is almost hot. Some tongue and lip numbness from the resins.

Quite a challenging beer, with the resin bomb. Half-pint only for me.

Thanks to MrKennedy for lugging this back for me from Warner's. Poured into Victory snifter also courtesy of MrKennedy lugging it back for me from Warner's.

Pours a murky brownish colour.

Smell is melon, legumes, rich malt. Somewhat Simco-esque and complex.

Taste is ashen. Did they do a BrewDog and chuck this in some Islay casks? Finishes really dry and astringent. Like drinking a cigarette. Finally I pull some melon notes out of it. Taste might be a bit much for some.

Mouthfeel is decent with lowish carb.

Overall an interesting beer with low drinkability. Definitely worth a try as an experiment, but largely an experiment which proves that Stella does not work all that well in a single hop IPA.

Pours a burnished, brown-tinged gold, slight haze in the body. Head is off-white, nice and dense with uneven bubbling on top and great retention. Cracking IPA look.

Smells floral and pleasant, yet doesn't have a very aggressive hop presence. Touch of pineapple, rosewater and lemon sherbet. Nice malt backbone as well, but pleasant hops - would like more though.

Flavour starts out nicely malty, establishing a mildly caramelised grain foundation, then hops come in midway and build towards the finish. Quite subtle still, with increasing notes of citrus that gets quite vegetative towards the back, quite piney and woody with a touch of rosemary bark and pine resin. Quite a dry hop, not a huge amount of acid to it but enough there to dry up and cleanse.

Bit sharp on the front, but smooths up towards the back. Touch of dryness but not a lot.

Yeah, quite a subtle hop for an IPA, but it's very drinkable as a result.

 

A-Haziest copper orange hue which leaves a two finger frothy head that stays and leaves heaps of lacing.

S-Piney resiny hops,bubblegum,lavender and pollen loaded flowers.

T-Bubblegum,fruity candy,grapefruit,stonefruit,boiled candy and finished with a piney hop finish and a touch of orange rind.

M-Light to medium bodied.

O-Very easy to drink and very sessionable and at the right price i could drink all night cheers.

 

So Plonk in Canberra has begun offering growlers and this was the 2nd growler out of the doors.

Hazy golden colour with a smooth, small, light tan head. The head could be bigger and longer lasting.

Sharp mango, pineapple and passionfruit aroma with some tarter citrus notes. Very light malt.

Bright tropical fruit with a touch of slightly, muddy, earthy grass. Nice moderate bitterness and slightly sweet malt. Better than in the bottle.

Medium-light body with moderate carbonation.

A nice, solid Australian-style IPA with plenty of hop flavour. The bitterness is a touch odd but I still like it.

Looks pretty terrible. Murky copper colour with a head that seems to have some trouble forming and staying around.

I get notes of stewed or poached tropical fruits. Reminds me a little of galaxy or citra, but with a heavier, earthier element. I get a fairly big whack of caramel malt in there too. Interesting...

Whilst I think 2 might be a bit harsh of a score, I truly am not impressed. The turbidity in the appearance certainly comes across in the taste, tastes like trub a little. The hop lends some interesting characteristics, very reminiscent of a noble hop with a weird fruity australian twist. However, it also lends a fairly harsh bitterness which, combined with the yeasty/trub taste, makes for a fairly unpleasant aftertaste.

Finishes a little chalky on the tongue and lips, bitterness is not overly clean. Not bad though.

Look, I don't really like this beer. If I had brewed this, I probably wouldn't be happy letting other people drink it. A bit disappointed after some of the other great beers I have had from this brewery.

This is a good ’un. Clean and sharp but not aggressively bitter. Lean fruit profile but seems totally appropriate for these hops. All about the structure here as the flavours are not juiced up with malt and alcohol. Very robust for a sub 5%. I didn't notice much of a difference b/w tap and bottle.

Pours dark amber with a large head.
Nose shows masses of fruity hops and sweet malt. Big honey, melon and peach blossom notes. Incredibly sweet smelling.
Similar sweet, malty flavours, lots more caramel and cookie dough along with resinous, piny hops. A spicy/grassy noble character shows later, especially in the bold, sharp bitterness. Unfortunately that bitterness has an unpleasant, harsh metallic note to it.
Could use carbonation.
Seems to me like stella hops are great for aroma, but not so much for bittering....

310ml glass at The Local Taphouse, Darlinghurst.

Poured nonchalantly into a tulip it is a murky deep golden colour with a touch of amber. Has a one finger head of white foam that dies off within about 2 minutes.

Smell is quite tropical and noticeable from a good metre away from the glass. Initial aroma is passionfruit mixed with honey dew melon and rockmelon. This turns into hop resin after a little while.

Taste is a touch of passionfruit early turning into hop resin later.

Mouthfeel is decent, hop resin bitterness hits late.

Overall an ok IPA, the best part is the initial strong and unique smell of the Stella hop. After that it doesn't quite regain those heights.

Well, there's no Australian IPA style to file this under. Shame.

Had on-tap at the Local Taphouse in Sydney on International IPA day. Pours a cloudy, bright golden colour, with a bit of orange coming out at the depths. Head is foamy, full and good-looking. Lace forms streaking and clumpy on the sides of the glass. Lots of fine carbonation. Looks good.

Nose is clean and fresh, with some ripe melon characters and a touch of tropical mango. Still, it manages to maintain a sharpness—a true "hoppiness" if you will—it's not sweet with the fruity characters. It's perhaps not as immediately recognisable and unique as Galaxy is, but it's still an interesting nose.

Taste is similar in flavours, but here it seems to work even better. The melon is pronounced, with cantaloupe coming through and a green crisp bitterness on the back. The bitterness doesn't actually have much of a kick, meaning there's no residual hop character, and the palate stays surprisingly smooth. Just enough malt to give it body, but without actually being noticeable in the flavour—you would, however, notice its absence.

A really well-crafted single-hop IPA. It really lets you get a handle on the hop, and I feel I understand a little more about Stella now. Good effort, Ben.