-
Stop lurking! Log in to search, post in our forums, review beers, see fewer ads, and more. — Todd, Founder of BeerAdvocate
Big Cranky
Stony Creek Brewery
- From:
- Stony Creek Brewery
- Connecticut, United States
- Style:
- Imperial IPA
Ranked #1,918 - ABV:
- 9.5%
- Score:
- 87
Ranked #16,038 - Avg:
- 3.89 | pDev: 11.57%
- Reviews:
- 86
- Ratings:
- Status:
- Active
- Rated:
- Sep 07, 2023
- Added:
- Mar 20, 2015
- Wants:
- 18
- Gots:
- 174
A Bold West Coast Double IPA, this is the crankiest of our IPAs. 7 different hops contribute complex and juicy hop character. Its dry finish allows the hops to stand out. At 9.5% ABV and 95 IBUs, while remarkably cranky, this beer is extraordinarily drinkable.
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Ratings by puboflyons:
Reviewed by puboflyons from New Hampshire
3.61/5 rDev -7.2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5
3.61/5 rDev -7.2%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.75 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 4 | overall: 3.5
From the 16 oz. can dated 12/11/16. Sampled on December 26, 2016.
Slightly hazy golden yellow pour under a long lasting white head.
Loads of fruit on the nose including pineapple, orange, tangerine, and passion fruit with a slight white bread dough character underneath.
Medium to full body.
Same juicy fruit characters in the flavor with a strong sough dough or white mushy bread presence. Lingering fruity bitterness but in this instance I think it is the 9.5% alcohol that I find in the flavor more so than the aroma. That has kind of taken away from the other hoppy characters.
Dec 26, 2016Slightly hazy golden yellow pour under a long lasting white head.
Loads of fruit on the nose including pineapple, orange, tangerine, and passion fruit with a slight white bread dough character underneath.
Medium to full body.
Same juicy fruit characters in the flavor with a strong sough dough or white mushy bread presence. Lingering fruity bitterness but in this instance I think it is the 9.5% alcohol that I find in the flavor more so than the aroma. That has kind of taken away from the other hoppy characters.
More User Ratings:
Reviewed by BigWheelz from New York
4.28/5 rDev +10%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
4.28/5 rDev +10%
look: 4.25 | smell: 4.25 | taste: 4.25 | feel: 4.5 | overall: 4.25
I love this beer - especially at a$14 a 4 pack price point. It's 9.5 abv and you taste it a bit but the hop mix they use makes this brew very smooth and unique. Stony Creek has it together for sure!
May 12, 2023Reviewed by ReverendSoup from Massachusetts
2.76/5 rDev -29%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 2 | feel: 4 | overall: 3
2.76/5 rDev -29%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 2 | feel: 4 | overall: 3
poured from tallboy into pint glass, paired with homemade caramelized onion dip.
Pours a rich orangeish-gold, with crystal-like transparency. No head! However, there's a nice ring and some very nice webby lacing, so some crimes can be forgiven. The mild hoppy smell is inoffensive but turns no heads.
Can says they used seven hop varieties. That tracks. I think that's probably three or four too many. There's a reason most good IPAs do not do that sort of thing. Sometimes simple is better. Here, all the hops get lost and muddled, resulting in a taste that is, like the smell, inoffensive, but indistinct. The promised dry finish fades into a bummer plasticy aftertaste. Mouthfeel is light, crisp, and pleasantly carbonated.
It's fine, but a little boring, and when it comes down to it, you can get a wide variety of better IIPAs cheaper.
Apr 23, 2023Pours a rich orangeish-gold, with crystal-like transparency. No head! However, there's a nice ring and some very nice webby lacing, so some crimes can be forgiven. The mild hoppy smell is inoffensive but turns no heads.
Can says they used seven hop varieties. That tracks. I think that's probably three or four too many. There's a reason most good IPAs do not do that sort of thing. Sometimes simple is better. Here, all the hops get lost and muddled, resulting in a taste that is, like the smell, inoffensive, but indistinct. The promised dry finish fades into a bummer plasticy aftertaste. Mouthfeel is light, crisp, and pleasantly carbonated.
It's fine, but a little boring, and when it comes down to it, you can get a wide variety of better IIPAs cheaper.
Reviewed by BrewMaven from New York
3.39/5 rDev -12.9%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.25
3.39/5 rDev -12.9%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.25
Had high hopes for this one poured a nice deep hazy deep gold , With a thin disappearing head. But then showed aromas and taste that were very, well at least, somewhat artificial. I’ll drink it but will not be a repeat Purchase.
Jun 26, 2022Rated by RRB328 from Massachusetts
3.98/5 rDev +2.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
3.98/5 rDev +2.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 4
Enjoyed with Matt, 4/2/22
Apr 03, 2022Reviewed by Ada_Ace from Connecticut
3.72/5 rDev -4.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75
3.72/5 rDev -4.4%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 3.25 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.75
All around balanced and drinkable but high a steep price tag. Got this local, fresh canned about 2 weeks ago (pkg 7/13/20).
Poured with a thin film, clearish. Great smell, tropical and sweet with a clear grapefruit note. Taste is drinkable but not much more. Im not "wow'd" by the flavor although for a 9.5 you really aren't hit by any bold alcohol flavor. Alot of carbonation in the feel and a lingering taste that is less than desirable. CHeck it out if you are a fan of the brewery (I LOVE little cranky) but otherwise pick out a different IIPA.
Jul 28, 2020Poured with a thin film, clearish. Great smell, tropical and sweet with a clear grapefruit note. Taste is drinkable but not much more. Im not "wow'd" by the flavor although for a 9.5 you really aren't hit by any bold alcohol flavor. Alot of carbonation in the feel and a lingering taste that is less than desirable. CHeck it out if you are a fan of the brewery (I LOVE little cranky) but otherwise pick out a different IIPA.
Reviewed by jrc1093 from Connecticut
4.06/5 rDev +4.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
4.06/5 rDev +4.4%
look: 4.5 | smell: 4 | taste: 4 | feel: 4.25 | overall: 4
Canned on 2/6/20
Pours a clear sunflower gold topped with two fingers of bubbly, soapy white foam; good retention leaves a creamy ½ finger of cap, light collar, and sprawling, webbing chunks of soapy lacing.
Aroma hits with a mild boozy sugared grain into floral grass and crisp flaky malt cracker upfront before a quick, seamless transition to a joiner oily grapefruit and pine resin; tight apricot peel and some muggy tropical peel mark the close.
Taste brings a burgeoning palate of tropical fruit oils and gritty hops setting the stage for details of earthy orange and candied apricot to shine quietly but with no shortage of zest on the palate.
Mouthfeel offers an oily medium-light body with a subtle moderate carbonation elevated with a building hoppy grit; buttery slick, almost oily build across the mid-palate into the finish with a tight, fading gritty bitterness feeding into a background dryness holding beyond the swallow; moderate, flowing alcohol presence throughout.
Ultra-aggressive and yet somehow comes together in silky, oily harmony in spite of the booziness, which ultimately appears almost effortlessly integrated. Punchy and old-school west-coast style with resinous hints of tropics leave an end product almost shockingly drinkable 9.5% considering its harsher elements somehow not working against it.
Mar 01, 2020Pours a clear sunflower gold topped with two fingers of bubbly, soapy white foam; good retention leaves a creamy ½ finger of cap, light collar, and sprawling, webbing chunks of soapy lacing.
Aroma hits with a mild boozy sugared grain into floral grass and crisp flaky malt cracker upfront before a quick, seamless transition to a joiner oily grapefruit and pine resin; tight apricot peel and some muggy tropical peel mark the close.
Taste brings a burgeoning palate of tropical fruit oils and gritty hops setting the stage for details of earthy orange and candied apricot to shine quietly but with no shortage of zest on the palate.
Mouthfeel offers an oily medium-light body with a subtle moderate carbonation elevated with a building hoppy grit; buttery slick, almost oily build across the mid-palate into the finish with a tight, fading gritty bitterness feeding into a background dryness holding beyond the swallow; moderate, flowing alcohol presence throughout.
Ultra-aggressive and yet somehow comes together in silky, oily harmony in spite of the booziness, which ultimately appears almost effortlessly integrated. Punchy and old-school west-coast style with resinous hints of tropics leave an end product almost shockingly drinkable 9.5% considering its harsher elements somehow not working against it.
Reviewed by JeffJohnson1994
1.92/5 rDev -50.6%
look: 4.75 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 1 | feel: 2 | overall: 1.25
1.92/5 rDev -50.6%
look: 4.75 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 1 | feel: 2 | overall: 1.25
Drank one out of the can and the other out of old faithful. Beer looks great. Smells pretty good, tastes not so much. Feel-not sure what that means. I don't actually put my hands in the glass but maybe the Millennials could explain this characteristic for me and how to judge it. This beer is God Awful. Just another victim of the IPA movement while packaged carefully and well-marketed(looks great!) couldn't taste worse. Honestly, if it wasn't for the price and high alcohol content I may have poured the 4 pack out upon my first sip. Don't waste your money. These IPA brewers need to find a happy medium between alcohol content and taste, this one is not the answer. I would definitely recommend Heavy Seas Double Cannon IPA, Dogfish 90 minute, or almost all Lagunitas' products 100x over this nasty brew. It's so nasty, this will put hair on your daughter's chest-not a great look.
Sep 22, 2019Reviewed by SABERG from Massachusetts
3.9/5 rDev +0.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
3.9/5 rDev +0.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 4 | overall: 4
Poured from a can purchased at the brewery. Date of canning is 8/28/19 so within a week.
A - Beautiful clarity, honey colored steady carbonation feeds a lasting white cap, excellent retention.
S - Pine, orange peel, dried pineapple. sweet grains, all with an alcohol vapor providing the lift.
T - Citrus to start, with the medley of orange, pineapple, apricot all candied, conifer thread included some nice pine, and spruce, with a hint of burnt sugar.
M - Medium in body, carbonation cant keep up, so a slow building slickness develops. The alcohol is on full display, no hiding the 9.5%. Linger is surprisingly grainy, which I like
O - As advertised a big West Coast IIPA, and well executed I might add, If bold is your thing then this offering sings your song. Great hops balance against the solid grain bill, and it is not shy.
Sep 01, 2019A - Beautiful clarity, honey colored steady carbonation feeds a lasting white cap, excellent retention.
S - Pine, orange peel, dried pineapple. sweet grains, all with an alcohol vapor providing the lift.
T - Citrus to start, with the medley of orange, pineapple, apricot all candied, conifer thread included some nice pine, and spruce, with a hint of burnt sugar.
M - Medium in body, carbonation cant keep up, so a slow building slickness develops. The alcohol is on full display, no hiding the 9.5%. Linger is surprisingly grainy, which I like
O - As advertised a big West Coast IIPA, and well executed I might add, If bold is your thing then this offering sings your song. Great hops balance against the solid grain bill, and it is not shy.
Big Cranky from Stony Creek Brewery
Beer rating:
87 out of
100 with
352 ratings
We love reviews (150 characters or more)! Check out: How to Review a Beer. You don't need to get fancy. Drop some thoughts on the beer's attributes (look, smell, taste, feel) plus your overall impression. Something that backs up your rating and helps others. Thanks!