Stone - 19th Anniversary Thunderstruck IPA

I'm not a huge fan of the Australian hop varieties. Well I guess I can't say that yet because I personally haven't brewed with them. But to date beers I've had with Australian hops have not been spectacular.

So I hope to be pleasantly surprised by what Stone puts out with this.

 

There are some threads concerning the onion/garlic issue, and many people do seem to get it in the Enjoy By series. Here's one that might be helpful:
http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...s-have-a-burnt-carmelized-onion-aroma.162678/

 

Just opened this after failing to resist the urge to save it for pre-gaming the AC/DC concert at wrigley field in a few weeks.

All I can say is

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!!!!

 

I got a very fresh citrus/tropical quality to it, but I really liked the way it was put together most of all. It was more on the light and airy side to me, not one of those saturated fruit bombs- definitely made with a deft hand. If I do see it again, I'll be picking it up, but it sure was nice while it lasted.

 

Interesting that I saw a mention about 4/20 in that thread. That for me was a huge Nelson bomb. No onions. Second only to Alpine for all the Nelson beers I had. I also saw mention of summit hops, and I defineately get that. 2 weeks ago I had Kern Rivers Dirty Hippie. Hated the onion taste I got from it; that beer is big on summit

 

Nice choice of descriptors! Some beers in this style tend to have a mouthfeel closer to tropical punch than beer. Not this one. Clean, crisp, smooth and, yeah, airy.

 

Enjoy By's recipe doesn't change, but there could be some 'varietal' differences in the hops that make people perceive the balance being skewed from bottling to bottling.

I think this perception issue is still in the early stages and hasn't really been studied yet, so it's hard to pinpoint why some people get onions where others don't. It took some time for a genetic link to be discovered for the 'soapy' cilantro taste as well, but anecdotally it was well known. That's the stage we seem to be in here.

The bottom line seems to be: people's tastes and sensitivities are different, and brewers are not intentionally releasing universally 'oniony' beers.

 

What i find most interesting about this comment is that i have had several beers with similar hops in them and do not get the onion garlic from them, now that could certainly be anecdotal as it is not exactly the stone beer, but for example i just had Oskar Blues new IPA which has Ella, Vic Secret, etc in it and it tastes incredible to my palette...Thats why i wondered if it was a bottle issue.

 

I'm confused. Are you saying that 4/20/14 didn't utilize Nelson?

 

Greg has posted that the recipe has remained consistent after the initial bottling- maybe Mitch as well(?)- although I don't know the types of hops off the top of my head. I don't remember if Nelson was a part of the blend of hops, but it doesn't ring a bell.

I'll try a search, see what comes up...

ETA: see here-
http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/hops-in-enjoy-by-12-26-14.240337/#post-3091658
"I just double checked with Mitch. Last time we tweaked the recipe was September 2013."

Nelson is mentioned in the thread, too, so that part seems to be right.

 

Wow. Now I'm mind fucked. Nelson is indeed in there, for dry hopping. It looks as if although the same hops are always used, the ratios differ

It seems possible then, since there is allegedly a huge Nelson shortage right now, that more recent batches have had to use less Nelson. That would explain alot regarding my opinion on the more current releases.... Nelson is my crack

 

Ratios are not different. We brew the beer several times a year. There aren't different crop years' hops in each batch. We forward contract on our hops, and don't vary our usage of them in our beers willy nilly. We make sure we have enough so we can brew according to our recipes, or in some cases simply make less.

I have noticed that my personal taste perception varies. Lots goes into that. I blame myself first, mother nature second, the 'man' (whoever/whatever that is) third, society fourth, what I ate fifth, and the beer sixth. Others will put this in a different order.

 

So every batch is identical (almost)? I get more variance on EB then on basically any ipa I've had. I understand pallette differences, but EB idthe only beer I've ever had in which one batch is absolutely world class, and one is a pour out. Since this can't be accounted for, I suppose I'll stick to beers that have never required a pour out.

 

When I am out in SD next week hopefully it will be on tap at stone and I can give it another go

 

Interesting, I don't hate Nelson when blended with other high alpha hops, but on it's own I taste cheap white wine. Definitely not a favorite. I do think that the Enjoy By dry hop is nearly all Nelson and Galaxy.

 

The recipe linked earlier said the dry hop was galaxy and Nelson.

I like Nelson any way, but especially as the feature hop. Alpine Nelson is my favorite beer

 

Loved this beer when I had it on tap at a bar, then I saw my beer store had a sixtel of it. $191? I don't like it near as much now, that's a crazy price for this beer.

 

Many just look into their glass and exclaim, "It's not me, it's you!"

 

Wasn't going to buy this one, but all of this talk about juicy tropical hops changed my mind. Dropped $10 at the bottle shop this afternoon, but damn, another Stone beer dominated by garlic and onion flavors. Efff!