Stone Enjoy By UNFILTERED

In my opinion, the flavor between the two styles of Enjoy By are too similar to even try and describe any difference.

I also feel that this is conclusive by the fact that most people in this thread don't have a definitive, consistent conclusion which describes a difference between the beers. So, while there may be a difference, it is so small that it cannot be easily recognizable by the majority. Same as the whole "different batches taste different" argument.

If you have to split hairs to find a difference, it just isn't that different.

 

Hazy doesn't equal better. This whole thing needs to stop.

 

I don't think it's just the appearance of a hazy IPA that people are going crazy over it's the taste. Specifically the mouth feel.

 

Here's what I did. Essentially cold crashed one in the fridge (read: chilled it) for a few days. Then, poured about 8 oz. Barely any haze, pretty clear overall. Tasted it, THEN swirled and poured the rest, turning it into a turbid, fugly, beautiful mess.

Does it turn it into a different beer? Not really. I personally think the beer FEELS different, which, in my opinion lends to more juiciness, and a softer bitterness.

Am I just talking out of my ass? Maybe...

Also. When I think of hazy beers, I think more of suspended proteins in the beer. Not necessarily unfiltered yeast (and trub??). This is truly unfiltered. I would think most breweries at the very least chill beer for a couple days to crash it, even if it stays hazy, or even milk...shakey. I've used the (purported) Hill Farmstead yeast when I've brewed before and it made a beer that literally looked like Orange Juice. The same recipe with American ale yeast barely leaves a haze. Did those beers taste different? ....yeah i think so. Was it the haze? The Yeast? .....pH, residual alkalinity.... who knows. It was delicious though.

CHEERS!

 

Any fellow crhazies disappointed with this beer too? I swirled my bottle as instructed up thread & just couldn't get a good level of haze. I was hoping for a Stage III smog alert in my glass but alas, it was more like Stage I. The PPM just weren't there unfortunately. Thought about still drinking it but couldn't in good conscience. Drain pour

 

Chris, I also pick a flavor profile that I suppose could be described as "vegetal" but that is not exactly the first word that comes to mind. In some batches the 'flavor' is too strong for my tastes and I don't enjoy that beer from that batch. In other batches the 'flavor' is more subdued and once in a while not present at all; I enjoy drinking those beers more.

In a recent thread Sam Tierney, a brewer at Firestone Walker, described the variability of certain hop varieties based on crop variation which is copied below. I suspect that the variability of Stone Enjoy By batches is due to hop source/age variability.

Cheers!

"It's all due to crop variability. I can't say definitively that there is no genetic variation is sensitivity to it, but there is huge variation in the crop from lot to lot. There are onion-bomb lots of just about every new high-alpha hop out there. Depending on the sourcing of your hops, you might end up with one. Suppliers usually try to blend that stuff out withe the homebrew supply but not all are equal."

http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...s-for-mosaic-ipa-recipes.380809/#post-4468783

 

I just gotta ask: did you really drain pour your Enjoy By beer vs. drinking it solely for appearance reasons?

Cheers!

 

I've done this with Belgian ales (Rochefort 10), and it does make a difference. Tasted better when swirled!

 

Hazy or not, it's unfiltered for me, all the way. So no, it doesn't need to stop.

 

Thanks for the report. I recently did something similar with Heady Topper, only I did it blindfolded and side by side. The clear ( and obvious ) winner for me was the decanted glass. It had much cleaner and brighter flavors.

At best, I could see these beers as offering a tradeoff - mouthfeel for flavor. But you never see it put just that way.

Anyway, I managed to snag some Enjoy Bys on the way home. Hopefully they settle in a day or so, and I could try it with this beer.

 

I'm afraid I can't join you on that bus. But, hey, as long as you tried it both ways, then keep on enjoying it the way you do.

 

I just mean the obsession of having the beer look hazy in hopes it'l meet the hype of Treehouse-esque beers.

 

Michael, I look forward to reading your post on this topic.

Cheers!

Jack

 

As promised earlier, here's a visual comparison of some IPAs.

First up, Stone Enjoy By Unfiltered...





Next up...Sam Adams Rebel Raw...



And finally, what an actual hazy/milkshake IPA looks like in my opinion...

 

What would be helpful is some 'background' behind the beer to provide some visual context of opacity.

I did not take a photograph of the draft Stone Enjoy By that I drank this past weekend but I did describe that I could see my fingers on the 'back' of the glass. Could you see your fingers on the back of the glass of Stone Enjoy By in your first photograph above?

Cheers!

 

Unfortunately none of these photos were originally taken with the intent of comparing them. I just like taking pictures of my beers. That being said, I do need to find a better/more consistent spot at my place to take beer pictures.

I did however, take that first picture with the intent of trying my hardest to see if I could see my fingers through the glass. That's a very bright lamp behind it, and I could not see my fingers through the glass no matter how close I held the beer to the light. I also aggressively swirled the last third or so of the bottle to ensure all of the sediment made it into the glass.

For what it's worth, I did enjoy this beer, but no more than the regular Enjoy By. The Rebel Raw I did not care for at all, and both Hill Farmstead beers were incredible. Both Hill Farmstead beers were growler fills within a week or so of being filled, as Sean Hill does not bottle his hoppy beers.

 

Some suggestions.

You could place something behind the glass. For example below is a photograph of my homebrewed version of of Pliny the Elder (my hydrometer sample at bottling; three weeks after pitching the yeast):



Another option is a front and back photograph using a glass with a logo. Below are front and back photographs of Tired Hands HopHands:

 

Will do, Jack. I didn't want to commit until I had some in hand; this was harder to get than I thought it would be.

 

Thanks for the suggestions!

How'd your homebrew of Pliny turn out?

And that Hop Hands looks like one of the "milkshake" IPAs/pale ales.

 

My version of a Pliny the Elder turned out very well. One advantage of homebrewing is that you are guaranteed fresh beer.

HopHands is what what I personally would describe as being murky/opaque; you can't see the logo on the glass from the 'back'.

Cheers!