Stone - 19th Anniversary Thunderstruck IPA

I got some onion and even more of what I can only describe as "raw rubber" in Enjoy By. While I cannot recall the "enjoy by" date, it would have been the freshest available this past December. I didn't' find the taste off putting at all as I enjoy IPAs on all ends of the flavor spectrum. Honestly, it was probably the most dank beer I had enjoyed to date, not even a hint of tropical.

On an unrelated subject, when is VA, and most importantly (because I am very selfish...) Central VA going to get Thunderstruck?

 

My wife and I split a bomber last night. Wow, I was impressed!! Super tropical and super dank. In my opinion, one of Stone's best offerings in a while.

 

i think my palette prefers the hop overload
this one did not work for me at all
much prefer the ruinten

 

Had this on draft this past weekend. I got tropical fruit and a strong bitter finish. Made me more excited for the east coast expansion brewery.

 

Very enjoyable and did not get the onion/garlic previously mentioned.

I'll be double fisting bombers outside of Wrigley Field in 2 weeks for the ACDC concert!

 

Loved this beer, perfectly balanced tropical flavors and dank backbone. I also have never experienced onion or garlic in Enjoy By so I am firmly in the Stone lovers genetics camp.

 

I thought this was terrible. Stone more and more seems to be going this oniony route. This tasted like the recent subpar enjoy by's. Stone 18th didn't seem as popular but I much preferred that to this. I thought this years Ruinten was bad too. I officially no longer trust Stone on the ipa front.

 

It's all about mass production my friend. It's becoming the Sam Adams of the west coast which is a very bad thing.

 

The classic BA trope: If its widely available, it can't be very good anymore

 

That's fine I suppose, but they won't be getting my money any more. The last great beer I had from them was EB 4/20/14. Additionally, these special release bombers tend to be on the pricier end in my town. Usually 10$

 

Did you even read my earlier post?

 

I did... And whether or not its a pallette thing makes no difference to my appreciation of the beer. Stone has been tasting like onion since EB 10/31/14. I don't like it, therefore I will stop buying it. Am I supposed to continue buying it, to hate it, because my palette is "perceiving" onion?

 

Yes and you also have this rated higher than Nelson so clearly you know what you're talking about.

 

I tried 2 bombers so far and did not experience the garlic/onion taste everyone is talking about.
It is very tropical to me. This is one of Stone's best.

 

I don't know very many people on here. I don't know if "stonegreg" means he works there or just likes stone... But is there any explanation of why so many have perceived onion/garlic in a lot of stone stuff over the past year? Whats changed? EB 4/20/14 was top 5 all time for me. 10/31/14 was one of the most crisp and juicy ipas I've ever had. But starting with the Xmas EB, everything since has given me onion. Is it a particular hop, malt etc?

 

I just "cracked" my bomber open! Wow ... citrusy (juice and rind), dank and deeeeelicious! No onion or garlic, just hop goodness. I'm gonna have to go back to my local and grab another one (or two.)

 

You disagree with my opinion, therefore I have no idea what I'm talking about. Solid logic there, champ.

 

StoneGreg is Greg Koch from Stone, not that who said it really matters. I believe he is correct when it comes to saying that different palates must perceive some of these "dank" hops differently.

There are hops that I personally don’t care for at all and others love, Calypso is an example that many people go crazy for, to me it tastes like stinky cantaloupe. I think it’s naïve to think that we all taste the same in the same way that we don’t all perceive colors the same way or have the same tolerance for spicy food. Though ironically I think Enjoy By at least at one time included Calypso.

 

It is too bad that you dislike the beers Stone is putting out - someone has already taken care of the "who is stonegreg?" comment.

Knowing your palate and pleasing your palate is reasonable enough. You should, however, recognize that the onion-garlic taste is person-specific. I avoid HopRanch for the same reason - all I get is garlic and onions. But others swear by the stuff as a super fruity hop joyfest. Hops, particularly the cutting edge stuff Stone and other craft brewers use, can shift like grapes in different vintages of wine. Unless consistency is the primary mission, you can expect some shift. For one-offs like the 19th Anniv., there's nothing to be consistent with - obviously you are responding to some of the varietals that are in their supply chain. If I were a betting man, given your timing, as well as the specifics of this year's anniversary ale, I'd put money down on an Aussie/southern hemisphere hop, but that'd be just that - a bet.

If it is unpleasant, I think you are right - don't drink the beer. But the vagaries of hops and palates seems not something too mysterious.

 

I suppose the reason I'm asking, is if they have been using hop abcxyz, I'll avoid their future releases with that hop. I don't think its uncommon to persue the hops we like and avoid the ones we don't.

Ive had a ton of good stuff with galaxy. So I doubt it was that I disliked in 19th. The other hops I'm not as familar with

 

From my lips to God's ears, this beer is fantastic. Ladies and Gentlemen, Stone has delivered again.

 

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!