Stone - Enjoy By 07.04.14

Is it the same beer each release? I have only had the pleasure of having enjoy by 7/4/14. Is it the same as the others?

Bob

 

That is the first he gave out. 2009 and later had no Warrior or Chinook. He has said he puts some Amarillo in late now. He also bitters with hop extract.

at last years NHC Mitch Steele said that was if they had trouble sourcing one hop another could be subbed in with minimal change to the beer.

 

that's my understanding. it's the same recipe each time, so pretty darn similar.

 

The can part wasn't referring to Enjoy by at all.

 

where did you read it's the same recipe every time? I heard otherwise, but that's just heresy. You have a link or something?

 

Pretty sure the recipe changes with every batch. I've had almost every batch and not one of them has tasted the same.

2.14 was very different from 4.20. I had the pleasure of visiting Stone bistro in early January and picked up a bottle of 2.14. Prob drank on 1.10.

Also had plenty of bottles of 4.20. Earliest was drank around 3.15.

This would be almost the exact distance between each beers enjoy by date and neither tasted the same at all.

 

Here is the release info on the 4/20 batch. Pretty much the same hop bill with a few switched out.

Name: Stone Enjoy By 04.20.14 IPA
URL: www.stonebrewing.com/enjoyby
Stats: 9.4% ABV, 88 IBUs
Availability: Limited 22-ounce bottles and draft, beginning the week of March 17
Hops bill: Ahtanum, Super Galena, Simcoe, Delta, Target, Amarillo, Calypso, Cascade, Galaxy, Nelson Sauvin, Motueka, Citra and Helga

 

guess enjoy wont be " limited " anymore

https://www.facebook.com/1174126285...17412628518/10152165296643519/?type=1&theater

 

This is horrible! I can't believe good beer is being put into larger stores with more customers. Probably at lower prices, too! What a terrible thing!

 

Sarcasm?

 

Costco had like 30 cases today...at $5.79 ea. its hard to buy anything else

 

Meh. Not as Dank as the 4/20 batch...

 

Hard, except when they have had, I dunno, a couple cases of Stickee Monkee for $11.69 . Did pick up a few Enjoy By as well. God I love where I live.

 

Shoot what am I going to drink at my July 5th party?!

 

I have two bottles chillin' and I'm gonna drink the first one tonight during the NBA Finals, and the second one on Dad's Day weekend. I hope, hope , hope, it's like the 2-14 version; pure love as the date suggests, hoppy, fruity, and dank! It was quite possibly the best DIPA I ever washed over my taste receptors. The 4-20 was good, but not as fruity, or hoppy, with a bit of onion in there.

 

Where did you pull that information from? Because the hops bill that I found for 4.20.14 is the same as the 5.16.14 release:

4.20.14: http://stonesalesmaterials.com/beers/enjoyby/
5.16.14: http://stonesalesmaterials.com/beers/enjoyby051614/

Which is Super Galena, Simcoe, Delta, Target, Amarillo, Calypso, Cascade, New Zealand Nelson Sauvin, Motueka, Citra, and Australian Galaxy

Both of those also match the hops information they provided in the blog post on the inaugural release of Enjoy By:

"Hopping, as might be expected, was over the top. First, the brew was mash hopped with Calypso, a beautiful fruity hop that we also used in our Stone 16th Anniversary IPA, after which we kettle hopped with a very small dose of Super Galena hop extract for bittering. Then, using a technique I’ve that some ine homebrew circles call “hop bursting,” we loaded up very heavily on the flavor hops at the end of the boil and in the whirlpool. Simcoe, Delta, Target and Amarillo were used in the late kettle hop. Motueka, Citra, and Cascade were used for the whirlpool hop. As you can clearly tell, this beer was super hoppy even before we dry-hopped it, but then we went for it…dry-hopping with 1lb per barrel EACH of New Zealand Nelson Sauvin and Australian Galaxy."

As it happens, there is another passage from that same blog post that is relevant to the "does the recipe change?" question:

"Live in those areas? Welllllll, lucky you. You should see it popping up in your hood starting this week. We’ve got all that information lined up for you, including where you can find it at http://www.stonebrewing.com/enjoyby. Not in one of those spots? No worries. We plan on making more of this beer over time, using the same fresh recipe, with the same 35-day shelf life. All that will change will be what cities it hits and what enjoy by date you see on the front of that there purty bottle."

The list of hops in your post actually seems to match the Stone Sales Materials website for this most recent batch, 7.04.14. And as far as I can tell, it's the first time the Ahtanum and Helga hops varieties have ever been listed and the other 11 varietes (Super Galena, Simcoe, Delta, Target, Amarillo, Calypso, Cascade, NZ Nelson Sauvin, Motueka, Citra and Australian Galaxy) are all still present. With the beer approaching it's two-year anniversary, I'm more inclined to think that the inclusion of those hops are either 1) a mistake on the website, 2) a way to cover for a shortage in one of the other 11 hop varieties, or 3) a small refinement in the recipe now that they've been brewing it for two years.

Regardless, this idea that the recipe changes each release needs to go away. It just doesn't make a lot of sense for Stone to take a beer that I imagine already involves a great deal of effort to get to market, what with the changing cities and the truncated distribution timeline to ensure freshness, and add the variable of changing the recipe each time, introducing the potential to change the taste for the worse. Personally, I think Stone is intentionally vague about the hops profile because they know that the belief that the recipe changes from batch to batch is likely to entice more purchases, as people feel the need to try THIS version of Enjoy By.

 

With the attendant marketing, "Enjoy by Date", it makes it hard for the consumer to save a bottle back to compare to the next round and feel you are making a fair comparison. Regardless, I feel there has been some variation between the batches, (the 4/20 stands out), I have had every one and the same aroma carries through all of them - so there's your same recipe. Good work, LambyP, nice sleuthing.

 

picked up a bottle 8.99 along with devil dancer 5,and change

 

Hey it works, right?! Rogue struggles with 7

 

Had one last night. Still not "enjoying" this brew. This is my 4th try so not sure why I keep going back to it expecting something different.

I guess I'm in the cat piss/big onion flavor crowd. Just not a taste I enjoy. I can't handle raw onions so I guess it makes since this brew doesn't sit well with me.

Not saying it's a bad brew, just not for me.