Stone Enjoy by 12.21.12 IPA in CA?

Thnx for the great info! It's about a 45 minute drive to Livermore and if the price isn't too crazy, i think it would be worth it just to see what the hypes all about.

 

Citra?? Nelson??? Please stop. I had this beer last week. It's in abundance here on the Central Coast. It's not vile, but it's not great either. Citra is incredible and Nelson is magnificent. And among so many delectable San Diego creations, nothing Stone has to offer can hold a light.

 

When i first read this i quickly hit reply a prepared to write a witty come back (IMO) defending Stone, then i remembered my last experiences of ruination and they're IPA, and i'd have to catagories them as "pretty good". I don't know if they changed the recipe like they did double bastard (went from 10.5% to 11.2%) but they just don't do it for me like they used too. As far as the "delectable SD examples" comment, i'd probably need a couple examples before i can argue or concur with that...

IMO, the Bay Area and NorCal smash on anyone in this style.

 

Thats your opinion and I respect that. I probably drink more Alpine than most, my fridge has not gone more than a week over the last few years without my beloved Nelson,Duet ect ready for enjoying. I also get a relatively constant supply of all things Kern so I think I know the palette of all these brews of which I compared. I also might add that outside the magnificent Ruination 10th I don't drink a lot of Stone either, hence my appreciation of what I consider to be their best brew, and due to its genetic make up of which includes heavy amounts of two of my favorite hop profiles I make the comparison, didn't say it was better, I said it reminds me of both. What it lacks is the beautiful balance that Kern's Citra and Alpine Nelson consistently exhibit.

Cheers.....

 

Alpine Nelson Rye IPA, Monkey Paw Livewire 20th Anniversary, Alpine O'Brien's IPA, Alpine WHAle IPA, Alpine Pure Hoppiness, Alesmith Speedway ______, AleSmith Nut Brown Barrel Aged, AleSmith Yulesmith, AleSmith Evil Dead Red, AleSmith Wee Heavy, AleSmith Anvil ESB, Ballast Point Indra Kunindra, Ballast Point Habanero Sculpin, Green Flash Double Stout with Serrano, Pizza Port Bacon and Egss, Pizza Port Dowtown Johnny Brown Cherry Stout, Pizza Port A.B.L.E., Pizza Port Z Man, Pizza Port Jetty IPA, Coronado Stupid Stout, Coronado Black Sails, Coronado Sock Knocker, Coronado Baby Idiot, Coronado Idiot, Alpine Duet....

 

OTB, your explanation of their hop profile is spot on. I think they use a combination of centennial, cascade, and simcoe for they're ruination/ipa. A flavor profile, that i think, we have all tasted before and no longer find it noteworthy or even appetizing anymore. I'll be trying my Enjoy by IPA tomorrow, i hope it's amazing, and a new evolution of Stone.

 

I hope you enjoy it Chris, I really have had fun with this last release, I got four bottles and just cracked the crown on my last one to enjoy with the USC Notre Dame game. Look forward to your take on it.

Cheers.....

 

Cases of this stuff on the floor (ugh) at the Albany BevMo at 5.99 a pop, no limit.

 

What is it that the Bay has that smashes Stone in the style? I'm in Oakland and SF frequently. I'd like to try some good ones. You aren't counting Petaluma and Santa Rosa are you?

 

Never been to santa rosa or petaluma, the styles i was referring to are IPA, IIPA, and DIPA, which negates most of what your list includes. Plus i'm sure i'd be blown away by stones unique rendition of ruinition/IPA on draft at they're bistro, but i was talking about what's on the shelves at stores.

Why am i suddenly comparing beers from the bay to stone? I asked for a list from SD better then stone. The bays IPAs, IIPA, DIPAs, don't smash on stone, stones flavor profile is just played out IMO. Hoping Enjoy by is something unique.

 

Trying some of this right now. OUCH. Nice taste and very fresh, probably best right after a nice day shredding trails on a mountain bike. The bitter at the end is the only drawback but thats a personal taste thing I guess.

I had to try it since the date (12/21) is my birthday!

 

My fault. The way I construed your post was you were looking for examples of SD beers that make anything from Stone look like overzealous hop mongers.

It's not.

 

Wow, surprised how much love or hype Enjoy By is getting. It is good, but nothing earth shattering. Several beers have very similar hop profiles and tastes.

 

Lol i'm not sure where the hate comes from for this brewery. Sure their year round brews are played out, but that's only because i've drank them so many times. My first try of them blew me away though, and every seasonal release after them have pretty much been awesome IMO. I've never had alesmith, alpine, or coronado, but i'm sure they're good. I'll have to try them for myself to see if they stack up to stone.

 

I love how Stone is "played out" because they've been around for a while and they distribute everywhere. If Stone was a SD only brewery that didn't distribute most people would be sucking a ton of dick for the beer they are putting out today.

 

Very true, same goes with russian river. They're about an hour from sac and they can't distribute there? I'm sure that's the reason pliny's so hyped.

 

Was not able to get any bottles of "Enjoy By" on Friday. My bro in law was nice enough to drive down to Stone Escondido Fri morning to get a growler fill and buy bottles of Enjoy. But it was all gone on Weds night. All Stone stores were sold out of it. This must be the "IPA beer of the year." According to Stone they will be releasing more in the near future. So this is going to be one of those hard to get beers?

So my bro in law calls me at work and tells me the bad news. So I recommend he drive another hour south to Alpine and see if he can get any bottles of Duet, Nelson and Pure. And he does! He and his wife end up getting two cases (8 ea of Pure, Duet and Nelson). Score! Plus two growlers of O'Brien's. By the way. . .UPDATE on availability. . .he says there are no more Duet at the Brewery. Only at the Pub. The only thing he didn't bring back was the great BBQ grub from the Pub. Oh well. I enjoy Alpine IPA's more than "Enjoy By. So it was a win situation. Enjoy can wait till the next round.

 

you may not care for the beer which is fine but the ruintation 10th and enjoy by represent a fundamental style shift for stone as these releases show that they can brew modern over the top dry hopped dank iipas with clean, relatively dry malt backbones and a far more tempered level of bitterness than their classic hoppy line-up. this is one of the things that impresses me so much about stone as they could just keep making the same beers they built their empire on but they refuse to do "just enough" and always seem to be interested in pushing their own performance level with overall better beer for the consumer the result.

 

I was at Alpine and Stone yesterday. I'f you were to have secretly put Enjoy By on tap @ Alpine as one of their own beers I don't think there would be a single BA that would know it wasn't an Alpine beer. IMO it is on par with the best Alpine has to offer, yes I've had Bad Boy, I'd love to taste them blind side by side and see which I one I liked better!

 

To quote Will Ferrell in a performance for which he was so obviously snubbed By the Academy, "Your crazy man. I like you, but your crazy."

 

You certainly build a good defense for Stone. I can't argue with your contention. Rather, I'll point out that you remind me of a friend I have who is so knowledgeable and investigative into the mechanics and finances of professional sports, the intended enjoyment of sport is lost on it all. I have a little more than layman's knowledge of beer engineering, but not much more. And that's the way I like it. It allows me to enjoy the gestalt of beer without getting to hung up on the components. To that end, I have always judged Stone on its merit based on my own subjective appraisal. I've given it so many chances, due primarily to its popularity, but have been perpetually disappointed. Except for Sublimely Self-Righteous. I do enjoy that one. So I suppose I'm a little mad at Stone for what feels to me like trickery.

 

I totally agree, when I first had Enjoy By the first thing I thought was if i didn't know any better I would have thought it was an Alpine beer. If I drank this in a blind taste test would never have guessed Stone.

 

Would anyone like me to check to see if my local store stills has the Enjoy By? I live on the Central Coast, so Alpine is scarce up here. Perhaps we could work out a trade.

 

I've been drinking Stone brews for almost 6 years now. Started with Pale Ale (hated) then IPA (loved) and then eventually tried them all. Stone was really my first experience into the craft beer world (besides Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams, etc.). Then my bro in law brought a bottle of RR Pliny the Elder. That blew our minds. We then started trying all other IPA's and DIPA's out there in the market. We'd also tried others including Belgium Ales, Stouts, Sours, Barley Wines, etc. After 3 years of experimenting I ended up buying about 80% IPA/DIPA's. But I've found that Alpine's and Kern River are my favorite styles of IPA's. Small brewery's, big in taste. And very hard to find. And when you do find them, it's very limited. So I make it point to drive the 2 hours or 4 hours to pick up a case or three of their finest. I have not bought Stone IPA in over 2 years. Ruination, yes. Once in awhile. So yes there are much better IPA's out there than Stone. But Stone will be the one that did it for me. So with the "Enjoy By" and Ruination 10th Anny they have stepped it up. Probably knowing the competition out there is stronger than it was 4 or 6 years ago. I remember the first time I had Citra IPA. And no it wasn't the Citra from Kern River. It was a good year, year and half at the SoCal Home Brewers weekend at Lake Casitas. One of the home brewers (I think he was the SoCal rep from Sierra Nevada) had brewed this IPA he called Citra. And I was blown away from this 5 gal keg he brought. It was not in the competition. It should of been. It was just at his campsite for all to enjoy. I told him that he needs to get this recipe out to the public to enjoy. He never did. A little over a year later Kern released Citra. The two recipes were very similar. But the Citra at Lake Casitas was killer! So there is so much better beers out there. And were gonna see more in the near future.

 

I think I would be able to tell the difference between Bad Boy and Enjoy. First the clarity is different. Aroma too. The Enjoy by has a more carbonated fresh taste. Bad Boy to me is pure, clean & refreshing taste. The ABV's kick in later when it warms up, like the Enjoy By. But one of favs from Alpine now is Hoppy Birthday! Like a sister of Bad Boy, without the high ABV's. I can drink more of Hoppy and enjoy the taste. But I would never turn down Bad Boy! A big beer I recently slowed down to is Knuckle Sandwich. Had a chance to pick up a 5 gal keg of KS, but went with Sculpin instead. 2 years ago I would of gotten the KS. So my taste buds have changed over the years.

 

Same here, i have to give stone all the credit for my love of IPA's. I think the first IPA i ever had, years ago, was from Redhook and i remember saying it tasted like grass. Then i tried Stones IPA, it blew my mind, and i've been in love with the style ever since. Now a days when i buy an IPA, I'm hoping for uniqueness and a solid malt backbone to support the hops. I think the only recent example of that, that i have tried was Deschutes Chasin' Freshies. I think it got around an 80+ score on here but i thought it was an awesome example of what this style can evolve into. I haven't tried Pliny yet because it's nonexistent in this area, but i think i can get it on tap up in sacramento, so i'll definitely have to try it and see what all the hypes about. I haven't tried Alpine or Kern, but i've heard good things about them. Hopefully i can get my hands on them.

 

I'm slightly annoyed (but mostly amused) by the manufactured (and unnecessary) "us vs them" nature of this discussion. Alpine makes some truly AWESOME IPAs. And Stone makes some truly AWESOME IPAs. I think I could live the rest of my life with nothing but the following beers (ranked, to cause more dissension, lol):
1. Ruination 10th
2. Bad Boy
3. Citra
4. Nelson
5. Enjoy By

But taste is very subjective, entirely personal. It's silly to fight over such matters. Love.

 

I think we all officially love each other again. The thread has turned into a discussion once more. I need to try that ruination 10th, is it on tap at the bistro?

 

Has no one picked up on Stone's joke here? Best by 12-21-12 is the end of the world, according to the Mayan calendar.

 

only among the ignorant:

 

Your guick, it only took you 109 posts to connect the dots. JK I <3 U

I'll be tryin my first Enjoy by IPA tomorrow, then the second as the world erupts into chaos and the universe implodes on itself. Should be one hell of a party

 

You forgot to mention leap year. Take into account Leap Year and it's already happened.

 

its out of code, so no

 

I totally get it..If you drink anything before the expiration date you are in the past and anything consumed after the
"best by" date=living in the future.

I knew this whole bottling/expiration thing was getting confusionistic.

 

Hmm, sry i'm not sure what "out of code" means. I guess my real question is, how can I get my hands on this beer? Is it bottled? Only on tap?

BTW anyone else find Doc to be a winy little shit? He cries about Stone and praises a brewery he doesn't even have access to... pathetic.

 

out of code as in its past its prime so there is no more!

 

FML

 

Simply observed. The reason you taste the similarity between Alpine and Enjoy By is the Nelson Sauvign that is used in abundance in Enjoy By. Your brain says....ah....Nelson.

Cheers.....

 

no, he strikes me as someone that is politely challenging your posts. your response is "winy."

you two are saying the same thing, by the way:

also, you write:

and on the previous page:

seriously? you've never had pliny and you think the bay area and norcal "smash on anyone in this style"? exactly how many dipas have you had?

also, if you're in the bay area and you've never had pliny, why are you shitting on docjitsu for "prais[ing] a brewery he doesn't even have access to"?

maybe get your own house in order first...?