Beer: Stone 25th Anniversary Triple IPA
Brewery: Stone Brewing (Escondido, CA)
Style: IPA – Triple
12.5% ABV / 100 IBU

With a blend of eight different hops, Stone Brewing’s 25th Anniversary beer is very bitter and extremely dank—a fine, fitting way to celebrate the Brewery’s roots as a West Coast operation. Stone already celebrated its 25th birthday in mid-September with a series of low-key events at its taprooms in California and Richmond, VA, but this triple IPA is designed to keep the party going until Stone launches a bigger celebration in 2022.

Like most Stone beers, 25th Anniversary Triple IPA is available in six-packs and 22oz bomber bottles, which means it will be stocked side-by-side with mid-range ABV stalwarts like Stone Ripper and Stone IPA. Proceed with caution here, because one 12 oz can of the 25th Anniversary Triple IPA will go a long, long way. This beer is 2x as strong as most of Stone’s regular IPAs, which is enough to smash your face in, although 25th Anniversary Triple IPA doesn’t have the alcohol burn that accompanies a lot of beers in the 11% range and up.

Hop-wise, this well-balanced triple IPA sports the unmistakable bouquet of Citra and Simcoe; the smell and flavor of peaches, apricots, cantaloupe, grilled (caramelized) pineapple and guava dominate. It has a surprisingly fruity taste, cut by bold, bracing bitterness from the hops. It’s a terrific rendition of the TIPA style, akin to Lagunita Brewing Company’s ultra-dank and super-cultish The Waldos’ Special Ale, but in a more balanced formulation that could find favor beyond a 4/20 novelty. Hopefully 25th Anniversary Triple IPA enjoys a relatively long shelf life; Stone hasn’t had a TIPA in its regular rotation since RuinTen, and that was generally considered to be a definitive, essential rendition of the style.

For more info, check out Stone here.