Stone Ruination IPA

Brewery: Stone

Type: Imperial IPA

Alcohol: 7.7%

Country: USA

I have been looking forward to this one for a while. I love IPAs, I love hops, so I had of course heard of this beast. Since Stone is not easily acquired here in Odense, I have had to wait until going to the US to pick this up. I saw it in the first bottle store I happened on and immediately grabbed it up in a covetous embrace. Stone Ruination IPA was finally mine! It flew back to Denmark with me, I worried that I would get caught and arrested for smuggling a weapon of mass palate destruction. Thankfully I was able to get this home and now I am about to worship at the alter of the dark hop gods.

Pours out a pretty clear coppery orange color. Not what I am used to seeing in these massive double IPAs. Nice thick slightly offwhite head that sticks around as a big creamy scum on top. The smell, my god the smell...it hits you like a baseball bat made of hops. Immense fresh and floral hops with an undertone of citrus and sweet sweet malt. The taste is exactly what I want in a big IPA. The malt is there as a foundation, bready and solid, but this beer is all about the hops in the end. The hops build on the malt foundation a giant bitter shrine to hoppiness. There are citrusy and floral hop tastes here and the hops flavor literally makes your tongue vibrate.  This is an intensely bitter beer, stone says it is over 100 IBU, that is the top of the scale for actually being able to taste bitterness in humans. That is why this beer is called ruination, because it will ruin your palate, and ruin your ability to enjoy any other Imperial IPAs.