Stone Breweries India Pale Ale

                                    ....STONE BREWERIES INDIA PALE ALE....

Like monarchs, and mere mortals, not all are born equal, and the world of brewing is no exception.

It seems that some beers are born to be average and some beers born to be good, but when you come across that rare exception of a beer that stands out so stunningly from the crowd, your senses stand to attention and take note!

With an industry dominated by large scale brewers, mediocrity, sadly is the name of the game, with beers not so much designed to  'challenge'  your senses but to nullify them with bland products designed for an undiscerning consumer.

Thankfully, from the micro and craft brewers worldwide we are offered beers that can give us so much more,  but  some brewers in particular stand apart from others with their offerings - and Stone Breweries India Pale Ale is one such beer.

Stone have a deep love of hops, and this is evident in nearly all their beers!  But what struck me when sampling their IPA  recently was the correlation between hop level and strength. Is there such a thing as a hop level that is ideally suited to a given strength to bring out the best qualities of both ? Possibly so on the evidence of this Stone brew.

Many brewers of classic IPA's both here and in the US know the importance hops played in the IPA tradition,  as it was this element that gave the beers their stability to survive the long voyage to India. 

Today, all the brewers who emulate the style, are, in essence, producing their own interpretation of the theme, as no two brewers are the same, and the original brews and how they would have tasted are long lost to the mists of time.

The British brewers of old were limited by the choices of hops available to them, and the variable potency they offered. The hops function was seen as one dimensional,  to add  'longevity'  to the beers life, but both flavour and aroma were not considered part of its remit. The  'stability'  they could offer the beers was considered their prime attribute.

Conversely, today, the ever more powerfully  flavoured hops available need judicious use to get the balance right, overplayed or clumsily used they can begin to work against the beer to is detriment.

it is the ' bittering ' element  of the hops, the alpha acids, that need to be judged so carefully. To much and the flavour can become a mouth puckering assault on the palate, almost numbing the taste buds into submission and making it virtually impossible to pick up on the more subtle flavour compounds and notes!