The Brü Revü – Stone Enjoy By IPA 12/21/12

The epitome of Stone and their IPA’s.  They have a known commitment to maintaining fresh beer on the shelves all across the country as it is of tantamount importance to drink your hoppy beers as fresh as possible.  Coming from the kings of West Coast IPAs what better than to print the “drink by” date right their big and bold on the label.  Thus the Enjoy By 12/21/12 IPA.  With the rise of the craft beer movement it has become increasingly difficult to find these limited releases, but I have been pleasantly surprised to see this IPA widely distributed and showing up even at my local HEB (which has a great beer section BTW).  On to the beer:  It  poured a nice golden hue with a subdued white head.  The aroma of hops jumped out of the bottle with fruity citrus notes, a bit of pine and even the dank hops I know and love.  The first taste knocked my socks off!  No kidding, I still can’t find them.  There are obviously a lot of hops which is to be expected from a Stone IPA, but they were handled very well.  Loads and loads, but balanced so as not to give you the bitter beer face or palate wrecking experience of some IPAs.  There were tropical fruits and citrus on the front end with the pine bitterness coming through on the back leaving a nice bitter coating on your palate.  All of these great hop flavors were riding a danky hoppiness that held it all together.  I thought the New Belgian/Alpine Collaberation Super IPA was awesome, but the Enjoy By IPA really handled the hops with a more delicate balance.  This was a fantastic beer and easily in my top IPA’s.  I just need to get more and drink them quickly, time is running out!!

Stone Enjoy By IPA 12/21/12