Stone 14th Anniversary Emperial IPA Announcement Thoughts

For the past five years, I have been spuh-rung on Stone Anniversary Ales as they have hit the shelves.  For the 9th Anniversary, I went to Los Angeles landmark Stuffed Sandwich. My undeveloped palate didn’t quite know what to make of it, but it was tasty and strong.  When 10th Anniversary IPA came out, I went to Bevmo, and cleared them out.  That beer has left a lasting impression to this day. It could have been the hoppiest beer I have tasted to date, and I still maintain while the bottle said 10%, it was more like 15% (or 15 bazillion percent).  One bottle of that put out my lights like no other beer.

11th Anniversary was my first experience with the fairly new Black IPA/Cascadian Dark Ale/Hoppy Black Ale phenomenon.  I would sit here and pine about it’s past, however it was transformed into a semi-year-round release by Stone in the name of Sublimely Self Righteous Ale.  Go out and drink a piece of history, its great stuff.  12th Anniversary Ale took a sharp turn from the hoppy path, with a large silky Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout.  That beer is awesome, but more importantly, it is Jonny Fullpint’s wife’s favorite beer of all time. I broke out a bottle from The Full Pint archives for their first wedding anniversary, and was not dissapointed in the results. Last years 13th Anniversary was an interesting year for the Anniversary Ale series.  The beer had been touted as a hop monster and the most hopped beer Stone has done.   Well, Stone did such a good job at meeting that boat load of hops with a boat load of malt that my tongue scoffed at the hoppy marketing speak. With that said, it was a great beer, and one of my favorite styles (Imperial Red).  Even though the gargoyle asked us not to cellar this, I have tucked away one bottle for later review.

Here we are a month away from Stone 14th Anniversary Ale being released, and we have come to learn that it will be officially called Stone 14th Anniversary Emperial IPA.  This announcement was accompanied by a Vimeo video with Steve Wagner and Mitch “The Hoff” Steele explaining the concept behind this beer. Click here to watch .  It is very apparent , Stone’s love affair with Europe is having a heavy influence on this years Anniversary beer.  While Stone could easily have made another monster IIPA or American Strong Ale, they want to do an Imperial IPA with a strong British influence, using mostly British ingredients.  Personally, I am a big Stone fan, and a British beer fan not so much.  I really don’t dig on the salty malty stuff I’ve tried from the UK, and I love the pungent blow your face off style Stone brings.  I am very curious to see how this will be done.  I mean, it would be too easy for Stone to just make another killer ‘Stone-style’ IPA for this year, but I don’t complain once a year when I eat Turkey on Thanksgiving.  I reached out to Jacob at Stone for more information, such as ABV, label pictures,will Stone direct us to cellar this,  and if a batch or two is sitting on wood, and he unfortunately didn’t have that info available yet. I am not entitled to this info, I just wanted to obtain it if possible.  I will be eagerly awaiting this beer’s arrival, and will be circling Stone’s Facebook and Twitter for any clues on this beer.  As soon as we get more info, we will deliver it to you!