This is not a beer for the faint of heart. From the time you open the bottle to the very last sip, it is a full-on hop attack. Suddenly, all those descriptions of hoppy beers as tongue-bruising, eye-popping taste wreckers make a lot more sense.
Beer Details: Ruination IPA from Stone Brewing Company, Escondido, California. (7.7% ABV, 100+ IBU)
Appearance: This has a nicely clear copper color. Against the light, it practically glows. A loose head of sticky foam tops the glass.
Aroma: This is just wave after wave of hop flower - green, herbal, and resin-y. Trying to see past the hoppy cloud, there’s a perceptible wild honey sweetness.
Taste: This starts off with a quick and unassuming burst of warm honey malts. Which leads right into the hop craziness. We tasted lots of bright grapefruit and citrus flavors upfront, but this dissolves into resinous lemon zest around the edges of the tongue and then into earthy herbal and white pepper flavors in the back of the throat. An astringency like black tea leaves the tongue feeling fuzzy and dry.
For all this, the beer is smooth as all get out and almost creamy. Personally, we would have liked a little more carbonation to add some crispness.
This is one heck of a beer. Beneath the obvious hop flavors, there’s a lot of subtlety going on. It’s a challenging beer to drink. Even as we drank the last dregs, we couldn’t decide whether we actually liked the beer or not. And yet...we also can’t stop thinking about it. More taste-tests will definitely be in order.
Food Pairings: Spicy Mexican food would make a great match for this beer, especially if you love the “tongue-battering” pairing of spice and hops. During the winter months, we’d pair it with a big pot of chile con carne. During warmer months, we’d go for tacos and carnitas.
Have you had this beer? What do you think of it?
Related: Intro to Craft Brews: Our Best Beers for Newbies
(Image: Emma Christensen)
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An absolute favorite in our home. (Aside from our homebrew of course). Stone Brewery makes some fantastic beers overall, and Ruination in particular is terrific. Yes, it's aggressively hopped, but it is rich, complex and well balanced too.
Stone is our local brewery and we frequent it bi-weekly! Husband likes the Ruination...I have yet to try it!
I've been meaning to try this out for a while, but keep reaching for other IPAs when I'm at the store. I'll have to pick it up next time.
if you ever have the chance to visit stone, go! not only do they have fabulous beer, but their food is incredible, and the atmosphere is unforgetable. visit on a warm spring day for a great experience. :)
I love Stone beers! My father-in-law lives near their brewery and we make a point to go every time we visit (which usually involves calling my mother-in-law to drive us home). Definitely visit it if you are in Northern San Diego County.
Stone is an incredible brewery. I used to live in Redondo Beach (southernish suburb of LA), and we took quite a few weekend trips down to Escondido to visit the brewery, to get samples, to eat at their fabulous restaurant, and to fill up our growlers! Ruination is one of my husband's favorites!