The brew has a smooth malt up front, quickly dissipating into a massive onslaught of hops.
All things must pass, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy them as they do.
If the alleged Mayan prediction – specious as it is – that civilization will end that on Dec. 21, 2012 is true, there isn't much we can do about it – except have a beer. And thanks to Stone Brewing Co. one can do so in a fitting manner: By drinking a beer brewed especially for the occasion.
As of this writing, Stone's Enjoy By 12.21.12 IPA has been bottled and kegged and is on delivery trucks headed to Stone fans in Massachusetts and other states. It may well be on shelves and tap lines by the time you read this.
Stone Enjoy By 12.21.12 IPA is chock full of hops – 11 different varieties, to be exact – giving the beer a massive hop profile of balanced bitterness and dryness. The “Enjoy By” date printed on each bottle reflects a 35-day bottle (or keg)--to-drink cycle, meaning that to fully experience the beer’s hopliciousness, it must be consumed by, or preferably well before, the end of that five-week cycle. And Stone is making sure it will be. On Dec. 22, if life as we know it continues and any beer remains on the shelf, it will be immediately removed.
“When we came up with the idea of Stone Enjoy By IPA we knew it would be a challenge to pull off because of the logistics that go along with bottling, kegging, and shipping the beer the same day,” Stone CEO and co-founder, Greg Koch said. “However, we were able to call on our great distributors and work with them to ensure they would get the beer out in record time. Seeing the interactions from our fans, we were able to confirm what we already knew—fresh beer, specifically Stone Enjoy By IPA, is amazing."
Described as a beer with an "intense, dank hoppy aroma" and a flavor featuring "smooth malt up front, quickly dissipating into a massive onslaught of hops," the brew is fairly big, coming in at 9.4 percent, alcohol by volume.
I made the decision to write about this before it got here (instead of waiting and writing about it from my perspective) because by the time I got it, sampled it, and wrote and published this column, precious time would have run off the 35-day clock for sampling it.
For those interested in the process that went into making this tart and juicy brew, here it is, courtesy of Stone Brewing Co.:
First, the brew was mash-hopped with Calypso, a beautiful fruity hop that we also used in our Stone 16th Anniversary IPA, after which we kettle-hopped with a very small dose of Super Galena hop extract for bittering. Then, using a technique known in homebrew circles as “hop bursting,” we loaded up very heavily on the flavor hops at the end of the boil and in the whirlpool. Simcoe, Delta, Target and Amarillo were used in the late kettle hop. Motueka, Citra and Cascade were used for the whirlpool hop. As you can clearly tell, this beer was super hoppy even before we dry-hopped it, but then we went for it – dry-hopping with one pound per barrel each of New Zealand Nelson Sauvin and Australian Galaxy hops.
Where can one locate this awesomely fresh beer before the end of the world? Visit stonebrewing.com/enjoyby/ and use the interactive map to find exactly which retailers, restaurants and bars are carrying the beer in bottles or on draft in select cities. If it looks like Stone Enjoy By 12.21.12 IPA isn’t in a nearby location, don’t fret. Stone will unleash rounds of this beer in the future– ;if the world lives to see another day, that is.
Here's to the world surviving so everyone can have more of this beer. Cheers.
BEER NOTE
John Geraci from Amherst Brewing sent me this note: "We are releasing our now annual Black Friday Russian Imperial Stout on Friday. There will be 150 wax dipped regular version bottles for sale as well as 50 JD barrel-aged bottles.(Limit two and one per customer, respectively) Both will be on tap as well. Fun starts at 11:30 a.m." The cost is $6 for the regular bottles and $10 for the barrel-aged ones.