Stone Enjoy By 3.14.15 | North County San Diego, California
I think these guys are serious. Stone’s Enjoy by 3.14.15 really needs to be enjoyed by “Pi” or some 35 days after it was bottled. Well we did. I just took my sweet time to write about it. I thought this was just another play on “Pi” day gimmick then I realized that Stone is serious about this brew because they’ve made another batch called Enjoy by 4.20.15. and the description is dead on to 3.4.15. If there’s a special math reference in 4.2015 I was asleep that day in high school math class.
I read about this brew in Green’s Piney Grove Beer Geek Weekly newsletter (Green’s in Columbia). While trying to find some I discovered that this brew was not available in Georgia. The guys at Gravity Growlers lead me to North Augusta Beverage where I snagged 2 bombers.
This was bottled on Feb. 6 so me getting it around March 6th doesn’t give me a lot of wiggle room to drink it. Time to get the Brew Brothers together. I invited myself over to Mark’s on 3/14/15. Brett was already planning on being there. They recently celebrated birthdays so I brought one of my bombers over.
Right off the bat I thought hell had frozen over. Mark does not like IPA’s. “This is pretty good. Not bad at all,” he said. I guess like the Hopslam I reviewed earlier, a Double IPA seems to improve the taste.
Brett said “it has a nice floral bouquet not overpowering hoppy. A good drinking beer.”
Mark couldn’t leave well enough alone. “This is the beer where you invite the girl to dance, she has a beautiful figure and she opens her mouth and all her teeth are bad. You tell her to keep her mouth shut and enjoy the dance.” Hmmmm. Not sure what that means. I do like this beer. I had 2 bombers actually but we also had some growlers we needed to drink so we didn’t want to overload on “Pi” beer.
If you didn’t get the pun the name is based on Pi or 3.14159265359….. I’d like to say we were actually drinking some at 9:26 so we could have had more Pi. But we had moved on my then.
Time to wrap it up so I asked for final thoughts. Brett’s said “this is a great way to celebrate 3.1415 day.” Mark’s final word on this was “very drinkable enjoyable IPA. No afterburn and none of that usual IPA lingering yucky taste.”
I first thought the taste cut off fairly fast but after you think it’s gone a little aftertaste pops up. Not unpleasant but sneaks up on your.
I visited the Stone website to see how they describe this brew:
Style: Double IPA. ABV:9.4%. Bottled On:02.06.15
You have in your hands a devastatingly fresh double IPA. Freshness is a key component of many beers – especially big, hoppy IPAs – but we’ve taken it further, a lot further, with this one. We brewed this IPA specifically NOT to last. We’ve gone to extensive lengths to ensure you get your hands on this beer within an extraordinarily short window, and we’ve sent a very clear message in the name of the beer itself that there is no better time than right NOW to enjoy this IPA!
Tasting notes, provided by Stone Brewmaster Mitch Steele
Appearance: Golden with a creamy white head.
Aroma: Intense hoppiness, resin, peaches, and hints of tropical fruit are all evident in the aroma.
Taste: Smooth malt up front, quickly dissipating into a massive onslaught of hops. The dankness and peach notes come through strongly.
Palate: Smooth with hints of alcohol, and a perfect balance of bitterness and dryness on the back end.
Overall: We took the opportunity with this beer to use several interesting techniques we’ve learned during our many years of brewing great double IPAs. The result is an intense, dry beer with very little malt sweetness, but with plenty of malt flavor to provide a background to the enormous…or shall I say “ginormous” hop character. Hopping, as might be expected, was over the top. First, the brew was mash-hopped with Ahtanum, one of our favorite hop varieties, 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. Simcoe, Amarillo, Calypso 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 primarily Southern Hemisphere hops, including Galaxy, Nelson Sauvin, Motueka and Helga
Drink extra-super-tasty Stone Enjoy By IPA well before its shelf life to maximize the pungent glory that this beautiful, intense hop profile provides.
Suggested pairings provided by Stone Craft Beer Ambassador “Dr.” Bill Sysak
Appetizers: Guacamole, kimchi, salt and pepper shrimp (or tofu), sausage-stuffed jalapeños
Main course: Chicken-fried steak, Merguez sausage, gumbo, chile relleno, Thai drunken noodles
Dessert: Carrot cake, peach cobbler, ginger spice cake, pumpkin cheesecake
Cheeses: Parmigiano-Reggiano, extra aged Cheddar, Rogue Creamery Caveman Blue, Mimolette
Cigars: Alec Bradley Trilogy Authentic Corojo, Altadis U.S.A Edición Limitada, Camacho Select
———
So I took a look at the profile on their Enjoy by 4.20.15 and it’s identical except that this one was bottled on 3/16/15. Same 35 day window. Then I noticed that this is the fourth in a series of “Enjoy By” brews. They had one on 12/26/14 and 2/14/15. Guess I’m late to the party. They actually have a chart that shows what stage the brew is in (Brewing, in Bright Tank, Bottling, Shipped). Good news Georgia. You get this batch.
So what do you call this kind of brew. Its not quite a seasonal. It appears to be brewed the same way over and over but in theory if consumed by the date it’s named after you don’t have any to drink for 3 or 4 days before the next batch is ready (if you live in San Diego). Figure in shipping to the East Coast and you’re probably 14 days without.
I think I will call these seasonal time bombs. Their clocks are ticking (the Stone website has a counter ticking down the time you have left to enjoy these brews) and if you don’t drink them in time you blow a hole in your wallet. I suspect these will be a Winter/Spring brew because shipping these kind of short-shelf life brews to the East Coast in the summer will only shorten their fuse.
Speaking of time bombs I still have that second bomber in my little fridge. I guess I better find time this week to call out the bomb squad.
Author Dan Doughtie