Happy IPA Day! + Coconut
Yes, we have National Tequila Day, National Cheesecake Day—whatever you want. Thanks to the world of Hallmark making up expensive holidays for men, anyone can make up a holiday. But for this one, I embrace. Social media is everything, so it shouldn’t surprise you that two twitter fiends (Ashley Routson (@TheBeerWench) and Ryan Ross (@RyanARoss) decided to create international IPA day. So what are you going to do on this glorious occasion? Put down the Bud Light Lime and open your mind to the endless world of IPAs.
What’s a good choice to start with? How about the Stone Collaboration R & R Coconut IPA? Yes—coconut. The whole purpose of IPA day is to embrace craft brewing, so why not drink a craft brew that was also brewed with homebrewers? At 2013’s Stone Homebrew Competition, Robert Masterson and Ryan Reschan’s coconut IPA made it to the final tasting, where a panel made up of Stone CEO & Co-founder Greg Koch, President & Co-founder Steve Wagner, Brewmaster Mitch Steele, Craft Beer Ambassador “Dr.” Bill Sysak and several Stone brewers chose their brew as the best. A homebrewer’s dream: brew large batch with some cool dudes. Win.
Then the Stone team joined the homebrewers and shared expertise to make a large batch brew. This means 3 pounds of toasted coconut during the boil and after a dry hop. It also means expertly-picked hop selections to complement the coconut and malts. The final product came out with 6 hop varieties (it is an IPA after all) that met the standards of all collaborators .
So today, explore the varieties of craft beer by trying out an IPA. If you’re lucky, find the coconut IPA and give it a whirl. Apparently the true way to celebrate IPA day is not only to bathe in IPA goodness, but to also take pictures of you with your IPA on your twitters, facebooks, instagrams and hashtag that ish #IPAday.
Here are the tasting notes from Stone Brewmaster Mitch Steele:
Appearance: Pours deep gold and clear with a nice cream-colored head.
Aroma: Predominantly coconut, along with mild fruity fermentation esters, tropical fruit and stone fruit hop flavors.
Taste: Coconut up front, mixed with tropical fruit and stone fruit hop notes. Creamy malt flavors sneak in mid-palate, and the finish is bitter, dry and hoppy with lingering coconut.
Palate: Smooth and creamy, with a dry finish and nice lingering bitterness.
Overall: A very unique blend of flavors comes through on this beer. The primary flavor is coconut, and its intensity was achieved by two additions, one in the whirlpool and the other post dry hop. The selected hop varieties add subtle tropical fruit and berry notes that blend well with the coconut. There is no doubt this is a big IPA, but with a very interesting twist!
