Keri Kelli / Kyle Hollingsworth / Stone Collective Distortion IPA
In bringing together artisans from disparate aural planes, one might expect an offbeat, feedback-warped cacophony, shrill to the point of unlistenable. Yet, by inviting Kyle Hollingsworth, keyboardist for eclectic, jam-prone sextet, The String Cheese Incident, and Keri Kelli, wailing rock guitarist of Alice Cooper fame, we were able to make truly beautiful music. Turns out, these musicians have a great deal in common, both with each other and with Stone. We all enjoy turning things up to 11, and that is represented in this collaborative offering, an imperial India pale ale ably backed by Nugget, Comet and Calypso hops, and amplified care of a healthy dry-hopping with Vic’s Secret, a new Australian hop, adding citrus and tropical fruit oomph. To give this modern masterpiece some soulful, classic character, we traced the roots of brewing to the days when Old World herbs were used to spice beers, adding in coriander and, a first for us, elderberries. To stand up to that sumptuous spice and blaring bitterness, we added golden naked oats, which are lightly roasted and add body and enhanced mouthfeel to the brew like a steady, unbreakable backbeat to an incendiary jam solo. Sit back, crank the volume and get lost in this operatic incarnation of genres combined in the name of invention.
3.7
337 reviews
Escondido, United States
Community reviews
Bomber from BOTW (Rochester), served at cellar temperature in a tulip glass.
App.: Clear amber with a so-so off-white head.
Aroma: Strong, rich maltiness, savoury/brothy/mashy malt, very deep and dark with lots of black pepper, very deep toffee/treacle, a little dark dried fruitiness, is that the elderberry??, not getting coriander, black licorice?, quite the big beer!
Palate: Medium+ body, moderate to moderate-low carbonation.
Flav.: Quite mashy/brothy/savoury with strong pepperiness, quite resinous, I can’t find the elderberries or coriander, deep toffee/treacle, a bit too severe for my palate; dry with big bitterness and a long, darkly malty and peppery finish.
Too much and, yet, not enough. Oh well.
10/4/14. Sampled at Bill’s Oktoberfest party, I believe. Orange amber pour with a small khaki head, mild lacing. Okay aroma, mild fruitiness, grainy pale malts, a touch of citrus and tropical fruits. Good bitterness, okay hop character, mild citrus and tropical fruits, grainy pale malts. Not bad.
Bottle from Capitol Beer & Tap Room. Pours murky amber with a decent off--white head and a citrus aroma. There is a full-bodied caramel malt flavor with a hint of berry and a bit too much coriander. Finish is very bitter.
22oz bottle from Wegmans, West Seneca, NY. a hazy amber pour with a tight cream head; aroma of spicy aromatic hops, but also with some fruit; the taste is interesting and complex, a grainy, toasted oat body, some delicate fruit, and a well-balanced spicy hop bitterness, that completely masks the alcohol; the finish is sticky with lingering hops and fruit and some warming spice. Rather good.
Pours a very cloudy orange amber with a nice head of off white bubbles. An odd appearance. It almost looks good but the cloudiness throws me off for some reason. It has ample aromas but they aren’t completely pleasant: caramel, toast, herbs, cheese, some clove. The taste is interesting but wildly off balance. It’s all sour/bitter and then overpowering umami. Palate is the worst element of this brew, a lingering astringent bitter finish that resembles sour unripened blackberry. It’s obvious that this is a craft brew that some love and thought went in to but nothing seems to jell here. Worst offering I have had from an amazing brew crew.
Bottle from Halftime web order. Pours unclear deep reddish/amber with a big creamy white head. Aroma of tropical fruits, tangerine and grapefruit, some weak sweet malts. Taste is light sweet caramel malts, loads of grapefruit and citrus hops, fresh oranges and weak spicy, good aggresive hops in the long finish, very nice DIPA.
[6581-20140808] Bottle. Grainy orange floral aroma. Clear, golden orange body with a medium-lasting foamy white head. Bitter orange resin leaf hops flavour. Medium body. Tasty. (7/4-/8/3/14) 3.6
(c/o blankboy, w/ him, GregClow, HogTownHarry, jercraigs)
Overheard: "Didn’t you know this? Different owls make different types of hops."
650ml bottle. Bottled 5/2/14. Pours a clear, but bright orange with a half finger, off white head that thins to a film. Aroma has great notes of pine, citrus, resin, berries, and bread. Taste is bitter but enjoyable. Pine, resin, tropical fruits, and citrus to start, then moving to bready caramel at the end. Big, bitter, resiny, bready aftertaste with a touch of alcohol warmth mixed in. Medium-full body with a medium carbonation. Resiny in the mouth with a big, dry finish. Overall a very tasty stone brew. Aggressive bitterness but with great flavours. Kinda an odd flavour mixed into the finish.
Stone has never made a bad IPA. This one is really good. It’s sweet, bitter, hoppy, fresh it is just a BIG beer. Brown sugar and hops. What else do you need? I’ve always loved all the IPA’s Stone does and this one is just as awesome.
From a bottle. Pours cloudy dull amber, fast fading head, big floral aroma, initial hop fruit mellows to a malty backbone with a slightly warming aftertaste.
bottle - Pours lightly hazy copper colored with a two finger head. It has a floral and citrus hop aroma. The flavor as expected is high on the bittering hops. The citrus and florals are there too. It’s got a full bodied malt backbone with a long bitter finish. As usual it’s another excellent IIPA from Stone.
4oz sampler at Waldo Pizza. Pours Aroma of strong citrus, tropical fruits, somewhat spicy. Flavor is pine, grassy, tropical fruits. slightly dry mouthfeel. Very tasty.
Blonde dorée. Beau collet. Belle effervescence. Corps rond. Bonne amertume. Fruité. Fine chaleur d’alcool. Légèrement sucré. Sèche et bien rafraichissante malgré son haut pourcentage.
Super bonne double IPA. gros colle de mousse qui colle. Draft de pêches,abricots,mangues,petite touche de marijuana ont dirais. quelques choses d’exotique pas à peut près! en bouche ça explose , sa colle aussi , arrières goût d’agrumes avec une final longue et très longue qui s’étire, petite final chaude,léger sucre résiduel, Trop bonne . Bon souvenirs de Virginie en Août 2013 je vais tenter de m’en rappeler le plus possible Classique
I’m getting a hint of something exotic - perhaps the elderberries though who knows what the hell elderberries taste like - or maybe the coriander, though that’ a spice that normally doesn’t agree with me. Whatever, it works. Really smooth and delicious but not overpoweringly bitter. Which is good because at 9.3 % this rock n roll collaboration brings a lot of heavy metal to the table. Stone Brewing can do no wrong
Bottle. Pours a slightly hazy dark orange color with a medium densely packed white head that diminishes slowly. Partial rings of lacing on the glass. Hoppy aroma with notes of citrus and pine, and malt in the background. Full-bodied with a resiny hops and flavors of grapefruit and grainy malt. The finish is moderately bitter which over shadows the citrus and pine hops in the aftertaste.
very solid double IPA. worth a try, but ruination and other stone beers are much better IMO. We want hops should be a slogan for some of these collaborations.
Pours a light orange color with tropical citrus aroma. Citrus flavors with hint of spice and touch of earthy bitterness. Very nice beer.
2 oz Bomber. Tasted on 10/4/14. Beer courtesy of Chae.. Thanks!!! The beer has pine, citrus, slight notes of coriander. The taste was a little too bitter until it warmed up some. As it warmed the tasted mellow & had a better balance. Overall an OK effort for me.
Clear copper pour. Citrusy tropical fruit tones. Bitterness picks up as an earthiness on the finish but overall very sweet. Not sure what the elderberries or corriander are doing here as I can’t really pick them up? I’d love to try the base beer for comparison. Pretty solid DIPA though.
Nice hoppy bouquet. Peach, apricot, weed, decent maltiness, smooth with a pretty clean finish. Another solid Stone brew, I can feel heavy rocking riffs of hoppiness.
Pours an opaque orange amber color with almost no head. Smells overwhelmingly piney. The flavor is all piney hops up front. Not too aggressive as far as IPAs go but aboust as aggressive as id like. Theres a little toasted malt taste on the back end but its pretty muted. I will say for the lvl of hops its pretty clean and smooth. It almost has a session IPA quality which you don’t often get out of a 9%. If you like a beer that is a big slap of pine and orange peel to your mouth then youll enjoy this
Bottle. Etched glass. Pours orange gold white head. Nose/taste of flaked oats, dry bread, dried grapefruit pith, dirty earthy caramel. Medium body.
Bottle thanks to old mate. Pours vibrant orange with a small, firm white cap on top. Nose is very much toffee biscuit, red berry tang and damp wood. It’s definitely old but smells solid. Taste is very much caramel, bright berries, mild pine, earthiness and a touch of zest and spice to finish. For how old it is, it’s solid
20 June 2014, bottle. Yellow, clear, no bubbles. nose is grassy and light granola malt. Thin body and mildly fizzy. pine hop bitterness. decent.
Bottle at home. Pours amber orange with a huge off white head. Aroma is mainly pine with some fruitiness - juicy fruit gum. Also slight spiciness and some malt in the aroma. Flavor has some, but not much bitterness, lots of pine resin. Some floral flavors. Some maltiness. Very clean and smooth. Not a ginormous beer, but a nice, drinkable DIPA. Very nice.
New Beer Distributors, NYC 650ml ($9.50): Pours amber with an off-white head. Aroma is full of citrus, berries, spice, and a heavy malt backbone. Taste is bitter, plenty of fruitiness. It was also somewhat sweet. Body was thicker than I would have liked. Aftertaste was long and sustained. I didn’t really love this beer. I don’t know if the bottle was old or if this beer is just not for me, but I did not have a great time drinking this.
Type: 22-oz. bottle
Glass: Stone Ruination IPA pint glass
From: Costco in Mission Valley (San Diego), Calif.
Price: $5.79
Purchased: Aug. 26, 2014
Consumed: Aug. 31, 2014
Misc.: Bottled on May 19, 2014
Poured a caramel, orange, hazy color with two fingers of khaki-white head. Above average-to-good semi-layered, foamy lacing on the sides of the glass. Good retention on the top all the way down. (Sight - 3.92)
Smelled a whole mix of different flavors. First got a dose of earthy, rye hops. Then caramel, wet Cascade hops, citrus hops, coriander, floral hops, orange zest, tropical spices, mango, buttery malts and touch of soured fruit.
(Smell - 3.66)
Tasted pretty much like I thought it was going to, a lot like the nose. Earthy, grainy, rye hops, citrus hops, bitter orange rind, coriander, caramel, wet Cascade hops, floral hops, boozy, mango, tropical hops, tangerine rind, honey wheat, grassy notes and light buttery malts. (Taste - 3.77)
Medium body. Oily-to-creamy texture. Average carbonation. Long, boozy, bitter finish. (Feel - 3.62)
A decent IPA and a great beer for the value ($5.99). I’d have this again, but I do prefer their pale ale. (Overall - 3.71)
3.73 84 B
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cloudy amber color; citrusy hop aroma with corriander notes; a smooth, bitter, hoppy beer; lots of citrusy hop flavor with spice and alcohol notes on a medium bodied malt base