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Stone’s Cali-Belgie(Belgique) IPA.  Sounds like an interesting yet good brew.  The Stone IPA recipie with a Belgian yeast strain.  Let’s find out if it is a good as it sounds.

Poured from a 22oz bottle into a glass.  Golden yellow hue, with a massive frothy head that starts to fizzle down to nothing in 5-10 minutes.  Man you can really smell that yeast, in the nose you get a nice sweet candied aroma along with faint hops.  Similar to the 07.07.07 and the 08.08.08 Vertical Epics.  Stone seems to be having a fetish lately with mixing West Coast IPAs and Belgian style Tripels.    First sips you don’t get very much hops, a slight dry, bite in the finish along with a slight honey, and apricot flavor that wash over.  So far it is the epitomy of how yeast imparts the final touches on a beer.  This is the same recipie as the Stone IPA but with a different yeast strain makes it a totally different beast.  I am not a big fan of Belgian beers but if they where like this, o’ man.  Medium body, slightly more than their ’standard’ IPA.  About mid-bottle the ‘fruity-ness’ fades into the background a bit and the malt and hops become a little more prevalent.  It does leave a very nice lacing on the glass I must say.  Alot of spice flavors going on in there thanks to the yeast, that stay on the palate for a cool minute.  Once you hit mid-bottle the flavor profile is pretty consistant through and through.  It does not change to much as some brews do.  It just become more balanced and nothing is to much more prominent than the other, as it was towards the start of the brew.  The dryness and bitterness of the hops balance and soon replace the fruity, spiceness of the yeast towards the end.

All in all, very well done.  This brew is flavorful, different, hoppy, fruity, an amazingly good ‘hybrid’ of the “two” worlds.  Very well balanced bitterness, and fruitfulness.  This will please a Cali Craft Brew fan and a Belgian Brew fan easily.  Two thumbs up to the guys at Stone, can’t wait to get my hands on the collaboration ale with Mikkeller and Alesmith either, but that is a whole ‘nother post that will be here soon.