Beer Review – Stone Ripper Pale Ale

• Name: Ripper
• Brewery: Stone Brewing
• Style: Pale Ale
• Origin: Pilsen, Czech Republic
• ABV: 5.7%

If you’ve ever checked out the craft beer communities of prevalent social networks, odds are you have come across Stone Brewing before. Creating popular brews such as Ruination and Tangerine Express, Stone Brewing’s reputation for quality craft beer lays on a solid foundation. The only Stone beer I had tried in the past was Arrogant Bastard, which is in a grey area as it was originally a Stone brand but went solo in 2015. As far as I can tell, it is still owned by the same people.

Check out my video review above

Anyway, one of the thing’s I really enjoyed about Arrogant Bastard is that its vicious hit of hops had a short lifespan. It assaults your taste buds and then it backs down. As one of my Instagram connections so eloquently put it, it kicks you in the balls then kisses you on the cheek.

Well, it’s no secret that bitter beers and I have a mostly hate-hate relationship. While a few have passed my palate unscathed, very few high IBU beers are pleasant for me. I find that after a few mouthfuls, all I can taste is bitterness. So with Arrogant Bastard’s previous performance setting the bar high for its cousin, I was cautiously optimistic about the experience I would have.

Brew News: State of the Beer Business

Stone’s Ripper Pale Ale pours a mid-brown color, quite typical of the pale ale genre. It built a reasonable head and laced well. Aroma wise, it was quite fruity, piney and hoppy. It definitely smelled like it was going to be a bitter hit. Its mouthfeel was somewhere in the middle, it had enough presence but wasn’t overly thick.

Taste wise it did exactly what I expected. It was a rush of bitterness, but it never became overwhelming. The hops didn’t linger too long in the aftertaste which I was happy to discover. While some bitterness did hang around, it didn’t really build from mouthful to mouthful. This allowed me to enjoy the deep and impressive flavor each and every mouthful.

Recent Review: Pilsner Urquell

When I first set out to build this website, I really had to push myself to try beers with higher IBUs. For a long time, I saw IPAs and their related, hoppy, brews as an enemy of sorts. In having tried a number of them recently, I am finding that many aren’t as bad as I have thought. In saying that, some have been way too much for me. Although this is not and IPA, it still did a great job of exposing the hoppiness without absolutely clobbering me. I would gladly drink this again and highly recommend it to others.

TL;DR

Ripper Pale Ale is a well balanced, bitter beer. It has a complex flavor profile that leads with a surge of hoppy bitterness, but relents enough between mouthfuls to keep the experience positive. I highly recommend this brew to any beer enthusiast. You will not be disappointed.

Rating: 8/10

Question of the Day

What is your favorite beer brewed by Stone Brewing? Comment below and let me know.

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Learn more about Ripper Pale Ale on Stone’s website, Beer Advocate and Untappd.