Stone 14th Anniversary Emperial IPA Review

Name: Stone 14th Anniversary Emperial IPA
Style: Imperial IPA
ABV: 8.9%
IBUs: 100

Every year I review Stone's Anniversary IPAs during the fall season and I have often times asked myself what the previous entries would've tasted like had I the chance to try them out. Well Stone has done me a favor and re-released some of their older Anniversary IPAs as part of their Encore Series, which brings us to Stone's 14th Anniversary Emperial IPA.

Why the misspelling of "Imperial", you ask? Well, when Stone first made this beer, they used all British hops and malts in the brewing process, and since IPAs were first conceived during the British Empire ruling 25% of the known world, it starts to make sense.

Appearance - Hazy dark orange color with a mild amount of visible carbonation. The head is very thin for the most part but the lacing is moderate.

Aroma - Strong bitter hops and caramel malts with some faint citrus notes. I'm also getting a faint boozy scent from this as well.

Taste - Strong caramel & toffee malts upfront with some equally strong bitter and light citrus hops in the middle and back along with some woodsy characteristics that show up on the end of the palate and there's even some light pilsner grassy flavors. The aftertaste is a mix of that woodsy flavor mixed in with the bitter hops and light toffee maltiness. Thankfully there's no booziness in the flavor.

While I can't say this was absolute favorite Anniversary IPA from Stone, it does strike a good balance between being bitter & malty and the end result is a nice & strong, yet balanced, Imperial English-style IPA. As such, I'm glad that I at least got to try this out and anyone whose curious should check this out as well,

Stone 14th Anniversay Emperial IPA - 8.5/10