Session # 166
Stone | Ruination IPA
Imperial IPA | Escondido, California | 7.7% ABV
One year ago: Ballast Point Sculpin
I’ve been asked numerous times to review a Stone beer. It’s not that I’ve had anything against the brewery, but I just somehow never had them on the show. Well through good luck of living in KC, we now get Stone beers on the reg. Just a couple weeks ago Tim and I attended a private session with some other KC bloggers and got to taste a plethora of Stones’ offerings. We’ll bring you some more of those later. But today I’m looking at one of their most notorious beers called the Ruination IPA. This is a beer that’s been brewed since the mid-90s and has clearly had great success. Pouring it out of the glass you immediately recognize its west coast style. It was clear, orange, and had a nice little off-white head. The smell was of pine and citrus with a good amount of that being grapefruit rind. It was bitter first and is followed by the pine and citrus characters. You can definitely see why this would have been an extreme beer by the ‘90s standards. It’s still pretty brutal today but most people will easily be able to handle it. Rating: 90/100
Check out all sessions of The Hopry here.
This beer can be found in these states.
Listening To: Beastie Boys “Make Some Noise”
Let us know your thoughts by rating and commenting on this video.
Posted by Jamison Moeckel on April 27, 2011 at 8:33 AM
Wow really nice to see a stone beer on your show, this is a great beer.
Posted by thehopry on April 27, 2011 at 8:37 AM
Yeah it’s been a long time coming. More to come for sure…
Posted by Brent on April 27, 2011 at 8:59 AM
I’ve been lurking your blog for a while now, and just noticed the music you’ve been posting …. Awesome! great idea.
Posted by thehopry on April 27, 2011 at 9:08 AM
Thanks man…glad you enjoy it. I think the two go hand-in-hand…
Posted by Jon on April 27, 2011 at 11:26 AM
Absolutely true that this may not be extreme today, but I still remember my first Arrogant Bastard on tap at some dive bar in Kerney Mesa somewhere around 2000. (I had seen it around earlier, but the marketing turned me off.) Two pints later and I was searching out other super hopped beers.
Ruination is not one of the Stone beers I usually drink, but the hop profile across all their IPAs is pretty delicious. I’m not sure what the distribution looks like for MO, but Levitation (Stone’s low ABV/”low cal” beer) and the Cali-Belgique are what I usually go to from Stone’s offerings.
Posted by thehopry on April 27, 2011 at 12:39 PM
I’m pretty sure we get both of those along with many others. I’m surprised at the variety we get right out of the gate. I’ll share my personal favorite in a future session…
Posted by Rob on April 27, 2011 at 12:27 PM
How many beers did you have throughout the day beforehand leading up to this Ruination review?
Posted by thehopry on April 27, 2011 at 12:48 PM
Hahaha…one big one? Do I seem loopy? It was late, too, and the old man was wearing out…
Posted by Rob on April 27, 2011 at 10:48 PM
There was a nice buzz about your review in comparison to others. Can’t explain it. Regardless, I very much so enjoy the 8 minutes or so your reviews take from the majority of my work days. Cheers!
Posted by thehopry on April 28, 2011 at 3:10 AM
Ah cool thanks. Maybe I should drink before my reviews more often.
Posted by Travis on April 27, 2011 at 2:56 PM
I lived in California for several years and fell in love with Stone while I was out there only to come back to MO in 04 and find out they didn’t distribute here. I’ve emailed them before about distribution and still didn’t even know they were here until I saw this post! So awesome! Love your blog btw!
Posted by thehopry on April 27, 2011 at 3:23 PM
Awesome. Glad you enjoy it. Yep, they’ve only been here about a week now. Any good store on the Missouri side should hook you up with a good selection…
Posted by Brian on April 27, 2011 at 5:27 PM
Hi Mark,
Another great review. We got Stone in Minnesota almost a month ago, and several of their beers have been regulars in my refrigerator ever since, including Ruination and Arrogant Bastard.
I look forward to the special session on Stone that you and Tim are putting together, it sounds like it should be fun.
Posted by thehopry on April 28, 2011 at 3:14 AM
Interesting. I’d be curious to know what it’s done to Surly’s business. Knowing that both are hop-forward breweries…
Posted by Bob From Indy on April 27, 2011 at 7:19 PM
Scratch that one off the list to bring from Indy on my Warrensburg trips! You guys are about to take us over since the Firestone and soon to be Green Flash and Deschutes
Posted by thehopry on April 28, 2011 at 3:13 AM
Yeah it’s getting crazy nice here. Founders, Stone, Bells, Lagunitas, Firestone Walker, Green Flash (soon), Deschutes (soon), and several others make this a pretty damn good place to live for beer. Hope other breweries (like FFF) catch on soon…
Posted by Big Mike on April 27, 2011 at 7:59 PM
Not the biggest Stone fan. But my favorite is the Oaked Arrogant Bastard.
Cheers!
Big Mike
Posted by thehopry on April 28, 2011 at 3:14 AM
Thanks Mike. Try the Sublimely Self-Righteous again. I enjoyed that one a lot…
Posted by KevSal on April 28, 2011 at 4:01 AM
sublimely self rightous blew me away! i heard good things about it and comon that label is just kick ass right? didnt expect it to be so delicious.
you should get one of their odd beers for odd years on the show. every other year (starting 2011) they are adding belguim yeast to their old gaurdian and ris (i think they are doing something else to the RIS too) and the new ris should hit stores soon, cant wait to try it. it would be really cool if you did a side by side if the rugular release and belqo on, however be sure to bring tim along if you do that one, these guys can lay you out lol.
Posted by thehopry on April 28, 2011 at 9:29 AM
I’ll see what I can do…thank you for the input.