What’s up guys?  For today’s craft beer review I’m going to be trying one of the most talked about beers of the last few months.  It’s the RuinTen IPA produced by the Stone Brewing Company located in Escondido, California.

From the website, stonebrew.com, I copied this bit of info about the brew.

We first released this decidedly indelicate beer in 2012, as Stone Ruination Tenth Anniversary IPA, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of our belovedly bitter Stone Ruination IPA. Stone RuinTen IPA uses the same recklessly hoppy recipe as the 2012 release; only the name has changed, as we plan to unleash this belligerently delicious hop monster upon the public annually from now on. We packed a whopping five pounds of hops into each barrel, and cranked up the ABV to stand up to the hop onslaught. The results are glorious, and we know you’ll rejoice in tasting this audacious gem of hoppy splendor once again. You’re welcome.

Alright.  Let’s crack this thing open and see how it is.

This brew came in a 22 oz. bottle with an ABV of 10.8%.

It poured a stunning orange color with an off white head that was smooth and mostly creamy with some tightly compacted bubbles.  The size was good and the retention time was solid.  The lacing was just “ok”, yet it had some very attractive alcohol legs sticking to sides of the tulip.  Also, once it warmed the chill haze disappeared and it cleared up very nicely.

Hops abound in the nose.  Juicy tones of grapefruit, orange, pineapple and tangerine.  It also presented a very noticeable alcohol tone.  Just a very, very small amount of caramel and bready malts were discovered hidden underneath the hops.  Definitely not enough to overtake the strong, resiny hop profile.

The taste dispersed a tremendous explosion of sticky, resiny hops.  Tropical fruits of pineapple and grapefruit. It seemed to have more of an alcohol presence in the taste than it did in the nose (and it was strong in the nose to begin with).  It was very bitter and one dimensional. Which was to be expected I guess.

The mouthfeel was medium to almost medium/full bodied.  Chewy, sticky, smooth and very dry.  A tremendous of amount of warmth was felt from the alcohol.  Actually, it burned a bit.  The carbonation was medium to low, however a ton of flavor was left behind after each sip.

Well.  No doubt about it.  This beer is good.  I’d never turn it down and I’ll buy it again I’m sure, but it’s a big and powerful beer.  Maybe it’s just me, but I prefer the plain ol’ IPA to this DIPA.  The IPA is just a little easier to drink and it doesn’t seem to fatigue my palate the way this beer did.  This beverage didn’t seem to have the greatest drinkability I didn’t think.  I believe that, for me, it would be best consumed or suited in small samples. I don’t like struggling to drink a beer and I kind of did with this one.  As I got toward the final 1/3 of the bottle I was exhausted and done.  Either way, the Stone RuinTen IPA is still a great beer and one that I would suggest trying if you are a hop head and can obtain a bottle.  Be sure to let me know what you think of it if you’ve already sampled it.  I’d love to hear another opinion.

Thanks for reading everyone.  I really appreciate it.

Until next time.  Cheers.

Score:  4.1 out of 5

Grade:  A-