As Stone Brewing expands across the country and the Atlantic, the 20-year-old brewery nods to its San Diego roots with the release of Stone Ripper. The “San Diego Pale Ale” boasts a wave of citrus and passion fruit hoppiness. The beer will be packaged in 12oz can six-packs and available exclusively in California starting this week, with national distribution to begin in January, 2017.
Inspired by the coastal surf cultures of SoCal and Oz, Stone Ripper combines the signature hops of Cascade from the Pacific Northwest and Australian Galaxy hops. The combination of the two creates a balance of citrus and pine flavors mingling with bright fruit and dankness. In true San Diego style, it pushes the hop boundaries of a pale ale, yet is right in line with the current-day interpretation of a West Coast pale.
“A few of us on the brewing team were lucky enough to visit Australia over the last few years and were impressed with the quality of hops coming out of that region, and especially with the signature hop Galaxy,” said Jeremy Moynier, senior innovation program manager. “We started referring to it as ‘Australian Cascade’ in reference to America’s key hop and got the idea of combining the two together, bringing the bright, intense flavors and aromas from two hemispheres into one amazing beer.”
Deep golden in color, Stone Ripper asserts aromas of fresh orange, pineapple, peach and floral notes. Tropical and dank, flavors of orange and bright resiny hops stand out against a complementary malt backbone leading to a crisp, clean finish.
Primed for an endless summer, Stone Ripper is brewed to be enjoyed fresh, no matter on which hemisphere the surf is firing.
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