ESCONDIDO, California— For 27 years Stone Brewing has been trailblazing the craft beer industry and astounding fans with its big, bold anniversary ales. This year the nation’s 7th largest craft brewery announces the release of Stone 27th Anniversary Lemon Shark Double IPA featuring a unique blend of New Zealand ingredients.
Stone’s brewers travel across the globe seeking new hop varieties and ingredients in their ongoing beer exploration. A series of innovative beers combining Southern Hemisphere and US hops led to this year’s anniversary beer, which combines Riwaka, Magnum, Mosaic and the newly available Peacharine hops. It is also brewed with Phantasm, a dried grape skin extract from New Zealand that transforms over the course of fermentation to add intense tropical and white grape flavors to the beer. The resulting beer has sweet aromas of peach pulp, Bartlett pear, lemon peel, white wine and herbs. The hops mingle beautifully for flavors of ripe peach and pineapple, mango, orange, lemon and passion fruit. Herbal and sweet orange flavors linger alongside a pleasant bitterness.
“New Zealand hops are incredible for citrusy and topical beers. Many of these hop varieties are less commonly used, so we get some really unique flavor combinations that we love playing around with,” explained Steve Gonzalez, Stone Brewing Small Batch Sr. Manager of Brewing & Innovation. “I made a whole series of beers using different combinations of Southern Hemisphere hops and just knew that this one had what it takes to stand out as our coveted anniversary beer.”
The Lemon Shark is an apex predator that is uniquely social. It works well with the rest of the Lemon Shark school. A scuba diver himself, Gonzalez was inspired by his diving hobby to name a series of exploratory beers after sharks. This one earned its name for the way in which the flavors work especially well together, just like a hungry school of Lemon Sharks.
Stone Brewing welcomes fans to celebrate at the Stone 27th Anniversary Celebration on September 23, 2023. The invitational beer festival features tasters from more than 40 breweries at Stone’s flagship brewery in Escondido, CA. Tickets for the main festival and coveted Rare Beer access tickets are on sale now and expected to sell out.
QUICK FACTS
Name: Stone 27th Anniversary Lemon Shark Double IPA
ABV: 9.6% – in a nod to Stone’s founding year, 1996!
IBUs: 43
Hops: Riwaka, Magnum, Mosaic, Peacharine
Availability: Nationwide beginning the week of August 21, 2023
Packaging: 12oz six-pack cans, 22oz bottles (SoCal only) & draft
Find the Beer: Find.StoneBrewing.com
TASTING NOTES
Appearance: Deep gold with hazy white hue and tight white foam.
Aroma: Peach pulp, white wine, Bartlett pear, lemon peel, and herbs.
Taste: Ripe peach, mango, ripe pineapple, orange, lemon & passion fruit. Herbal & sweet orange components on the aftertaste. A mild dankness throughout.
Palate: Dry finish with lingering pleasant bitterness.
About Stone Brewing
Founded in 1996, Stone pioneered the West Coast Style IPA, helping to fuel the modern craft beer revolution and inspire generations of hop fanatics. Today Stone operates breweries in Escondido, CA and Richmond, VA plus seven tap room and bistro locations. Stone offers a wide range of craft beers including its most popular Stone IPA, Stone Delicious IPA and Stone Buenaveza Salt & Lime Lager. The company’s long list of environmental efforts includes a LEED Silver Certification, world-class water reclamation and creative uses of spent grain. Stone has been called the “All-time Top Brewery on Planet Earth” by BeerAdvocate magazine twice.
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