Review – Collective Distortion IPA from Stone

In recent years, I have become more fond of the Stone Collaborations then there core line-up.  They can get a little too zany and pump up ingredients that should be bit players when simplicity might work better.  But their experimentation is a welcome switch from their usual flavor profile.  And though I was not a fan of WootStout or the R&R Coconut IPA, I liked that they were enlisting home brewers of both the non-celebrity and celebrity types in their creations.

And the latter continues with a musical (String Cheese Incidient / Alice Cooper) themed collaboration that adds a reliable hop like Nugget with somewhat newer varietal Comet and Calypso with dry-hopping of Vic’s Secret, a new Australian hop.  Then they added in coriander and elderberries.

That is the backstory, now here is the review…

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The “CD” pours a bright and clear orange.  Not much of a head to it.  Nice and bubbly looking though.  The smell is a bit non-descript with a hint of soapiness to it.  The first flavor that I get is grape.  Concord grape.  Grape jelly grape.  Then there is a really harsh bitterness that fades into a currant note. To the point where I Googled elderberry to see if that was what I was tasting. After a few sips this bitterness coats the tongue and the mouth and the grape notes fade to the back and one is left with the harshness only.  There is also an astringent and wood pairing of notes as well.  The former adds to the debilitating bitterness and the former tries to perk things up without much success.

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I don’t know if it was the mix of hops or the elderberry and coriander or the combination of all three but this is just too much and it becomes oppressive tasting.