Re-Review – Japanese Green Tea IPA from Stone Brewing

Heading back to the BSP blog vault to see what I thought of the Stone Japanese Green Tea IPA collaboration back in 2011.

Stone has gone into their vaults to un-retire beers and this was the one that I wanted to try again the most, so let’s see what I think of this re-release ten years later.

Getting a matcha type nose to this initially, then that first sip is a punch of it and a punch of alcohol. I can sense that their are hops underneath but the ABV is covering it well. The tea is solidly second place throughout. I get a tiny squeeze of lemon as well to add another dimension. Glad this is in a 12oz can for sure.

(2) Stone Collaborations

I had the great fortune to sample both the current and future Stone Collaborative brews recently. I had the Green Tea IPA while watching the Women’s World Cup Final on Sunday and thought it was a little too tannic and a little too alcohol forward. The hops and the tea just fought each other in my opinion. The appearance and aroma are the strengths of this beer.

The Cherry Chocolate Stout was shared a day later with my beer buddy Richard and it was less alcoholic by 2%! There was an interesting sour, tart cherry taste of this dark brown brew. But the chocolate was non-existent. I would take this over this Green Tea. But I would have liked to get at least a touch of chocolate to bridge the gap of cherry to stout.

Both were interesting experiments that were just a touch off to my palate though I am sure there are people who are going to love these offerings.