Stone 10th Anniversary Ruination: Yuck

This beer was bitter, and the high alcohol content was very much harsh. This kind of beer is nothing more than hop tea. It's not artfully crafted in any way shape or form.

The bitterness of the beer is so sharp and biting that there is little malt to taste. The alcohol content is not cloying but flamboyant. One can simply taste ethanol and hops.

This is the kind of beer I'd like to put on a fence and shoot with a Colt 1911.

I could easily have gotten the same harsh alcohol profile from a can of Camo malt liquor. I don't think this beer is worthy.

WOW first negative I've read about Stone.

I thought it was great. Bitter for sure, but i kinda planned on that.

It's one of my favorites! I'm pretty sure you have to be a hop head to really enjoy this brew.

I LOVE hops. But I must admit, this one pushed the limits, which I didn't think was possible......

i enjoy the stone beers. What were you expecting?

I'd have to say I would not expect balance or subtlety out of a beer called 'ruination'. It's good beer if you really like hops. Just like I wouldn't order the nuclear fire chicken wings if I didn't like burning my face off (which I do).

First negative thing I've heard of this beer, and I loved it, but I had one last night, and I think its past its freshness point. Not so much the liquid hop it was before, and the alcohol and bitterness shine through moreso now, than before. And I had eight of them previously, and this last one wasn't the shining goodness it was before. I had two saved to trade, and I wouldn't feel as good giving the other two to someone now, after how good it was, and the hype I built up about it.

First of all, its an IPA, they're supposed to be bitter. Second, its called Ruination. Third, Stone makes big beers a lot of the time. So yeah, high alcohol. Fourth, West Coast IPAs are typically hop bombs. There's not intended to be much, if any, malt balance.

Honestly, what exactly were you expecting???

Side note, I really dont like the term 'balance' to be used when describing an IPA, and especially IIPAs. They're supposed to be hoppy, not balanced (my opinion of course - some people like a lot of malt character in IPAs, but not this guy!).

And my thoughts on the beer: Not as hoppy as I was hoping for. Thought the aroma was good, but it could have had more hop flavor. Solid brew though, and luckily not overpriced.

they're trendy and popular with the hop heads.
If you don't like bitter unbalanced jet fuel, you won't like Stone.

I'm just going to throw this out there and say this is the same person who posted the "Russian River Sucks" thread and kept going on and on about unfounded genetically modified grain rumors a couple months ago. Just for perspective.

My claims are not unfounded. Russian River uses GMO grain...Unless labeled USDA Organic there is no guarantee that genetic modification of a product has not happened. Corn sugar adjunct is most likely derived from GMO corn products.

Now on to the topic of Stone...Did anybody else find this beer to be a dud? Hot alcohol...super bitter. I can handle bitter just fine but the alcohol content did not help lend complexity to the beer.

OldWorld said:

My claims are not unfounded. Russian River uses GMO grain...Unless labeled USDA Organic there is no guarantee that genetic modification of a product has not happened. Corn sugar adjunct is most likely derived from GMO corn products.

Click to expand...

Actually, your claims are unfounded as we had both an employee of the maltster and Vinny post on here refuting everything you said. It was trolling then and it's trolling now.

OldWorld said:

Now on to the topic of Stone...Did anybody else find this beer to be a dud? Hot alcohol...super bitter. I can handle bitter just fine but the alcohol content did not help lend complexity to the beer.

Click to expand...

I didn't find Ruination 10th to be hot at all. In fact, I didn't think it tasted anything like the 10% it was. Likewise, I didn't find it to be overly bitter in any way. It should be mentioned that if you don't like Ruination you won't like the 10th.

Craft brew rookies shouldn't be drinking the big kid beers.

You can't drink this beer as a hop newb and appreciate it. Which is why it says "you're not worthy" on the label.

I liked it... it's much better than the original Ruination. It has the amount of hops I typically use in my homebrewed IIPAs. The alcohol was hot at 10.8%, but no other brewery could've made that "taste" smoother. Stone did a good job with what they set out to do. I would have liked less alcohol here, but it's not my decision.

If I had any gripe, it would be that the malt bill was a little too roasty and toasty for me. It's by no means heavy with those traits, but just a tad too much crystal malts for what I typically prefer in an IIPA.

What bugs me is that so many people confuse "I didn't happen to like this beer" with "man this beer sucks!" If you find ruination or other super hopped beers to be an unpleasant assault on your taste buds that's completely understandable. I didn't like hop heavy beers at first either. But that in no way makes it a bad beer. I don't care what beer you choose, how well it's rated or how many people bow to its alter, you will find someone who absolutely loathes it. Just because one dislikes a particular beer does not mean that one should not appreciate its relevance to the craft of beer making.

bobbrews said:

you can't drink this beer as a hop newb and appreciate it. Which is why it says "you're not worthy" on the label.

Click to expand...

qft!

Read the labels before you buy beer next time, they put descriptions on the bottle for a reason. Im pretty mad that you found a bottle, and didn't even like it.

odinsgift said:

I loved it, but I had one last night, and I think its past its freshness point.

Click to expand...

Are you talking about the Ruination or the Ruination 10th Anniversary? I thought the 10th Anniversary was just released within a month or so.

The 10th, it was released mid june, I think. I found one on friday at our bevmo that never got any earlier, and I'm sure it wasn't stored well, but the aroma was definitely not there like it was. The freshness date says to enjoy by august.

Your description of this beer echoes my experience with Port Brewing Anniversary Ale. To me it tasted like pure hop oil dissolved in Everclear.

OldWorld said:

GMO grain...

Click to expand...

As usual, you're trolling. I'm not sure if HBT has an ignore button, but I'm going to look for one.

EDIT: Found it. I'm much happier now.

Port Brewing has given me nothing but lackluster brews. This Stone 10th Ruination was pretty darn lackluster. I think there are many people who like "hop tea" and booze.

It's quite possible that the freshest bottles of the beer were better tasting.

Maybe this beer would be better with some short term aging.

OldWorld said:

Port Brewing has given me nothing but lackluster brews. This Stone 10th Ruination was pretty darn lackluster. I think there are many people who like "hop tea" and booze.

Click to expand...

Why don't you switch back to BMC? Problem solved!

OldWorld said:

I think there are many people who like "hop tea" and booze.

Click to expand...

Yes, clearly everyone else who has tried Ruination 10th and posted about it on this forum has a bad palate and yours is superior. That's definitely got to be it.

i want to know what the OPs idea of a good beer is.

i lvoed the ruination 10, i thought it had wayyy more hop flavore than the regular and possibly even a bit more malt backbone. the hops ranged all the way from bright citrus to fruit and a dash of pine resin. excellent beer for the hop enthusiast. i also thought in no way did the alcohol prevail over the other flavors, did you store your bottle in the freezer or something? what did you expect from a beer called ruination? anything less than a ruinous assault of bitterness and alcohol would have been false advertising.

i hear czhech pilsners are some nice beers if you want something to sip on.

This thread made me finally pick up a bottle of this for tonight. I'll let you know how I liked it after this glass of raspberry mead... which is delicious by the way.

loving mine right now.

Not as hoppy as I was expecting from this thread... It is actually a little more balanced than I expect an IPA to be. Incredibly delicious and actually a new "go to".

Unless the "10th" is labeled differently, then I am in the wrong thread.

I have to admit, I rarely like the beers from Stone. And I have tried most, several times. On the other hand, I like almost everything that Lagunitas makes, even in styles I typically don't much care for. Sometimes a place just has a house style that works for you (and sometimes not so much).

And then sometimes a dude with a tinfoil hat offers up an opinion about grains...

I simply wonder...if many folks like these big hop bombs...why not push it to the limit and try 100LBS of hops per barrel...sure it might cost 20$ a pint but what the heck..

OldWorld said:

My claims are not unfounded. Russian River uses GMO grain...Unless labeled USDA Organic there is no guarantee that genetic modification of a product has not happened. Corn sugar adjunct is most likely derived from GMO corn products.

Now on to the topic of Stone...Did anybody else find this beer to be a dud? Hot alcohol...super bitter. I can handle bitter just fine but the alcohol content did not help lend complexity to the beer.

Click to expand...

I think barley is in the safe zone generally for gmo.There are ways of finding this out but its BS that it isnt labeled without personal reasearch, kinda like how msg can be labeled as spice and like 10 other things in food like "natural flavors". Its pure bs lobbyism,not to metion fraud and mass Franken-food terrorism. And how dare we put the high fructose corn syrup out of buisness -how are they lableing now for deceit.Natural sugar? Initally yeah-its natural corn sugar,but industrily manipulated by man and trashed to save a buck-yes.
Apples are #1 on the dirty dozen list of produce.An apple a day?not any more-unless organic. To think people trying to be healthy only to be injesting over 55 or it could be 100 different detected pesticides.Cancer is real-thats where it is,and its everywhere.Intentionally.Just for profit. They need to list everything that is in that damn apple all 100 pesticides and the effects of injesting them.And warnings,just like cigarettes and alcohol warnings. "They" know what they are doing though determined to keep even healty minded people sick/dead or sterile like the rest.

Just had a Ruination 10th Anniversary tonight.

It was delicious. The hops were insane. The malt was present and rich. The alcohol was all but undetectable. Balance.

The various comments about how IPAs and IIPAs aren't supposed to be balanced are BS. Yes, they are supposed to be 'hop bombs', but the bomb can be balanced with a blast proof room. The best beers in any style are balanced. One ingredient or aspect of the brew might be most noticeable, but held in check by a complimentary ingredient.

It's not like people go around gnawing on hop cones instead of drinking beer. Even the biggest hophead wants a bit of grain and alcohol (and maybe even yeast character) to balance out that hop bitterness/flavor/aroma.

Okie dokie, I was enjoying this thread, until it got weird. Here's a thought, if we ignore the troll, maybe he (or she) will either get bored and find something else to do, or post something besides unfounded, and annoying blabber. Just a thought. Now it's time to drink my GM'ed, pesticide ladened, triple hopped, quadruple IPA with a lemon wedge.....

Crap, I haven't sprayed my hops yet.

Im going try and find this beer, i love ruination probably my favorite ipa i can get. The only beer ive had of Stones and didnt like and poured out was a more brown then blank IPA they did with Alchemy and Ninkasi just wasnt a blend of hops i cared for at all.

I have an extra, do you have something to trade?

How is the 10th different from the normal? Btw love the super hopped beers.