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Japanese Green Tea IPA
If you follow my blog you know that I live in Japan and love I IPAs. So when one of my favorite IPA breweries crafted the Japanese Green Tea Collaboration IPA, I was stoked. At first I assumed that the brew was only going to be available in the US, but on my last trip to Tanakaya, I was delighted to find the green tea IPA amongst the gaggle of other beers.
I first heard about the green tea IPA on Facebook and immediately wanted to try it. This is a collaboration beer with Stone Brewery in California, Ishii Brewing in Guam and Baird Brewery in Japan. The ingredients alone were enough to entice me, but the whole reason behind brewing this beer sealed the deal for me. All of the profits from the beer will go to a relief fund to help rebuild the earthquake and tsunami stricken areas of Japan. How great is that. Should I buy $100 worth? It mean it is for a good cause, right? Here is a short video shot to explain the beer and the reason it was brewed, VIDEO LINK.
As it turned out the beer is quite tasty. Not that I was expecting anything but good things from Stone Brewery. The Green Tea IPA is 9.2 ABV and 70 IBUs which adds to this double IPA.
As I poured the beer the light golden hue of the beer and the white sediment of the remaining yeast caught my eye right away. When I smelled the beer I was pleasantly surprised at the hoppiness of this beer’s aroma. I giddily continued to pour the brew into my pint glass and watched it glide into the glass. At this point I started to smell a piney bitterness present in the pour.
Once I could not analyze this beer visually anymore I took my first taste. Wow, what an interesting taste. Stone used Warrior, Crystal, New Zealand Pacifica hops. Sorachi, a Japanese hops was used in the second dry-hopping process, along with the Sencha Tea. A new hop variety was used as well called Arimis which is a French hops. That makes six different hops used to craft this beers nice flavor. The first sip gives a bitter, spicy, and fruity bit. There is a very nice smooth transition from that to a lighter bitterness. At this point the tea kicks in. Living in Japan I drink copious amounts of tea. The tea flavor in this beer is not extravagant but quite noticeable in my opinion. I could not really identify the hops individually. The feel of the beer in my mouth was not very oily but nowhere near dry, I would characterize the mouth feel as medium-bodied. Which surprised me because of the Belgian Candi Sugar used. The beer does have a nice sweetness that paired with the green tea, makes for a very unique and delicious IPA.
Overall, I loved this beer. I think that this brew is a fresh new taste to American IPAs and I want more of it. I would like to taste more of this style of craft beer in the future(hint, hint, nudge, nudge). I give this beer a 1 on the EGS. I can say that the only problem that I have with this beer is that it is a one time brew. Come one Stone, brew it again. Just one more time!!!
Go Drink an IPA!!!!