Top 100 Beers of 2015 (Issue 22)

World Class (100 to 96)

3.
96
by Phil Farrell
Cali-Belgique
Stone Brewing Co.

View Beer
Read Review

Judge's Second Opinion
from Phil Farrell

Every one of my favorite songs also remind me of a place. Stone’s Cali-Belgique is an iPod shuffle of a walk down my personal Beer Memory Lane. By combining so many favorite beer flavors in such a unique progression, I am reminded of all the reasons I liked beer in the first place. If Tropicália is a hit single, Cali-Belgique is an entire Rock Opera. This beer is not someone mixing four random alcohols and having it taste like iced tea. It is more like the wonderful contradiction of smelling the ocean while you are skiing down a glacier. Stone Head Brewer Mitch Steele’s creation initially transports me to the Pacific Northwest and the thick resinous forests where there are no hop farms (or grapefruits for that matter), but work with me here for a moment. I smell the low, rain-heavy clouds engulfing the dormant volcanic mountain peaks, a hop harvest and the rugged Oregon coastline, but then, there is something more. How can my perfect Norman Rockwell hop vision of grapefruit and pine resin be clouded by a Belgian daydream of lemon zest and white pepper?

My Beer GPS is really confused by the straw, biscuit, and pear flavors in the middle of my taste that perfectly complement the spice and citrus. How did I get from Bend to Brussels in half a sip? Okay, just as I am getting comfortable finishing up on the other side of The Pond in my Belgian Cafe I am treated to Act 3, the Big Bitter. Not the palate-crushing grunge rock destruction of bitterness, but rather that perfectly timed bass drum of one that shatters the trance and says, “Hey I’m an IPA over here.” But wait, there’s more! While many IPAs would be satisfied with a bitter ending and quit while they are ahead, there is still one surprise left. Instead of rebooting the palate, the initial bitterness is a grand finale of the Tour de Belgium reprise. Earth, pepper spice, pear, and lemon zest deliciously linger in the finish. This is one beer that managed to make me think of an entire evening of beer enjoyment in one glass. More cowbell not required.  

Brewer's Thoughts
from Mitch Steele

Stone Brewing Co. has never been a business that pays attention to the norm. Much of its branding, specifically the “Bastard” line of beers, focuses on how difficult it is for people to fathom how great their beers are because the palates of the masses aren’t refined enough.

Though this might not necessarily be true, it hasn’t hurt Stone’s sales, as they are the eighth-largest brewery in America according to the BA.

Cali-Belgique IPA, one of Stone’s highly acclaimed year-round beers, tells you exactly what to expect in the title: this is a perfect intermingling of American and Belgian beer flavors.

Despite its status as one of Stone’s beloved year-round brews, it didn’t start out that way. Stone Brewmaster Mitch Steele told me that its creation was a “serendipitous thing."

"We had experimented with fermenting some of our year-round beers with a Belgian yeast, just to see what would happen. This is the beer that worked the best! So much so that it’s now in the lineup of Stone year-round beers,” Mitch said.

The original creation of the beer occurred in 2008 and involved pitching wort from a batch of Stone IPA into Vertical Epic Ale 08.08.08. Mitch takes over the story: “After adding the yeast, the initial yeast propagator had leftover beer. So we tasted it, really liked it and decided to dry-hop it. We called it Stone Cali-Belgique IPA. Since then, we have brewed it using the exact same recipe as Stone IPA, except fermented with Belgian yeast and dry-hopped with Chinook.”

Mitch favors the beer’s overall flavor balance and fruit character, discussing the combination of citrus and banana from the hops and yeast, respectively. He also discussed that the Stone brewers have been “playing around with some unfiltered versions” of Cali-Belgique, furthering the Belgian character that is based on. While that beer would surely be a hit, for now, Mitch can only say, “We’ll see where it goes.”