Stone immaculate

A couple of new Californian IPAs  to begin today, both part of Stone Brewing's "Hop Worship" series, developed, I guess, in case people thought Stone is a brewery that doesn't really care for hops.

Idolatrous is first up, brewed with El Dorado and Mosaic, two of my personal favourites. It's 7% ABV and there's just a slight haze to the pale amber beer. It's perfumed with a sweet spice, a touch of aftershave and incense. On tasting it's thick, first and foremost: bags of sugary resins. There's a strong green-bean bitterness, and where I was expecting the lighter tropical hop notes to rise to the surface, the sweet malt just steamrolls back in. I enjoy Mosaic and El Dorado for their brightness and fun but the base beer here, while not in any way bad, just drags them down into a hot malty soup. I wasn't relishing the prospect of starting into the same thing except without hops I like.

OK, Citra is fine, but I'm not convinced about Loral. They're both in Exalted, the other one of this pair. It looks largely similar, and from the aroma the big toffee malt base is immediately apparent. It's a big part of the flavour too, but I think the hops get more of a say in this one: they may just be louder hops. There's a fresh juiciness offering real jaffa flesh as opposed to Idolatrous's thick-shred marmalade. Alongside some very American lime, there's a slightly Germanic noble side too, bringing fresh spinach, celery and white pepper. While the thick malt is inescapable, the hops here do a much better job of counteracting, if not actually balancing, it.

Neither of this pair paid proper tribute to the hops, I felt, getting bogged down in too-dark heavy malts that stole the focus completely. The latter is a pretty decent beer, however, in a brash old-school west-coast sort of way. A first gold star for Loral from me as well, I think.

We finish on one from Stone's Berlin satellite brewery, a collaboration with Lervig called Hi, I'm Kveik. How would they handle the temperamental type of oh-so-fashionable nordic farmhouse yeast? Well, they've made it into an IPA for a start, which seems less than entirely traditional. A clear pale yellow, its aroma is an odd mix of lactic sourness and sweet stonefruit, like an apricot yoghurt. The flavour is not as intense as I was expecting with a subtle toasty champagne foretaste, dry and crisp, leading on to peach fuzz and a sharp but quick waxed-lemon sour bitterness. I took a good third of the pint to get used to all the twists it pulls. The crispness I approve of but I don't think it needs the busy hopping. It also seems thoroughly overclocked at 6.2% ABV, tasting like something a good couple of points lower. Sour and hoppy is one of my favourite things, and there should be more of it, but I prefer it more easy going than this.