ESCONDIDO, CA (August 15, 2017) –Stone 21st Anniversary Hail to the Hop Thief Double IPA will hit stores this week, bringing with it a bold, hoppy profile, customary of the brewery’s anniversary beers. The beer’s distinctive combination of hops used alongside wheat malt are brand new territory for the Stone Brewing team, making it a beer to mark history, as it goes down in history.
Pekko is an under-utilized hop, which plays nicely with Mosaic to create a juicy flavor profile of orange and peach alongside just the right dankness. Grapefruit, pineapple, orange and even cherry candy come through on the fruity and floral aroma. Some wheat malt is included, adding to the nice malt backbone of the beer. Its unfiltered finish enhances the grainy characteristics of the wheat while bringing out the fresh fruit flavors and aromas of the hops.
“Our anniversary is a special time of year for us to celebrate where we have been, but especially where we are going,” professed Stone Senior Innovation Brewing Manager Jeremy Moynier. “This beer can stand proudly with the others as it showcases our love for brewing and beer. Sharing this love with our brothers and sisters at Stone Brewing as well as our fans, who continue on this amazing journey with us, is what this beer is all about.”
Stone 21st Anniversary Hail to the Hop Thief Double IPA rings in at 9.8 percent ABV and will be available nationwide in 22-ounce bottles and draft.
“It’s been said that ‘nothing is original,’ which infers that we’ve pilfered freely, stolen, thieved and otherwise taken inspiration from others in every step of our journey,” said Greg Koch, Stone Brewing executive chairman & co-founder. “No problem owning that. We haven’t invented beer, just given it our take. And with this beer, we took all there is to love about the IPA, got creative, dry hopped it a lot and share it openly in the hopes that in some ways it may in turn inspire others.”
So the beer’s name is a celebration of thieving all things that inspire. The beer itself is a celebration of a brewer, which has devoured the inspiring for a prolific 21 years.
QUICK FACTS
Name: Stone 21st Anniversary Hail to the Hop Thief Double IPA
Stats: 9.8% ABV, 80 IBUs
Availability: 22-ounce bottles and draft
Featured Hops: Magnum, Pekko and Mosaic
Distribution: Nationwide 
TASTING NOTES
Appearance: Deep gold with some haze from being unfiltered.
Aroma: An amazing array of aromas: Grapefruit, pineapple, flowers, orange, fresh peaches and cherry candy.
Taste: Layers of different fruit unfold from a pleasant wheat back-bone. A lot of peach, orange, and candy flavors pop up front with some hop resin and solid bitterness and notes of alcohol.
Palate: An intense beer all around! Big fruit in a big beer but balanced throughout with a good amount of bitterness anchoring this Double IPA.
Overall: We were looking for a different hop to blend with Mosaic in a beer and decided upon Pekko—a hop that we featured in Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine in 2015 that contributes bright fruit and candy aroma and flavors. The combination of these two hops worked really well and we took it one step further, combining those in the dry-hop with "06300," an as of yet unnamed experimental hop we really enjoy. Finally, with wheat as a component in this unfiltered IPA, the addition here makes for a nice soft malt backbone for the hops to launch off into the foreground.
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