Stone Brewing Company - R&R Coconut IPA

Happy IPA day!

Honestly though, aren't most days IPA days? Especially in the Summer time? I know for me this time of year is pretty much 100% IPA all the time. Oddly enough, it's been pretty mild here temperature wise so far this summer, so a nice porter or even stout is good... Ok, I'm rambing. Sorry.

Tonight I'm drinking the latest collaboration beer from Stone. This is R&R Coconut IPA which is brewed in partnership with maybe my favorite local brewery, Rip Current Brewing Company, and home brewers and winners of the most recent Stone home brew competition, Ryan and Robert (hence the R&R). This is a 7.7% abv IPA brewed with coconut. So without further stalling, let's get this one opened up and see how it tastes.

R&R pours out a very nice golden color, very much see through with some subtle carbonation streaming up from the bottom of the glass. There was about a finger of a foamy white head that really didn't stick around very long. The lacing isn't anything crazy. It's very soapy and thin. This looks like a pretty standard IPA. Nothing too crazy. Let's get the nose.

First thing I get is some big tropical fruits, pineapple, mango. A lot of melon, cantaloupe, water melon, honeydew. There's some really nice caramel like sweetness behind those initial fruits. There's some floral, earthy bitterness. I'm not picking up a lot of coconut on the nose. Next to none. The melon character is very much dominating everything else on this one. This is a very sweet smelling IPA. Not a lot of crazy bitterness which seems to reign supreme in Stone IPAs. Let's see if we can pick up some of that coconut once we get to drinking.

Right away you get the melon characters. Cantaloupe, water melon, honeydew, etc. It's very strong and really tastes like I just ate a piece of fruit. A little bit of the caramel sweetness we picked up on the nose. Sides of the palate there's a ton of bitterness. This is definitely a Stone IPA! Lingering flavors in the middle of the mouth, more of the melon character. Back end this finishes pretty try, very clean finish. As the beer warms slightly I actually do get a bit of Coconut but it's incredibly subtle. I mean, if this wasn't called Coconut IPA I wouldn't think it's there.

So overall, I'm kind of torn. I had this on draft at the Brewery and I thought it was fantastic. Lots of coconut, not much bitterness. Was definitely a step away from the usual Stone beer. With that being said, from the bottle I think this sort of falls short. There's next to no coconut in this from the bottle. The hop variety is excellent. I definitely enjoy this for that more than anything. I'd suggest getting this on draft if you can and then try the bottle, or try the bottle but if you don't like it, give draft a chance. On draft this was excellent. Bottle, it's just an ok IPA.

Rating: B

Here's my wife trying the R&R at Stone this past Monday.