Stone Ruination IPA:
Greetings friends and palate adventurers, today I have tempted fate with ruining my sense of taste with a beer.  Now many of you may argue I did lose my taste back in April but that’s in the past and  (hopefully) I’ve disproved that notion with good beer choices since then.  So one again we venture back to the land of Stone Brewing and their self-centered line of beers, in particular their Ruination IPA.  A beer that is supposedly so full of hops that it will ruin the palate of non-experienced beer drinkers and ruin all other IPAs for those of us who call ourselves ’hop heads.”  The beer pours that beautiful cloudy golden color that most  good/great IPAs have with a medium density head of solid white foam and a nose of hops, citrus, more hops, more citrus and a touch of sweetness. And add a bit more hops jut to be safe.  The beer itself starts off with a rather smooth citrus flavor that rolls into a biting grapefruit flavor with the strong alcohol taste underneath it all; the back end taste is a blend of hops and the grapefruit flavors and a nice mellow skunk finish. A good, widely available IPA but since I’ve discovered a lot of good IPAs this year, I doubt this will be a automatic go to for me but I’ll surely recommend it to friends who are curious about stronger IPAs and the novelty value in a group setting is immeasurable.