Beer Projects – Stone Enjoy By 10.25.13 versus Enjoy By 12.13.13

So ever since Stone released their first Enjoy By IPA, I wondered how significant the dates really were to this beer.  I appreciate the depreciation of beer as it ages, but when Stone assigns this IPA a date, how important is this?  I guess I’ll be the judge of that.

I picked up a bottle of Enjoy By 10.25.13 in September, stored it carefully, and waited for another variation to come out.  I was lucky enough to grab a bottle of 12.13.13 today, and decided to do my comparison that evening to ensure optimal freshness on the new bottle.  I conducted a triangle test with my three bottles, with my lovely wife as the test conductor.  I gave her both bottles and three glasses and asked her to fill two with one and one with the other.  I also asked her to label them with Post-It Notes, but fold them up so I wouldn’t see them initially.  My goal was to blindly pick the “expired” beer out.  Here are my notes…

• Appearance:  One appears slightly clearer than the other two.  Carbonation and head appear almost identical. 
• Aroma:  Sharp citrus aroma, touch of pine, and a heavy hand of papaya.  I’m already suspecting an odd-man-out as the smell is a little more piney in one.  The other two smell a little sweeter.
• Taste:  Sweet tropical fruit, sharp citrus bitterness, and a beautiful malt foundation.  I definitely feel the warmth from the alcohol on all three.  The beer I’m suspecting as the odd-man-out is a little more bitter.
• Mouthfeel:  Identical.

This project was a little harder to do than I expected as this is an extremely robust IPA and my palate fatigued almost immediately.  But the results were interesting.

My beautiful wife poured me two glasses of 10.25.13, and one from the bottle of 12.13.13.  I was able to correctly identify the odd man out, but I find it very interesting to note that I incorrectly picked the freshest version.  12.13.13 is an IPA turned up to ten on the dial, but 10.15.13 is unquestionably at an eleven and still is today.  I assumed that this amplified flavor was a sign of freshness, but clearly I was wrong.  Another couple of weeks didn’t hurt this beer at all.

It’s also interesting to note that when my wife poured the beers for me, she noted that 10.25.13 smelled more intense than its brother while she poured them.  It’s clearly a more intense batch.

I would like to try this again with perhaps a little more age between the beers.  I personally don’t believe that seven weeks is enough to destroy this beer, but I wonder if maybe a couple more months may be.  I guess I’ll be trying this experiment again in a little bit. 

I’d also like to quickly note that it may seem that I’m trying to find weaknesses in the Stone’s freshness theory, but this is truly only an exercise in curiosity.  I honestly respect the hell out of Stone for committing themselves to fresh beer, and will commit myself to continuing to purchase their products.  Well done, guys.

Update:  I would like to report that I reattempted this analysis several months later with Enjoy By 12.13.13 and 07.04.14.  The older bottle was well taken care of for the six or so months between releases.  Even with proper storage, the difference here was night and day.  Not only did the two beers smell and taste different, they even looked different.  The fresher offering was a hands-down winner in this repeat attempt.  So ultimately, three months may not make a tremendous difference between releases, but six months absolutely does.

-Matt