Stone’s Cali-Belgique arrives in the Bay Area
By William Brand
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008 at 4:00 pm in Belgian Beer, Craft Beer, General, Stone.
Have you t
ried Stone’s new Cali-Belgique IPA? I’ve got a bottle in my beer fridge, but haven’t tried it yet (That darned old Pliny keeps shoving its way to the front.)
It’s basically, Stone’s very tasty IPA fermented with a Belgian yeast strain and hopped with Magnum hops for bittering and floral, citrusy Centennial hops. It’s also dry hopped during fermentation with Chinooks, which can impart pine and grapefruit aromas. It’s 6.9 percent (ABV) and 77 IBUs. (What’s an International Bitterness Unit? Bud is 13, Coors about 11 IBU).
Hmmm. Kind of like Hop-It, the hoppy beer from tiny Urthel in Belgium, a beer which fortunately is imported here in quantity.
Here’s the rub about Cali-Belgique, The quantity is very limited (a good way to make a beer in demand, huh). David Hopwood, Stone’s Northern California rep explains it this way:
- Stores were limited to one case each and it can only be found in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, Marin and Sonoma Counties here in Northern California.
- Only Alameda and Contra Costa have gotten the beer so far. There was a total of 30 cases. Our hope was to have any store that’s interested in it have a shot at it which is why we had to try to limit them to one each. Monument and Ledgers both have theirs (I was at Monument and they still had it). Area Bev Mo’s will have it, Whole Foods should get it, most anywhere that already has a good selection of Stone beers.
- San Francisco, Marin, Napa and Sonoma Counties won’t get it right now.
- Has anybody tried it? What do you think? Beer Advocate gives it a B+. The Ratebeer.com site is still down. Gonna’ post something on that in a momemt.
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October 14th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
David Hopwood, Stone’s NorCal rep, just e-mailed me. City Beer does not have the beer. They must get it from their SF Stone distributor, who has not received any beer yet, David says. Sorry City Beer fans.
October 14th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
thanks for the tip! just picked one up at ledger’s. saving it for the weekend…
October 14th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
That;s my plan too Mike. Right now I;m sipping a Sam Adams Imperial Pils. Whoa hops!
October 15th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Haven’t tried it, but I really like Stone’s Ruination IPA. A bit pricey at $13.99/6-pak at Bev Mo.
October 15th, 2008 at 9:58 am
This beer is great. I prefer it to Stone’s IPA. Very well balanced. A friend picked me up a bottle in Moraga of all places a couple weeks ago. Thanks again Mike Condie!
October 15th, 2008 at 10:20 am
OK.I’m gonna try mine tonight.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:32 am
I found a few bottles at Alcatel on Telegraph and picked one up. I loved it. It’s one of my favorite of the Belgian/California mix, right up there with Houblon Chouffe. Like Tim Clifford says above, very well balanced. Stone’s Pale and IPA (not to mention Ruination) are some of my favorites, so I guess it’s no big surprise that I’d love the Cali-Belgique. Hopefully they’ll make it a standard and start selling it in six packs.
October 15th, 2008 at 10:44 am
Stone says they’re going to make it regularly. But I don’t think 12. oz. bottles are in the works. How much did you pay for yours Todd?