STONE BREWING’s “CALI-BELGIQUE”

Here’s a Belgian IPA, that most interesting of hybrids, that actually hails from the US of A and not Belgium. Once URTHEL and LA CHOUFFE appropriated the American-style, ultra-hopped IPA a few years ago, and combined it with Belgian yeasts, tripel-style fermentation and age-old brewing processes, it was a matter of time before the boomerang effect kicked it and us Yanks started copying those. STONE BREWING came out with theirs earlier in the year and have dubbed it CALI-BELGIQUE.

This is a very crisp, very floral beer, leaning probably more to the Belgium side of the equation despite a big kick of hops. The bitterness is well-muted by the spicy and light citrus characteristics of the ale, and in some regards it’s a good thing, but overall I’m not too sure. I typed in “a little underwhelming” in my portable note-taking machine, the same one that snapped this photo. It actually got less interesting as it warmed, and that’s the opposite of how it usually works for me. It’s a lot better than the “drain pour” reviews I saw of this when it first came out – way better – but I’ll stick to the Belgian versions of this weirdo style for now. 6.5/10.