Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale was originally released as a Black IPA for their 11th Anniversary — a beer I never got a chance to try. Luckily for me, it is now a new yearly limited release from Stone first released this past January.
I actually passed over this one a couple of times while checking out the shelves at my local shop a couple of weeks ago. Thank the beer gods I went back to check it out before walking out the door.
Appearance
Self-Righteous pours a dark, dark brown with a large light tan head that faded to light patching. This thing looks more like a stout than an IPA.
Aroma
Hop, hop, hoppy, yet not overly so. Roasted malt and light caramels mix nicely with the piny hops for a well balanced nose.
Taste
Sweet, roasted malts make an appearance first, but are quickly overtaken by that biting hop presence that Stone likes to put in a majority of their products. There is a light cocoa character in there as well that come out more so in the dry, bitter finish. The brew is quite warming and a little boozy. Tasty.
Overall
Not having has the 11th Anniversary from Stone, the only other type of beer that I’ve had similar to this would be Troegs’ Flying Mouflan. Each is dark, sweet, quite hoppy, yet also have a rich malt and cocoa presence. I’m going to try and hunt down more of this one to put aside for a while.
Rating: 3.5/5
