Stone Brewing – Fear. Movie. Lions. Review
This beer has been on the Brew house radar for some time, but when a beer’s not right, a beer’s not right. Till the stars align and you need something strong and hoppy… or you have a stretch of uninspiring beers and need a pick-me-up from a legend still making great beers.
Enter Stone Brewing. You know them by name and attitude built on years of hoppy, aggressive, and (usually) fun to drink beers. So, when we needed that pick-me-up, we reached for Fear. Movie. Lions. (F.M.L.) hoping our old heroes can remind us what great beer tastes like again.
Only one problem.
East coast (or hazy, if you prefer) IPAs are not always greatly loved in the Brew house. Sometimes too sweet, and sometimes so fruity they begin to taste like rotten fruit, these beers are always a risk, but we’re hoping Stone’s west coast approach to an east coast double hazy IPA will guide us to a strong and flavorful beer.
The hops (which are so important to the style) behind this IPA are Loral and Mosaic, which we’re hoping will bring us something floral, citrusy, and with a touch of berry from the Mosaic. All that together in a full-bodied hazy of 8.5% ABV and 60 IBUs, and we’re looking at a glass of great modern beer.
First Impressions:
On the Eyes--Tangerine in color, hazy, and topped with a cream-colored head. Appearance is important with a hazy, and this one passes a test.
On the Nose--Fruity and floral and really quite juicy but with the nose tickle of a high ABV Double IPA.
On the Palate--Floral and sharp with a definite citrus and peppery bitterness that gives way to a Mosaic tangerine and berry flavor that calms it right before the juicy and slightly bitter citrus finish. The body is rich and full, and we would expect nothing less for a beer labeled ‘hazy’, and even more so for a beer labeled ‘Double’ or ‘Imperial’.
Food Pairings: Stone suggests pairing F.M.L. with olive oil hummus, cucumber salad, gazpacho, pad thai, pineapple and spam (Hawaiian) fried rice, salted caramel sundae, and strawberry shortcake. If you haven’t had a complex and fruity/bitter IPA with a dessert, try it today. We love it!
Final Thoughts:
I may not be very old (Mrs. Brew is looking at me dubiously) but I am old school when it comes to my craft beers, and certainly skeptical when I see new styles that don’t excite me like they should. The hazy IPA craze came and went very quickly in our home, but the occasional one still surprises us, say, like Stone Brewing’s F.M.L.
We crave bitterness and maltiness above all else in our beers, and F.M.L. has both, with a floral and citrus heft at the beginning, a smooth full body, and a modern juiciness that we don’t hate. You might even say we like it, and truly we like it because the hops balance each other very well, which shows Stone’s exceptional talent for hop selection. We also like the high ABV and the fact that this beer comes in a 6-pack of 16 ounce cans, not those 4-pack rip offs.
This is where I like my modern beers. F.M.L. is a complex, bitter-then-juicy IPA that really does fit in both the east and west coasts, and we love the berry flavors from one of our top hops: Mosaic. It’s worth a try, even if only for its high ABV and for the fact that it's made by a legend, because what they make, others near you will attempt.
Cheers!
Mr. Brew