On the 10th day of Christmas, Frank About Beer drank for me - Brown IPA from the Heavy Seas and Stone breweries.
Despite what you may think, collaborations between breweries is a fairly common occurrence. In the case of the Partner Ships series from Heavy Seas (Baltimore), they regularly collaborate on a variety of really special beers with other well-known breweries.
For this Brown IPA, they collaborated with Stone Brewing (San Diego) to make a beer that is not only a great brown ale, but a great twist on a strong India Pale Ale, too.
This one pours an opaque brown with good carbonation. It's a big 9% ABV, so the alcohol content is more similar to this beer's Imperial IPA-ness, than to its brown ale side.
The taste, however, is a very intriguing cross of the two styles. You get a lot of sweetness from the malt and molasses used in the brewing, but then are hit with a BIG, hoppy flavor from a myriad of east- and west-coast style hops. You end up with a bit of citrus, with some pine, and a lot of that great bitterness that's seen in Double IPAs. You even get some mild coffee in the aftertaste.
Bottom line? This is a really cool beer from two amazing breweries. If you don't care for overly-hopped beers, you'll want to skip this one. You hop-heads, however, should beat a path to find this beer ASAP. It's in very limited production, so if you find it, try it now. Trust us.
Check back tomorrow for the next beer in our #12BeersofXmas series.
Cheers!
Christian and Eric
