Beer to benefit Vermont hurricane victims

Another Stone collaboration, another beer that raises money for a good cause. This time the beneficiary is in New England.

Stone Brewing Co. in California has teamed with Ninkasi Brewing Co. in Oregon and The Alchemist in Vermont to create a beer called More Brown Than Black IPA. Proceeds from sales of the beer will benefit the Waterbury Good Neighbor Fund, which is assisting people who suffered losses from Hurricane Irene in August. The hurricane had been downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it crossed into Vermont, but it nevertheless created enormous damage. Among the victims was The Alchemist itself, a popular brewpub in. (More about that here.) The beer comes on the heels of Japanese Green Tea IPA, a collaboration that also involved Stone and raised $64,000 for victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

More Brown Than Black IPA is exactly what it sounds like -- a variation on the newly popular black IPA (or American black ale) style. It's brewed with four kinds of malt and three kinds of hops, then dry-hopped with citra and galaxy hops. The alcohol content is 7.4 percent by volume, and it registers 80 International Bitterness Units. Single 12-ounce bottles will cost $3.49 to $3.99. The beer won't hit Massachusetts stores until right after the new year, so don't go looking for it just yet.

There's a bit of cognitive dissonance at work when you pour one of these. The beer looks like a strong brown ale, but one whiff and there's no mistaking it for one. This aroma is heavy on the hops -- citrusy, piney hops that suggest evergreens and orange rinds. The taste is hoppy and dry, and though the solid malt foundation does bring a measure of balance, the hops dominate. What else would you expect from Stone, which makes a double IPA called Ruination, and Ninkasi, which makes one called Tricerahops -- not to mention The Alchemist, whose Heady Topper might be the best double IPA on the planet?

Here's a video about More Brown Than Black IPA and how it came to be:

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