Stone Brewing Company - Dayman Coffee IPA

In my book, last year was a really good year for Stone. They released some awesome collaboration beers (the Mint Chocolate Imperial Stout and More Brown Than Black IPA being the highlights for me) and showed that they can still make incredible IPAs (Tenth Anniversary Ruination and Enjoy By IPAs were absolutely amazing). While I knew it was going to e really hard to follow up their efforts in 2012, I wondered what Stone had planned for 2013. When I heard what their first collaboration beer of the year was, I figured that Stone had gone off their rocker. A coffee IPA? Really, Stone? Still, after winning me back last year, I owed it to them to at least try this one.

Dayman IPA pours a dark burnt orange color with a creamy, one-finger tan head. I was pretty skeptical going into this one, but the smell gave me some hope. It brought an intriguing blend of intense citrusy hops and dark roasted coffee. While I would never have thought these things would go together, it just seemed to work. I caught some chocolate, tangerine rind and grapefruit in the smell as well. Interesting...

The first flavor that hits your palate is a blast of dark roasted coffee. But soon after comes a big hit of smooth citrus flavor. While I've never experienced coffee and citrus together in a beer before, something about the two elements just worked together. There was an insane blend of chocolate covered oranges, hazelnut, coffee and piney hops throughout the flavor. And it worked! The finish was silky smooth with a lingering coffee bitterness. I have no idea how they did it, but Stone pulled this off. What a great beer to lead off 2013. I can't wait to see what they're going to do this year.

Final Grade: A

Top 250 Beers Tasted: 115