Stone Fight On! Pale Ale

Stone Fight On! Pale Ale by Stone Brewing is being judged as a BJCP Category 18B, American Pale Ale per the 2021 BJCP Style Guidelines.

The aroma presents a strong biscuity, toasty malt front with a light herbal-earthy hop character more akin to IK varieties than modern, new world types, but with a complementing stone fruit ester that is pleasing. Overall, the nose is herbal and dry and only faintly features citrus/pine notes; instead, it has some very distinct sweet toasty and caramel malt notes – making it somewhat more malt-forward than I would expect for an APA. Still, it is nice and beery.

The flavor starts creamy-malty with kilned malt toastiness and a light honey caramel that trails to a mid-palate of stone fruit, herbs and restrained bitterness estimated at roughly 25-30 IBU. The late palate has a definite sweet angle of lingering malt, and only a faint herbal-citrus hop character. The finish is dry to off-dry, reflecting the residual sugar content.

The body is medium due to thickness in mouthfeel, sweetness and relatively low conditioning, but it isn’t filling. The beer seems appropriately strong in terms of alcohol, but a little lush and full for the style.

Overall, this is a tasty and interesting take on an old (modern) standard, with more malt structure than expected but a delicate citrus/herbal hop character that provides balance and dryness. In essence, it leans a tad more on the U.K. pale ale model as it isn’t obviously piney-citrusy-fruity and overtly hoppy as is most common here. It is quite drinkable, however, and aided by the low conditioning and creaminess.

A good food pairing that strikes me is a piping hot pizza of traditional Neopolitan style with light toppings of Parma ham and artichoke hearts.