Stone Soaring Dragon Imperial IPA

A few of our brewers took a side trip to the famous Tianshan Tea City market to experience the legend themselves. They were blown away. Inspired, they began experimenting back home, learning how well the delicate, floral qualities of these teas worked in combination with certain hop varieties. This imperial IPA loaded with White Tea is the result of that bountiful trip and the resulting experimentation. The amazing aromas and flavor profile of this beer are witness to the joy of experimentation and a testament to making time for side trips. At Stone Brewing, we have been fascinated by brewing with tea for a long time. A fan favorite over the years has been our 2011 collaboration: Baird/Ishii/Stone Japanese Green Tea IPA (a “one-off” that was so popular we re-brewed it in 2015). Over the last few years, we have continued our obsession with tea, brewing different versions with different types of tea on our pilot system in Escondido as well as at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station and Stone Brewing – Napa. We visited the Tianshan Tea City market in Shanghai, China in search of the perfect tea for this IPA that we had in mind. Of all the types of tea we experimented with, White Tea kept coming up as our favorite. The challenge then was to get the perfect amount of tea in the beer to achieve harmony and balance, which we have done in this Imperial White Tea IPA.