Weekend Tap Update: Most Bitter Bar Edition

Only Stone Brewing could come up with this. The Escondido based craft brewery certainly does brew styles other than IPAs, but as I saw in a recent internet discussion group, IPAs are “just what they do”, and often do best. IPAs and other hopcentric beers such as their highly coveted “Enjoy By” series, Ruination Double IPA, and certainly even their more straightforward Stone IPA have all reached legendary status in the contemporary craft beer era, having led many a craft beer fan down the road to hop devotee. So it only seems fitting that Stone should have come up with a contest for “Most Bitter Bar”, a competition to see which bar which could sell the most hop forward beers over roughly a week long period (specifically, of course, their own), which technically begins at midnight tonight and runs until just before midnight on the 30th. Well over a hundred bars are participating in this year’s contest, and Roanoke will not be left out of the fun. Three bars in the Star City – Blue 5, Jack Brown’s Beer & Burger Joint, and the Wasena City Tap House – are among those in the hunt for the tongue scathingly based title.

At the end of the week, a national winner will be announced, along with one from each state in which a bar is participating, and one from each region. Five Stone beers appear to be in play – their Sublimely Self Righteous Black Ale (Black IPA), Stone IPA, Belgian tinged Cali-Belgique IPA, and the Stone Ruination Double IPA. The fifth, “RuinTen”, technically Stone’s re-release of last year’s 10th anniversary version of Ruination, has already been generating plenty of nationwide buzz as it was just released last week. For those of you who can’t get enough hop based brews (like myself), and are likely fans of Stone’s beers, not only does this contest mean that the first four beers listed above should be available at the three participating Roanoke locations during the week, but a slightly different version of one of them just might show up as well, for those of you on the hunt for the rarer releases (Did someone say Ruination with fiery peppers and mangoes?). As for RuinTen, this highly sought after beer is a fairly limited release nationwide, particularly in keg form. All I can say is that if you do fall into any of these categories, be it Stone fan, hop fan, rare beer lover, or all of the above, you should keep an eye out for forthcoming news on such beers at these locations.

This is going to be a fun weekend…and week. Come out and support one of the places participating in the contest, and enjoy some great Stone brews. Cheers!