Beer of the Week: Stoner Moment

From the Beer Writer: The botanical connections between hops and pot are well documented in earth-science texts and pint after pint of the dank West Coast IPAs our region is known for, but few make reference to beer and stoner culture in quite so fun or fitting a manner as Cameron Ball, the owner of Helix Brewing. That La Mesa operation brews various IPAs, including this week’s featured beer, Stoner Moment, which is varied in its own right. While the base elements of the recipe remain the same, Ball incorporates different hop varietals and changes up the dry-hopping schedule each time around. That perpetual change-up mentality is what gives the beer its name, referencing the propensity for potheads to be a tad absent-minded. The current batch of Stoner Moment smells cozily Kush-y with a dank flavor profile rife with candied orange, lemon and grapefruit. It’s tasty, brah, enough to make one wish Ball would write this one down. But much like that Flamin’ Hot Cheetoh, pickle and bacon grilled cheese Squee made that one night while taking Cheech to school on Super Mario Kart in between bong rips, it was born to burn.

From the Brewer: “Stoner Moment IPA is a hop-aroma-forward, new-age IPA brewed without a written recipe. It gets it name because when you have a stoner moment you forget what you were going to say…hence, forgetting what hops are going into the brew or what hops we put in the brew. Every brew starts with the same grain bill then changes the dry-hopping methods and hops to create unique flavors through the hops. We utilize early dry-hopping during active fermentation, recirculation dry-hopping and/or pressure dry-hopping to infuse hop oils into the beer, creating a unique aroma-forward IPA. No single brew of Stoner Moment IPA is the same.”—Cameron Ball, Owner & Head Brewer, Helix Brewing