(Escondido, CA) – As the population of beer drinkers around the U.S. becomes more accustomed to high-gravity beers and higher hopping rates, the bar is raised.

In that vein, Stone Brewing Co. has been doing some experimenting and plans to raise the dial on Ruination IPA up just a notch from 7.7% ABV to 8.2% ABV. It looks like hops will change from Columbus and Centennial to Magnum, Chinook and Centennial as well.

More below from Co-Founder, Greg Koch…

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We brewed some batches at the slightly higher ABV and our in-house tasting sessions told us that we liked the beer just a little bit more. The additional intensity is a modest modification, but it’s our preference in a side-by-side analysis. Thus, the change! Almost nothing should ever be so sacred that you won’t consider tweaks that result in improvements.

We’ll start offering the new higher ABV recipe in bottles once we get all the necessary paperwork cleared with all the state governmental agencies (a process which, interestingly enough, tends to make one want a beer with a slightly higher ABV).

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In loosely related news, Koch recently tweeted that he was on a trip to Berlin, Germany. Berlin happens to be a location where Stone previously found a site it had identified for ‘Stone Europe.’ After some negotiations, the site eventually fell through. Stone Europe, as a whole, went on the backburner amidst a slew of other ongoing projects in Escondido.

In lieu of speculating, we have reached out to the brewery to see whether there is any connection between Koch’s recent trip and the previously planned Stone Europe.