Stone 03.03.03 Vertical Epic Ale

Formerly brewed at Stone Brewing Co.
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
Escondido, California USA

dark brown with a red tint and a grey head. sweet bubblegum aroma with some orange wheat notes. spicey alcohol with some pepper too. tangerine taste, something similar to grains of paradise, a metallic taste on the back of the tongue. caramel in the finish. pear and chocolate comes out as it warms. a nice wheaty beer. thanks again TChrome.

Bottle. Thanks to Tad for sharing such a hard to find beer. Nose-soapy, raw green pepper, wheat, and sweet honey. Overall very fruity, estery, chewy, sweet, and hard to describe very well. I like this, but I wonder if it has the legs to run a 12 year race? We shall see. I sure hope so!

Vertical tasting with 040404 and 050505. Ruby hue through a fairly dark body. Yeasty notes in both the aroma and flavor. Somewhat flat with bready accents. A fair amount of grass was noticeable. I’m not really certain how this would have held up for another 7 years, however.

Wonderful aroma and look. The taste is suprisingly thin for a beer that has mellowed for over 2 years.

Ruby-colored body with a thick, off-white head. Sweet, slightly smoky malt with a fair amount of subtle spiciness. Peppery splashes above sweet raisins and plum brandy. Some coriander and a touch of clove. Fruity esters pop up from time to time. Peach skins, mangos, licorice, a touch yeasty bread. Thick, full body with light, moderate carbonation, considering the age. The flavors are alright, nothing really interesting. I sort of expected more from this. Good, but nothing extraordinary.

Thought it was about time to bust out one of these. Pour was a nice reddish-amber hue with about 1/4" sustained creamy white head. Pleasant spicy aroma, with yeast, dark fruit, pepper, coriander, and an amalgum of other wonderous complexity. Flavor was equally complex, and the balance has mellowed out for the better since the release. Well-carbonated. Spicy hops are blended well with some citrusy hops, coriander, pepper, with a nice medium malt backbone. Finish is primarily citrus and pepper, but is still nicely complex. This is an interesting mix of the Belgian strong with American highlights, and is well-executed. The real trick will be saving my lone remaining bottle until 2012...

Sampled 5/28/05 from a bomber. Nice light amber color. One heck of a great smell. Fills the nose with nice yeast and dark fruit that seems sour, almost candy-like. Roasty, peppery taste. Chocolate. Unfortunately, I didn’t think that that flavor delivered on what its nose seemed to promise. Both cold and warm, it seems to be lacking something. The finish became smoother and more pleasant as it warmed, but not much more complex. I look forward to seeng how this develops in the years to come, hopefully the taste will start to impress as much as the smell!

Sampled May 2005
Pours with a frothy thick tan head that sits atop a lightly hazy amber colored beer that has orange highlights. The aroma is fruity with notes of raisins and figs, and over time, the coriander. The coriander is still fairly noticeable in the aroma, though it has tamed down a bit (which in my opinion is a good thing). In the aroma I also get subtle notes of pepper, sherry, and chocolate. The beer is off dry up front, and actually does not have much sweetness throughout. This beer finishes with a note of chocolate and a hint of roasted grains, that I don’t remember tasting before. Thank goodness the coriander flavors have mellowed considerably, it has moved to a sort of earthy note that adds a sort of filling richness to this beer. This beer is still holding up pretty well and should last at least a couple more years in my cellar.

Sampled Sep 23, 2003
This beer has a nice persistent tan to cream colored head. The aroma has hints of cinnamon, coriander (though much reduced from when it was younger), predominantly an aroma of spices. The taste has softened quite a bit over the past 6 months. The overbearing coriander flavor has mellowed considerably. It finishes with a spicy bite, which is accentuated by, perhaps, a bit of acidity and the carbonation. There is a hint of amaretto at the forefront of this beer, which I find quite interesting. The finish also has a slight tannic woodiness in it (perhaps yeast derived). I think that this beer is getting quite close to peaking, maybe within the next 6 months, but no more than a year, and it will be as good as it ever gets, but that is just my current opinion, I reserve the right to retract my statement at a later date, so stay tuned to this post for further updates.