Stone 04.04.04 Vertical Epic Ale

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

I’ve been sitting on this for a while so Im looking forward to this one. Pours a mostly cloudy lemony yellow color with copper hues when held to the light. A good head and decent lacing. The smell is very Belgium. The yeast has a strong flavor. Also fruity aromas like peach and apricot. Touches of bananas and plums mixes well with spice touches as well. Not much of a candi smell but more of a sweet smell to it. The taste feels more like a Biere de Garde. The fruity tastes are more prominent. Big tropical fruits, apricot, bananas cherries and a touch of lime. The malt is balanced well with good complexity. Belgium pale with biscuit flavor. The body is medium to full. A little hot on the taste from the high ABV. But very crisp and a smooth finish. A worthy wait for a fantastic beer.

Bomber thanks to TAR - thanks buddy!. Fruity, esthery and slightly phenolic aroma coming from a hazy dark yellow beer with a white quickly collapsing head. Not that great aroma and not the looks to write home about.... but the flavor is out of this world and a close to a ’9’. It is sweet, malty, spicy and perfectly balanced with citrus and hops. Adorable! Reminds me a lot of 03, which I had last night.

Bottle shared with HogTownHarry & tupalev -- courtesy of HogTownHarry. A great choice to end a night of beer tasting with. Pours a very hazy dark orange with an average size white head. Aroma is quite sweet, very perfumy and hoppy. Flavour of oranges, piney hops and pepper -- now that’s different, I love it! What an interesting and unique beer, kudos to Stone for trying something different.

Thin sheen of head which dissipates quickly. Decent carbonation. Very good aroma. Sweet with honey, fruit, butterscotch and a grassy/yeasty overtone. Color is a bright orange. Sweet and malty. Little bit of butterscotch and a big slap in the face from the alcohol. Kind of a sickly sweetness also. I have tasted brews with the same kind of slightly off flavor before but cannot remember which one. Lime? Maybe as the description says. Slick finish. No real hops presence. An ok brew. Maybe I should have tried this one fresher.

Bottle (650ml). Shared with blankboy and tupalev, my bottle. Poured cloudy orange with a smal white head. Strong herbal, floral, perfumy odour of coriander, pepper, scorched wheat, hops and faint orange juice. Taste reminded me of orange juice laced with pepper and PVC pipe - very spicy, bitter yet sweet, with a long linger - odd. Mouthfeel is bitter, spicy, almost harsh, but the floral/herbal/perfuminess is very dry. I didn’t know what to make of this - as tupalev says, it’s like a biere de garde that works. I decided I liked it, perhaps last beer of the night wasn’t the best time to rate it .....

Now this is how you end a tasting! Big thanks to Harry and blankboy for bringing over so many fine beers to share. Dark yellow, small white head - bubbly and frothy. Dry floral hop and perfume aroma - reading the description I guess this is unfiltered wheat and Kaffir Lime Leaf. I loved it, but I could see how it would be off putting. Wow, I can’t believe these floral and perfume notes have translated so well into the taste. Those characteristics plus some hops and wheat taste, all over a medium to light and fluffy mouthfeel. Again I really really enjoyed this beer but could see how others would not. What a unique creation I wonder how this will age. I think this is what a lot of Biere De Garde’s that I have tried have been trying to accomplish. This one succeeds tremendously where they have failed or just come up short. Well done Stone.

Bottled. Golden pour. Medium white head. Possibly the strangest nose I’ve ever encountered. It reminds me of something, but I cannot quite place it. Twizzlers maybe? Lime twizzlers if they made them. Weird. That doesn’t really explain it very well, but this stuff smells very strange. And honestly, not all that pleasant. Flavor begins with more of the lime twizzlers. Soapy, in the same way I found the 9th to be soapy. The flavor makes me cringe and shake in the way that a combo of orange juice and toothpaste would. Fairly dry, but it has a mildly sweet finish. Overall really odd, but it could have been a lot better. A lot. Man am I glad I didn’t buy more than one bottle. This is quite close to being a drain pour. Yep, it is a drain pour. Yuck.

Golden beer out of the bottle with a thin white head. Spicey coriander, honey syrup nose. The nose reminded me of a clove cigarette. They aren’t kidding about the banana esters in this beer. Lots of banana, clove, sugar syrup sweetness, dark fruitiness, and a tobacco hint that may just be from the fact that I have clove cigarettes on my mind now. It is hot on the palate, with some pepper burn. Very interesting beer.