Stone 05.05.05 Vertical Epic Ale

Given that my birthday is 5/5 this was a great beer to keep for a while. Had this beer sitting in my fridge since just after I turned 22, 4 years ago. Great color, nice deep mahogany with good lacing and perfect light ivory head. Great oaky head with nice hop overtones. Awesome taste, oak with a nice hint of spice. would be a bit better with a bit of honey. A very smooth ending. Great beer.

Love it. Wish I had bought more of this now, I only have one left. Just couldn’t wait any longer though. It’s been over four years and I can’t remember what it tasted like originally. Tastes a lot of spices now but I was amazed to read on the bottle that it contains no spices, just awesome belgian yeast.

22oz bomber courtesy of sunnydlyte23 poured into a snifter. Pours a deep, clear copper underneath a healthy tan head that lingers as a cap for the duration and leaves good lacing. The aroma is sweet with lots of dark fruits - figs, raisins, pears - soaked in booze. Plenty of brown sugar and some licorice and spices. It actually has a slight hint of oxidation in the nose with a bit of stale cardboard coming through. The taste has the same booze-soaked fruity sweetness as the aroma. There is plenty of dark malts forming a solid backbone along with Belgian sugars before the spices leave a slight tingle on the palate in the finish. Again, signs of oxidation in the taste, just as in the aroma. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with decent carbonation and the oxidation seems to have thinned it out slightly. The alcohol is definitely present in the finish. This is a good beer that I think was probably a great beer at some point - probably a little past it’s prime. Very sweet with a good spice presence to mix it up a bit.

Normally I wouldn’t rate something this far past its prime, but since this is supposedly okay to age to 12/12/12 I will. Pours quite dark burgundy with nice persistent tan head. The aroma has aged malt, some oxidation signs (heavy cardboard), anise, malted milk balls and Belgian yeast. Medium smooth body with a papery feel and moderate carbonation. The flavor starts with f***-all oxidized dark malt, paper and dry spice. The finish is dry, papery and anise. This would be painful to drink on 12/12/12.

Dark brown pour pour with a foamy tan head. Sweet caramel malt in the aroma, along with yeast and fruit. Flavor is fruit and spice with a very light hoppiness on the finish. All around solid brew.

dark amber pour with a nice beige head. aroma is loaded with dark roasted fruity malts. some nice ripe fruit, some cloves, and a touch of chocolate. really remins me of a very mild trappist type ale. flavor is very nice. more of he sweet bready fruity malts. again reminds me of a really nice dark and fruity trappist ale minus the strong alcohol presence. Really en excellent ale.

Finally getting around to rating this from backlog. In a certain sense it’s a good opportunity to take stock of the series by reflecting on my impressions and notes from the past. What I mean is that, with some perspective, I might be tempted to say that this was the last beer in the initial phase of the series, the last somewhat dark beer before Stone seemed to shift to tripel/golden/hybrid beers. It had lovely sweet malts with a hint of spicy yeast and tangy malts, slight wood and autumn fruit. Perhaps one of the most interesting and age-able of the series to this point.

Bottle courtesy of Travis from Dunedin Brewing. Pours a mahogany color with thin tan head. Aroma is malty and sweet with notes of caramel, maple syrup, and bread. Flavor is much the same as the nose with some slightly woody notes toward finish. Generally medium body with a slight bitter hoppy note on finish.