Stone 06.06.06 Vertical Epic Ale

Formerly brewed at Stone Brewing Co.
Style: Abbey Dubbel
Escondido, California USA

Bottle. Deep brown colour. Hoppy aroma, with some alcohol noticed. The aromas correspond to the palate, very hoppy, with alcohol showing. Doesn’t taste dark at all, even though it is a deep-ish brown colour. I don’t know how these gae and whether age will change it a lot, but it does feel a little raw.

22 oz. bottle. Pours a deep, clear ruby red with a thin off-white head. Very little lacing. Very nice aroma of prunes, raisins and roasted malt. The initial flavor is again very nice with notes of prunes, roasted malt, and cloves. The flavor however lacks depth. The fruits and spices seem to evaporate after the initial taste. Warming alcohol finish with only slight bitterness. Perhaps this beer will develop more body over time, but I was not impressed with this year’s issue.

Poured an effervescent maple mahogany with a small fizzy light tan head. Nice aroma of sweet caramel, grapes, roasty chocolate, and a cinnamon spiciness. Flavor is dry and spicy with notes of cinnamon and clove, a roasty/earthy character, and a dry and bitter grass hop finish with a slight acidity. Alcohol isn’t overpowering but is not hidden either. Decently pleasant and complex, but could be better with a bit more sweetness and smoothness. RERATE: Paired the beer after tasting with a salty stilton which brought out its sweetness, making it slightly more pleasant. Still could stand to be a bit smoother.

Deep mahogany with a huge mocha head. Aroma is malty and faint. Flavor is full with only a mild hoppiness. Notes of clove and coriander. Very rich with decent alcohol warmth in the dry finish.

I cannot give this beer a fair review. This is an anise-based brew, and I personally cannot stand the taste of anise. If it were based on a different flavor, I probably would have enjoyed it. The color can only be described as blackened, dried blood. From the minimal head bubbles a promising scent of candy and just a little licorice. Once I actually tasted it, I knew I would not be able to finish the bottle. The sticky sweet flavor of cough syrup and anise spurred me to the hills.

Cold 22oz bottle: Pours and opaque brown color with a small amount of tan bubbles around the edges of the glass. Aroma and taste are of roasted malt, earth, spice, bitterness and alcohol with sour notes. I would not drink this, so Volgon finished the bottle. : )

Bomber: Clear dark ruby with a thin off-white head, aroma has plums, brown sugar and spicy yeast. Full bodied with a sticky texture, starts and ends lightly sweet, with a long aftertaste.

Collecting is a very strange thing. Usually we find something of personal or moral significance that comes in varieties and are overcome by a fervent desire to horde them. Good examples of this first category are artwork, books or music. Then there are a separate category of unwholesome collectors that seek out Coke memorabilia, antique hammers or maybe even vintage urinals. At least the accomplished stamp collector can put his stash towards a deluge of paid-for postal correspondence, and the coin collector will never feel anxious around vending machines again, but those who relish in their small piles of buttons and door knobs have lost sight of the whole point of collecting. It’s about gathering something significant, not gathering something that no one else has bothered to gather, because truly, no one will be impressed with a philanthropic display of broken glass or snapped crayons. Yet, our “crazy” collectors feature prominently in everyday life, and the market knows it. Behold, Stone Brewery’s Vertical Epic line, a mad dash to “drink them all” lest one bottle missed taints the whole experience. Usually I fall into the category of lunatic collector, but this time I wasn’t sold. Why wait until they finish the series? I’m pretty certain there’s no legitimate need to purchase and preserve these bottles until the final generation is brewed, save for Stone’s shrewd decision to make this something of a special edition collector’s series. With that I took the plunge and popped open a mint bottle of the ’06 Vertical Epic. The beaming black beer with it’s Coca-cola-esque head pushes bubbles all around the beer – on the surface as well as coating the sides of the glass in a gaseous armor of sprightly spheres．Almost immediately the aroma asserts itself with strong intimations of plums and raisins. Secondary and tertiary smells of processed Kraft cheese, malts, chalk, old wood and anise agglomerate to form a strange but not unappealing aroma. The palate is oily, flat and heavy (attributes welcome in a dark beer) but the flavor is hard to uncover. It’s a slow spread of tastes, eking out malts, molasses, chocolate and a bit of licorice, but nothing more. The rhythm of the flavors is similarly flat and steady, neither dipping nor peaking, but gamboling steadily at a tried and true pace. Even if I were collecting the Vertical Epics, I’d look down on this one as a bit of a flop; for those that are collecting, I have a feeling the ’06 won’t age well, and that saving it for that special day when all the beers have come together may not make for the pseudo-holiday some might expect it to be.