Stone 06.06.06 Vertical Epic Ale

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

06.06.06 Vertical Epic, let’s get to the bottom of this. Appearance: Pours a dark chestnut brown body topped with a fizzy, thin brown-colored head. Smell: Aroma is largely fruity (bananas and plums) and chocolaty, imbued with a Belgium yeast scent and a wee amount of smoke. Curiouser and curiouser... Taste: Leading flavors of dark chocolate, black licorice, molasses, and grapes. Eventually achieves some herbal bitterness and ends with a yeasty dry finish. Not nearly as sweet as the nose would have you believe. Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied, creamy, and has a mild carbonation which helps to maintain a light finish. Drinkability: Admirable cross-style hybrid brew showing characteristics of a dubbel, weizenbock, smoked porter, and more. Catch ya in 2012, little bomber!

Thanks IrishBoy. The beer pours to a very dark brown body. Thin fizzy off-white head. Red hue to the body. The aroma is sweet candi sugar, green raisins, dark brown sugar. The flavor is very dark sugar. Notes of bubblegum, dark malt. The palate is tart. Medium bodied.

Thanks to foureyedgeek for sharing this one! Nice port wine nose, raisins, bit of oak, heavy on brown sugar and molasses. Very sweet, with fruity hoppy nose that is very fragrant but not overpowering like some of the other hoppy Stone offerings. Vinuous with soy maltiness, bit of chocolate. Dark dark brown, clear, with medium foamy lacing light-tan head. Heavy watery body with medium carbonation and some alcoholic warming. Starts sweet with a lot of maltiness, plum, red wine, oak, malt vinegar, sweet. Molasses, malty like a doppelbock. Hearty. Very little bitterness, fruity and malty. Nice dry carbonic bitterness at finish. Sweet after on the tongue. Rich and malty overall with just a bit of nutty molasses tang. Alcoholic warming.

Bottle; Aroma of light roasted malt and spice. Moderate swwet aroma also. Black body with good tan ceamy head. Good lacing left on glass. Flavor was mostly a spice, sweet roasted barlet grains, somewhat watery and mild biterness. Smooth easy drinking beer with mild sweet spice and alcohol aftertaste.

So far, I like this one the least of the series (haven’t had no.2 though). Smells pretty wheaty, but in a good way. Heavyish with some chocolate. First impression is that the alcohol really comes through too much. That’s not good if this is supposed to age. Maybe it’ll get better.

Bottle shared with blankboy, HogTownHarry, jerc and tupalev - courtesy of HogTownHarry. Pours a dark ruby-brown with a small, persistant tan head. Very nice aroma - fruity and spicey, some yeasty funkiness, and a bit of red wine. Flavour is sweet to start, with some fruit, clove and brown sugar notes, but it turns quite warm and bitter in the finish. A pretty solid effort all in all, and unlike the 04.04.04 and 05.05.05, I think this one is complex enough that it could actually make it to 12.12.12 in a drinkable state.

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.

Bottle @ Kookfest. Some slightly roasty malts with liquoricey edge and yeastiness (as in yeast rather than yeast produced flavours). Mild piney hops and toffee in the mouth.