Stone 13th Anniversary Ale

Brewed by Stone Brewing Co.
Style: American Strong Ale
Escondido, California USA

Local bottle. Pour a very dark bronze-brown colour with ruby highlights. Small tan head that settles into a foamy film with some good lacing. Front aroma is like burying your nose in a spruce tree but very quickly the sweet malt appears too. Maybe a touch of soy too. Big flavour too of hops at first but then bready malt. Quick, clean finish with just a touch of booze. Really nicely done.

Bottle. Poured a red-brown with a creamy tan head that had some lasting and good lacing. Aromas of chocolate malts with a pine hop background. The flavor flops around with pine and citrus hops backed with milk chocolate. Medium to full body, smooth, and a medium bitterness of pine in the aftertaste. Very Nice!

22 oz. bottle-Pours deep brown with a nice frothy tan head. Taste is of bitter, malt, and alcohol. This beer tastes like a barleywine. If you love Stone beers you’ll love this beer. Get ya shit faced too.

Bottle. Pours amber/brown, with a tan head. Aroma is hops, caramel, malt, and alcohol. Flavor is hope, caramel, malt, fruit, and alcohol. Ends bitter. Fairly heavy body.

Poured a very dark red/orange like a strong iced team. The head was a tall, creamy light brown with good retention and it left nice lacing. The aroma was very good with grapefruit, bread and some sweetness. During the drinking I detected the aroma of beef bullion, that was different. There was an initial hop flavor to the beer, but also a very strong malt sweetness that was an outstanding combination. The hops bitterness came through on the finish, but not to dominate as the malty sweetness kept it in balance. The alcohol in this beer was masked very well for being 9.5%. A very interesting beer and very good. Nice flavor combination.

bottle poured a super dark brown with a thick tan head that retained well. aroma has bright overlaid hops, citrus, resins, rich dark malt, dark fermented fruit, and some alcohol. mouth feel is a solid medium with plenty of carbonation frothing it up. there is a rich well malted dark fruit thing combined with a hop blasting. chewy resins, pines, bitterness, and citrus. i like the well malted vs. hop blasted thing going on here.

Pours a brownish color with a pretty nice looking beige head. The smell was rather great, though I can’t pin it down as exactly as I would have liked: unique combination of hops and malts. Nice amount of bitter hops in the taste along with a strong malty backbone. Bitter but not too much. Great mouthfeel and doesn’t make you thirsty like some hop monsters. Creamy and smooth.

Oct.09 on tap Aces and Ales. A nice reddish brown color. smells of hops, pine and citrus. Flavor is well balance, the malt and the hops are in harmony, the finish is lots of hops pine,resin, and citrus. Another great beer from Stone. Makes me thristy for more.