Stone 13th Anniversary Ale

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

Dark muddy reddish brown with tan head. Smell is hops and malt in a iced tea and toffee way with a bit of booze. Taste is bitter and sweet with hops, grass, resin, tea, & caramel. Body is syrupy and rich. Tastes pretty good fresh, but will likely be sweet and gross in time.

22oz bomber. Pours clear and reddish-orange brown in color with a thin, light tan head. The aroma is very pungent hops (Chinook?) - spicy, evergreen, resiny. There is some tangy sweetness under the hops. The flavor starts hoppy and sweet with citrus and evergreen and a touch of caramel sugar sweetness. Towards mid-palate, the beer is very bitter with slight notes of toast and toffee malts layered over pungent hops. The beer finishes with some alcohol, lots of hops, and almost astringently high bitterness with light dose of bready malts. Pungent hop + varnish aftertaste. Firebreath from bitterness and warming alcohol. The mouthfeel is medium in spritziness. It is creamy and slippery with some alcohol lightness and some astringent textures from resiny hops. Overall: whoah. Intense, but better balanced than Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale (though still unrelentingly bitter with very little sweetness).

Bouteille de 22 oz partagée lors d’une dégustation Ratebeer Montréal chez Glouglouburp. Arôme: Odeur de pin et de caramel avec une pointe d’alcool. Apparence: La couleur est ambrée foncée. Présence d’un moyen col beige mousseux et d’une large dentelle sur le verre. Saveur: Goût de caramel et d’houblons avec une pointe fumée. Durée moyenne de l’arrière goût. Palette: Le corps est mince avec une texture huileuse. Moyenne effervescence en bouche. Légère présence d’amertume d’houblons en arrière goût. (Rating #2636)

A very dark, almost black beer with a 1 inch tan foamy, top. Smells like, resin, sap, and nut. Flavor is decidedly hoppy, like the ruination. Flavor also has some toffee, and chocolate malt and forest berries. Full bodied, and very agreeable palate, inspite of being overbearing, drinkablility my friends! This beer has it, again, bud light, not so much. Milky finish. Burns on the way down.

The bottle demands that I enjoy in 2009, so I obliged. Lovely pour, brilliant red color. Sharp, potent hoppy aroma. Incredibly smooth -- caramel, some biscuity notes -- hops, obviously, citrusy and sweet. Balanced. Could be 5% ABV for all I know, hides the punch like a ninja. Highly recommended, but imagine that it will mellow considerably after a few months (in an undesirable way). Seek, and drink

bottle, dark mercurichrome with tons of tan lace, aroma is heavy, malty pineapple, flavors are bready malts with lots of citrus and tropical fruit, nice bitter finish

pours deep red with a small tan head. aroma is lots of pine hops and flowers. drinks is hops and citrus and malt sweetness that is really well balanced. nice bitter finish on this one.

Bottle: pours dark redish-brown with a thin tan head, beautiful hoppy aroma, taste is mildly hoppy giving it a bit of a bite with a strong roasted malt finish.