Stone 9th Anniversary Ale

Formerly brewed at Stone Brewing Co.
Style: American Strong Ale
Escondido, California USA

Pours a orange-gold, lots of carbonation, and a quick diminishing white head. Sweet floral, lightly citrus nose - almost has an orange soda scent about it. Flavor is not as complex as the wonderful nose - light malt, some weak spiciness, lightly bitter. There is a slight alcohol warmness toward the end. Finish is lightly bitter. What happened to the wheat? Don’t know. Body is pretty even. Good? Yes. Great? No. 8th was far better.

Alcohol, bubblegum, wheat, citrus, pineapple in the aroma. no head, body is a nice amber. Hoppy, with plenty of citrus, along with brown sugar. Not your typical wheat beer, but nice.

I went to the doctor a few weeks back and he told me I am going to die. Of course I am; everyone does eventually die after all. I was also told that my Liver Enzymes were elevated and needed to be evaluated. The solution: drink no alcohol for 1 month and get re-tested. Me being the good patient that I am, I complied. The re-test results came back and my Liver Enzymes were even more elevated than before (alcohol 1 = medicine 0). Segueing back into a normal alcohol consumption schedule for 3 weeks and then getting a 2nd re-test lent much better results, normal Liver Enzymes(alcohol 2 = medicine 0)! However, while laying off the bottle I lost 10 pounds (alcohol 2 = medicine 1). Thus in the end, according to my specious argument, alcohol is better than medicine by a 2 to 1 margin for what ails you.

Oh yeah the beer, I almost forgot it has been so long. Stone 9th. Another “imperialized” beer, this time a wheat. The pour is quite nice, clear golden-amber with a lovely lacey white head. The aroma is dripping with piney hops and faint nutty wheat. The flavor is marred in a rather serious way by a staggering amount of alcohol flavor. Not warming but medicinal, and if there is one thing you will have learned by now it is that alcohol beats medicine: what does this say about medicinal alcohol? That is left as an exercise to the reader. Smells and looks better than it tastes.

Thanks durhambeer for sharing. Pours a hazy gold orange with a 1 1/2 finger light yellow head. The nose is mildly sweet, malty, earthy, definitely aged, light oxidation, basementy. The flavor has a mild citrus peel bitterness to it, malty, earthy, has maintained more of its hop feel than expected. Mild bitterness in the mouthfeel.

22oz bomber. Pours a slightly hazy amber orange with a huge off-white head. Aroma of pine and grapefruit hops, some sweet caramel malts. There is a slight bit of funk and some misc. spices upon further whiffs. Flavor is some raisins, alcohol--not terribly strong, but noticeable--a fair amount of bitterness with pine/grapefruit, a little spicy and even less funky. Dry finish. Light-moderate carbonation, medium-full bodied. Nice lacing. Not exactly what I was expecting, but still a good beer.

Pours a clear gold with a very modest white head. Wasnt digging the smell on this brew too much. It was kind of a wierd soapy smell. It had some light citrus and orange too, but something seemed off. Taste is fairly mellow, get some wheat and citrus characters towards the end, but overall I wasnt too impressed with this one. I thought it was pretty boring.

Amber with a smallish, foamy head. Myriad of hops in the nose. Bitter, citrus and bubblegum coming out at first. Caramel malts and a warming aroma. Bitter flavors of strong citrus and bubblegum. Candy like almost with some notes of caramel. The alcohol comes out a bit more here and it has an extra bitter finish.

22 oz. bottle from local liquor store. Pours clear and orange-amber with a large fluffy white head that leaves nice lacing. Aroma is dominated by citrus, pine and spruce hops with subtle notes of ripe summer fruits. Flavor is also dominated by the same sorts of hoppiness, but there’s a noticible sweetness of malt and some wheatiness (since I was looking for it) with an alcohol presence in the finish. If I didn’t know this was a wheat beer, I’d think it was more in the IPA family due to the color, alcohol and assertive hoppiness. Mouthfeel is good with medium body and creamy carbonation. Definitely interesting and as someone else has commented, this might do well with a little more time in the bottle.