Stone 9th Anniversary Ale

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

22 oz. bottle. Pours a hazy, cider color. Thin, bubbly white head that doesn’t stick around for very long. Aroma of honey, peaches, and warming alcohol. Flavor is cloyingly sweet, but not offensive. Dark fruits, raisins, pears. A bit of alchol, but not too overpowering. Finish is slightly bitter, with peppery notes.

From bomber. Pours orange with particles floating around and a thin off white head. Nose is yeasty, citrus, bready and a sharp grapefruit rind. Flavor follows, bitter throughout.

RBSG on tap. Very light color with not a lot of aroma. The remarkably big flavor was a suprize that took my mouth completely off guard. A huge flavor for such an unassuming looking pour, when compared to the other anniversary ales. It was fruity and crisp, while being full and round at the same time.

This was a pleasant surprise last summer. While the term HPA doesn’t exist in some of the more elite beer nerd circles, I will use it in an unbiased fashion here. Yes, Hefe Pale Ale, my friends. Creamy, wheaty and hoppy. All over the course of one sip! How’s that for fan-flippin-tastic? There’s one more store in my hood that still has it but I’m not telling because it’s ALL MINE!

Opaque orange, very thin lacing and soapy bubbles. You’d get a bit of head on it only after significant swirling. For something that’s been sitting a while in the cellar, it’s nothing unusual.
Speaking of unusual, the hop signature you usually get from Stone isn’t quite there in this Beer, so it came off as a bit of a surprise. Sure, the citrus and pine were there, but it was way more mellow, there definately had some cheezy element and some kind of corked character that I enjoyed. Another after-effect of the aging process? Perhaps.
Carbonation was just right to leave some room for the malt and to prevent the hops from taking center stage, but obviously they keep the leading role. The pineyness of the hops came out the most, another surprise for me as I’m used to more of a grapefruit finish, and there definately had some yeast action going on as well. It went down wickedly smooth and I enjoyed it. Note to self: keep aging your Stones!

Sampled at the montly meeting of the Champaign-Urbana Beer Club thanks to Andy. This was a disappointment compared with previous anniversaries. I can’t imagine this taking on any additional virtues in the ageing process. Some grass and hay blended with a hop bite. A wheat beer in the usual sense it is not, nor is it a wheat beer in the IPA Gumbalhead sense either. What its trying to be I’m not certain (and that’s often fine), but its not innovative enough to define a new style. I likely need to rerate this one blind, just too many expectations going in and disappointments coming out.

Piscator and I shared this for lunch on Friday with a nice sangwich from Quiznos. Almost orange in colour with quite a head on it. Very hoppy, and had quite a bite to it. The alcohol content forced me to have a catnap after lunch. Too bad I had to go to Anaheim to get this one.

IWe drank this side to side with ruination and it was dificult to tell the fdifference between the two, other than a lingering sweetness in the 9th. Golden beer. Stoney, rocked out head. beautiful beer. Very atractive. Nose is hop monster. Stone has a way of hopping things so that the bitterness is chunky and violent at the core, smooth and supple at the edges. All hops and a little bit of sugary sweetness from the wheat. Tartness as claimed in the description is not apparent yet. As it touches the tongue, sweetness is evident first. Maybe a little tart but nothing too powerful. Hops are massive. Wall of cheesy bitterness. All in all a good beer.