Stone 9th Anniversary Ale

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

(bottle - 22 oz) Clear gold color with white foam that begins at about an inch and goes down to a quarter inch and holds. Great glass lacing. Aroma has some sweet and malty notes with a touch of hops. Mostly sweet and caramel malts. Flavor is very sweet as well. Lots of sweetness and some hints of caramel, toffee and brown sugar. The finish is very sweet and thick with a bitter hop bite at the end. Very chewy.

Bottle. Golden amber color with large white foamy head. Floral hops with a bit of citrus yeastiness. Smooth yet very hoppy. Taste has some spice (corriander, pepper), with citrus hops in the finsh. Not a bad american strong or even IPA, but I’m hard pressed to find where the wheat beer characteristics are.

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.

Sampled at Falling Rock during GABF. Poured from a Firkin at high red wine temp. Hazy yellow orange with small suspended particles with a minimal but lingering head. The aroma was floral and citrusy. Generally light. The flavor had key limes, grapefruit, wheat, caramel, a light sweetness and a pine bitter finish. Body was syrupy and overall heavy. This was good, but I’m wondering if wasn’t served too warm.



Bottle sample. Re-rated at a cooler temp. Better take on the aroma this time around with sweet wheat, caramel and citrus (orange). Nothing new to note with appearance. Enjoyed the falvor at a cooler temp. though I made the same flavor notes. I did increase my flavor and score one point.

bottle from liquor store down the street. this is excellent: laced white head, big hoppy aroma, and some warming booziness. easy to drink, which is not something you expect out of stone. nice medium body, flavor is a smooth blend of malts with a nice hop bitterness and flavor.

Pours a clear copper color and makes a dense offwhite head. Aroma is loaded up with pine, backed up with some sweetness. Flavor opens with some bitterness, but is full of apricots, bubble gum and pear, with a spicy alcoholic bite in the end. Medium body, sticky sweetness coating on the palate with a sticky finish. Carbonation is peppery, yet smooth. I smell this and think west coast IPA, but the flavor takes me into a completely different direction. Don’t get me wrong, it is hoppy, but the other flavors are welcome and new. I like it.

Lucid translucency and polished copper-orange in color with a creamy, bubbly white head and a lacey/doily wrung around the edges. Aroma is intense. Honey, nectarines, basted maple, nectary apple fig neutons, apple butter, candied apricots and caramelized wheat. Certainly has no lack of originality. Caramelized bitterness sweeps in and leaves honey dipped willow wheat in its wake. Melding honey glazes meander between the smacking action of the tongue to mouth. Honeydew and nectar drizzles underlie the persuasive background sweetness. Rough spun sweet rolls and sourdough combo. Creamy vanilla blossoms sweetly serenade the backend while a thick, tight viscosity preoccupies the palate. Sweet wheat, honey and caramelized malts stand up to the American hop brigade. Finish is a bittersweet symphony at its most dramatic maturation. Butterscotch tones and a spicy flair from the hop activity collide with caramel drizzles along sweetened oat flakes, and then it’s sprinkled with a couple crumbled hop pellets as an ever lasting signature. Licking the chops post mortem brings out salty, baked rye sourdough pretzels. It’s a West Coast IPA cut loose in the prairie lands (not that I’m trying to define it; I’m just trying to wrap my mouth around it.)

bomber courtesy of Saarlander via trade. aroma is very hoppy, lots of grapefruit and pine. appearance is a slightly hazy yellow gold with a great looking foam cap. flavor was a mixed bag of hops, more hops along with some malt and just a hint of wheat and maybe some peppery type spice. palate was medium to almost full with a dry sort of bitter finish. all I knew going in was that this was an american strong ale, that said, this is not at all what I was expecting. since this is a brew from Stone, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that I got something unusual! good brew, thanks Aaron