The Pale 31 pours a light color with no head and is reminiscent of apple cider in appearance. The beer gives a crisp hoppy aroma. The smell is nice and simple, nothing too complex.

The taste is pretty tame, nothing too wild. Very refreshing and great drinkability definitely a nice step in the direction of craft beers from the standard mass produced fizzy yellow beer. The beer doesn’t stand out too much in any single way but still a good beer to throw back on a hot day or as a gift to someone who is curious about the beer world! If you are just stepping out of the mass produced beers and into the craft beer scene, this would be a great beer to start with. Take your time with bitter beers since they can take some getting used to…

The Anniversary Ale pours a nice thick head with a dark warm color not much head retention with this ale. The hops stand out with this brew and there are subtle hints of spices, honey and pine to it. A nice aroma from this strong ale.

The Stone 13th Anniversary tastes great! There is a nice sweet flavor that combines the bitterness of the hops with the sweetness of the spices and pine. The high alcohol content provides a nice warm feel going down. The taste is unique, you can tell this beer was definitely brewed outside of the box. Overall, a smooth beer that has great drinkability for such a strong beer.

Stones Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale started as Stone 11th Anniversary Ale. People loved the Ale so much that they decided to remake the beer and bring it back.

The beer pours a dark brown almost black color. Through the thinner parts you can see a brownish red tint to the beer. There was a large amount of head (roughly 3 fingers) that was creamy mellow tan with a foamy texture. The head sat still when I swirled the glass but the bubbles faded quickly.

The smell was nothing like I expected from such a dark ale. I mostly smelled hops and didn’t want to wait for the head to dissipate to open up the aromas. It had a very citrus grapefruit like smell with a tiny hint of sweetness.

The taste was another shocking wave of deliciousness. It starts off with the alcohol making it warm and inviting but not overpowering. It was very rich and malty, the bitterness made this a very interesting experience for your senses. It’s hard to describe but the beer just tastes exceptional. For those of you that think higher alcohol complex beers are hard to drink, you should try this one. Your brain will be questioning if you are enjoying an IPA, a stout, or some type of strong ale.

Great job with this Stone Brewing, we hope you re-produce many of your limited release beers for us Stone Brewery lovers!

The beer poured a dark rich dry brown that was pitch black. There is about 2 fingers worth of head. The head was very dark brown and may be the darkest head I have seen. When they say Old Viscosity, I think they are referring to oil… That’s exactly what this stout beer looks like.

It has a dry woody musk smell that wasn’t too sweet. It reminds me of an extra stout with burnt woody vanilla smell with small hints of cocoa. I’m a big fan of oak aged stouts and think it really steps up the flavor notch for a beer as potent as this.

The taste was superb. You can get the higher alcohol warmth right away which works great with the strength of flavor of Old Viscosity. The vanilla and burnt flavor come through very smooth but strong. It has a heavy thick dark chocolate flavor that would make this an excellent drink for desert, or on a cold day.

Each Vertical Epic beer is designed to drink sometime after 12.12.12 (end of the world?) for a “truly epic tasting”. If you had all 10 bottles, it would be an experience maybe 3 or 4 will get to try. They use very interesting ingredients and release them as homebrew recipes usually a month or so after their release. I have tasted every vertical epic since 06.06.06 and really appreciated the delicious chocolate Vertical Epic released for 09. We picked up 8 or 9 bottles hoping to save some… First 4 and then we had to grab more… There’s only 1 left… This is a great beer and I really hope they add this to their “regularly produced” list.

The beer poured a very dark espresso color and is pitch black in our glasses. The head was very creamy and it had a nitrogen appearance which was really surprising.

It has a citrus swiss chocolate smell like a sweet candy. It reminds me of chocolate covered orange peels that I used to eat as a kid.

The taste was exceptional. It has a strong coffee chocolate flavor with a very smooth creamy texture. The citrus creates a nice bitterness that combined with the burnt malty chocolate is DELICIOUS. I knew there was no way our bottles were going to last after that taste.

I think my last bottle is going to last through the day… Thanks Stone Brewing!

Another beer we tried while In CA was the Cali Belgie from Stone which is a specialty IPA with a Belgian influence, the yeast is special Belgian strain that offers a unique taste.
We picked this beer up at Stone while out at the brewery for a special release of the vertical epic series where we were lucky enough to try the Vertical Epic 06.06.06 beer which was a nice spiced seasonal beer.

The IPA pours a nice golden color with about two fingers of head and great lacing that sticks to the glass. Cali Belgie has a very fresh hoppy aroma with faint hints of the imported yeast, nice smooth taste and great mouth feel. This great blend of ingredients brings together a high quality IPA with a sophisticated taste that has subtle hints of citrus.

A very tasty and unique IPA indeed.

Today I tried the Black Magic Stout brewed by Left Coast Brewing Co. out of San Clemente, CA. The Beer is described as stronger version of a traditional Dry Irish Stout. Being a fan out the stout and seeing this one around a few times now I decided to give it a shot.

This American Style stout poured a nice dark color with a creamy mocha like head that had a nice tan hue to it. About 2 fingers of nice silky head and excellent lacing that coated the glass. also noted was a subtle carbonation cascade.

The beer had a really sweet chocolate aroma to it that was complimented with hints of roasted coffee.

When I first tried the beer I could immediately taste the rich chocolate and roasted barley, there were also hints of a burnt coffee that brought a nice warm feel to the beer.  I understand this is a dry stout but I get more of a sweet/bitter chocolate taste from this beer.

The beer has 100% Kona Coffee and Macadamia nut. The beer was very dark and poured with excellent dark malty head. It has a very strong smell with higher alcohol than most porters. The beer had intense flavor with a strong coffee/espresso like taste topped off with a rich sweet nutty finish. It was better than we expected. If you like dark beers, coconut, chocolate, etc this is an excellent choice!