Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Stone 08.08.08 Vertical Epic Ale

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

3.6/5

AROMA
7/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 14/20

22 ounce bottle into tulip, over 3 years old now, lets see how this goes. Pours cloudy golden amber color with a nice 1-2 fingers of dense white head with nice retention that reduces to a fairly thick lacing cap. A bit of nice lacing clinging to the glass as well. Aromas of big spicy yeast, with some stale hops, orange, pine, bread, and light fruits; maybe a bit of funk in there as well. Some interesting aromas here, but they have good strength. Taste of huge spices, pepper, bread, light fruits, pine, and citrus. Decent amount of bitterness present on the finish, with lingering notes of spice, pepper, pine, bread, and citrus. Medium carbonation and medium bodied; with a fairly creamy and slick mouthfeel. Alcohol is noticed on the finish with a decent amount of warming. Overall a pretty decent Belgian IPA for being 3 years old. I have another bottle of this, so I will see how it is when 12.12.12 rolls around just for kicks.

This was definitely past it's prime. I would have loved to have this fresh, but I wasn't much into craft beer at the time it was released(though I had just turned 21 that year). I could brew up a small homebrew batch of it though since all of the VE recipes are readily available on Stone's website!

No comments:

Post a Comment