I IMed Tim throughout the day, and finally sent him a custom Google Map of my route. This proved helpful, since on my bar crawl, I happened to be overserved. Couple that with my phone dying, and Nate got into to town and had no where to go. He called Tim, who used the map to play detective and called up the places I had been earlier that. Unfortunately, that didn’t help too much that much, since I was passed out on my couch.

Eventually (around 1a) I woke up, called Nate, and brought him up to my apartment, apologizing profusely along the way. We stayed up for a while, drank a bottle of Rodenbach Grand Cru, and eventually passed out around 6a.

What does this delightful story have to do with the beer in question? Well, at some point on my impromptu bar crawl, I ended up stopping at a bottle shot and picking up a mixed six pack, including Three Philosophers. I had seen it at Binny’s a few times, and been tempted, but I didn’t want to pull the trigger on a $12 bomber. This option was a 12oz bottle, presumably for less (my inhibitions were limited at that point anyway).

I’ve been meaning to drink it for a while, but haven’t for one reason or another. It’s actually a 2010 vintage, which means it’s been aging for at least 18 months. This makes it the longest cellaring project I’ve ever done. Maybe it comes with maturity. I have a couple bottles of Russian River along with a Two Brothers Hoodwink that I’m sitting for a while. Anyway, on to the review…

Tasting Notes

Appearance: The beer pours smooth and viscous. It’s coppery with hints of ruby where the light strikes it. It had a two finger, thick, khaki head that gracefully laced down to a thin layer on top.

Aroma: The aroma is heavy with tart cherry with a sweet malty backbone. There’s a background suggestion of the alcohol heat as well.

Taste: The cherrie’s aren’t as heavy in the taste. Instead there is a raisin/prune flavor from the malt (Special B? Dark Crystal?). The malt really shines throughout the taste of this beer, and helps tamp down the alcohol heat. That heat is felt, rather than tasted, which is always welcome. The finish is where the cherries come in. For a rich beer, it finish with a very clean, slightly tart flavor from the cherries. Very nice. I’m letting it warm as I drink it. I’m hoping some more flavors may appear.

Mouthfeel: This beer is silky smooth and has some weight to it. Definitely one to sip slowly and enjoy.

Overall: I’m not sure it’s necessary for me to say this is a good beer. That seems to be an established fact. I had never had this beer before tonight, despite having the bottle for over a year, and first resolving to try it over two years ago. All in all, it was worth the wait. It had a lot of hype to live up to and met it easily. I am glad I only have 12oz bottle instead of a bomber, though.

relationship of beers

Beer relationship map

HOPS PROFILES

Information relating various hop characteristics

This was how I started out. I was making beers that I’d never seen before (although certainly many have made similar beers before I did). Then, last summer I made a Rye Saison that was largely a classic saison with just a small twist. The malt spiciness from the added rye worked to enhance the pepperiness from the yeast (Wyeast 3711). It wasn’t some crazy, out there beer. It was a classic, almost to style beer with a small twist that served to enhance what would expect from the beer.

What I’ve realized is that this is often times much more difficult than doing something crazy. It requires a deep knowledge of the ingredients, their flavor profiles and how these flavors work in concert and affect one another. I think this is the challenge taken on by the brewers in the TBA Brown Ale.

TBA is a brown ale brewed with brown sugar and molasses, two flavors that really serve to enhance the malty backbone of a good brown ale. In the description, written by Bear Republic’s Richard Norgrove Jr., it states:

The unifying goal was to create a new variation on an old style. Brown ales are often misunderstood, hard to brew, and even harder name

It’s a worthy goal. Brown ales are often overlooked by beer enthusiasts. They often lie far from any extremes. I think even their status as a great entry to the world of craft beer may be held against them. It’s good to see brewers often known for their hop heavy beers take a crack at elevating a subtle, middle of the road ale.

Tasting Notes

Bear Republic / Fat Head’s / Stone TBA Brown Ale

Appearance: The head formed so quickly as I poured this beer that I almost made a mess. Once it settled down, the beer was a cloudy rust color with a two finger tan head that is still receding down the glass.

Aroma: The beer has a strong hop note in the nose. It isn’t overwhelming, and it’s completely balanced by the sweetness in the malt and molasses. A nicely balanced aroma.

Taste: A beer brewed with brown sugar and molasses has a good chance of being too sweet, but this beer is nice and dry. There’s the flavor from the dark sugars, but not much residual sweetness. The hops keep it dry without trending toward black IPA.

Mouthfeel: There’s a lively carbonation that keeps this beer bright and lively. It feels a bit sharp, but not necessarily in a bad way.

Overall: Unlike some of the other Stone Collaborations, this one seemed to be less adventuresome. Maybe it’s difficult to make a crazy brown ale, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a good beer. They made something tasty, if not incredibly interesting.

After about a month of having an eclectic mix of beers, I am ready to dive back in a give it a go. It doesn’t hurt that Stone makes, what I consider, the ideal Black IPA. I should mention that I picked this beer up while picking some items up at Whole Foods. I never really consider going there to pick up beers as their a grocery store (a rather pricey one at that), and I have a booze superstore 2 blocks away.

However, I’m a firm believer that one should always take a quick detour through a store’s craft beer section. If you go to the same store all the time, you only get the beers picked out by one purchaser and delivered by those distributors. Even if the new store is not an amazing bottle shop, there’s a decent chance you might find something interesting that you’ve never tried before, like this Stone Collaboration beer from 2011.

More Brown Than Black IPA is a collaboration between Stone, The Alchemist and Ninkasi. The brewers came together after Hurricane Irene hit Vermont and essentially destroyed The Alchemist brewpub. In this video on Stone’s youtube channel, John Kimmich talks about walking into his bar and brewery and seeing the discussion. They also talk about the beer:

The proceeds of this beer go to a worthy cause; now I just hope the beer is worthy!

Stone More Brown than Black IPA with The Alchemist and Ninkasi

Tasting Notes

Appearance: The beer is a dark, opaque brown. There are ruby sparks at the thin parts on the glass, but very little lights gets through. There was a of finger, bubbly white head that laced down the glass to a thin film over the top of the beer.

Aroma: There’s definitely hop notes in the nose. I’d say mostly resiny with spicy and floral notes. Underneath the hop aroma, really holding it up, is a rich, caramel-y malt smell. This is what these new style, dark IPAs should smell like.

Taste: There’s a lot of bitterness in this beer, and it really lingers after the sip. I wouldn’t call it muddy or messy, but it’s trending that way. After the initial taste of hops, the malts come into the taste. They are sweet, roasty with hints of caramel, and really balance with the hops and round out the beer. The sip finishes with some aggressive, lingering bitterness that is tempered and cleaned up by the sweetness of the malt and the bubbles from the carbonation.

Mouthfeel: This is a very rich, smooth beer. It doesn’t have the dryness one normally associates with an IPA or, even, a Black IPA. It feels like a rich brown ale. The head on top contributes to this feel as well.

Overall: I really like this beer. For my money, Stone has the best Black IPA out there, and this is a worthy sibling. The fact that a slice goes to charity is purely a bonus. Hopefully something like this beer makes it into production at Stone. This is what needs to happen in Dark IPAs.

This beer evokes to me the phrase that has lead to many innovations in brewing and elsewhere, “Why the hell not?” Stone had a perfectly successful beer in their Smoked Porter. Then… according to Stone:

Stone brewer Laura Ulrich had a stroke of brilliance… what if she introduced whole Madagascar vanilla beans into a small batch?

If I see Laura (unlikely), I’m going to buy here a drink, because this is exactly what I love about personally about homebrewing and as a consumer about  craft brewing. Take a risk, go out on a limb, don’t be afraid to fail. Stone has been doing that for a long time.

Stone Smoked Porter w/ Vanilla Bean 5.9%

Review

Appearance: The beer pours a translucent copper with a creamy tan head that recedes quickly to a thin film on top of the beer. There are hints of dark ruby where the light hits the glass.

Aroma: The aroma is incredibly rich with notes rough, smoky chocolate with a heavy, smooth vanilla note taking over at the end. A classic, rauchbier style smoke aroma isn’t there. It’s more a acrid, kilned malt smokiness.

Taste: The taste starts off with a somewhat thin, very dark porter. Lots of dark, kilned malts giving an acrid, burnt flavor. There’s a hint of bitterness as well, but nothing close to overpowering the malt. The flavor ends with a very well rounded, lush vanilla flavor the helps to clear the acridity from the palate. There is a lingering maltiness, but that dissipates after a few seconds.

Mouthfeel: It starts off feeling a little thin, but I’m not sure if it’s a unfermentable sugar in the beer or just an effect of the vanilla flavor, but the end of the sip feel rich and smooth.There’s a light carbonation, the keeps the beer lively without overwhelming any of the flavors.

Overall: I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect here. I know I’ve had the Stone Smoked Porter before. It seemed more like a standard, dark, acrid porter than a rauchbier. This seems more along the lines of Breckenridge Vanilla Porter, but much, much drier. It’s an enjoyable beer, and the flavors work quite well together. I’m interested in trying the smoked porter with chipotle, but I doubt it will be as aggressive as our Pepper Porter or the 440 Pepper Smoker from Original Gravity.

While I spend a lot of time in this space talking about the joy of creating or trying something surprising and genuinely new, I do appreciate the standards. It doesn’t seem like summer without Saison DuPont. Two Hearted isn’t exceptional in any way besides being the best widely available IPA in the country. These beers act as guideposts for innovation and change. They are the established base that brewers use for inspiration.

A lot of times, I overlook beers because I see them all over. Sometimes it’s worthwhile to give the out there beers a break and go back to the beers that either created or defined styles.

Tasting Notes

Stone Old Guardian 2012 (11%)

Appearance: This beer was not as dark as I expected. The beer is a coppery, tan, with ruby tinges when you hold it up to the light. There was a fluffy, off-white head that faded quickly to a thin film.

Aroma: The smell is all malt. Tons of caramel and biscuit comes through. There’s a hint of alcohol heat at the back end of the nose. It certainly isn’t cloying, but has a bit of sweetness to it.

Taste: The taste a bit sharper and drier than the nose. The hops are certainly not overpowering, but come in to help balance the flavor and keep it from being overwhelmingly sweet. At the front of the taste there’s plenty of caramel and malt. The hops follow to dry it out a little bit more. At the end of there’s a fair bit of alcohol heat. You don’t want to have a beer that’s 11% not to have a little kick to it.

Mouthfeel: It’s not as viscous as I thought it would be. There’s not much carbonation; just enough to keep it a little lively. It could actually use a bit more carbonation to keep it from being a bit syrupy. Still, that’s not necessarily against style for a Barley Wine.

Overall: I’m not exactly sure if this is the perfect beer for a 80 degree night with about 90% humidity, but this is certainly a good beer. I had this “cellaring” for about 6 months before cracking it open. That’s really nothing for this beer. I’d be curious to try it after sitting for a year or two. This is certainly a great example of a Barley Wine. There’s a little bit of that Stone, West coast style with the somewhat aggressive hopping, but I think that helps balance it out, rather than move it out of style.