Stone 13th Anniversary

Appearance:

Deep mahogany red beer with a modest amber head with decent lacing.  Looks to be a fair amount of carbonation in the beer, as I see bubbles rising near the side of the glass.  Has a fairly transparent for such a deep color.

Aroma:

A very hoppy red ale,  the aroma is predominately orange, chocolate, and plum with a faint wisp of alcohol and a bit malty.  Not sure what I was expecting out of the aroma, while pleasant, it wasn’t what I thought it would be.   I think most Red ales I’ve had have always been fairly low in the aroma department.

Taste:

Very malty and hoppy.  Highly carbonated, it really tickles the tip of your tongue.  After the tongue tickling, you left with a strong malt presence which quickly moves into a amped up hop bitterness.  The bitterness lingers for a long time and it really is touch and go if it is going to cross the line into a burnt flavor.  Thankfully it never did, but made it pretty interesting to drink as each sip flirted with that line.

Stone 13th Anniversary

Overall Impression:

For my palette, I’m just not in sync with this beer.  The bitterness in this beer was not well balanced with the malts, it played out more on the bitter side then on the malty side.  I did like the aroma and the color of the beer, but the unbalanced flavor really did it in for me.  I mentioned a slight alcohol aroma, but the 9.5% abv was masked fairly well.

Drinking Glass: A typical red would be a Pint glass, but with a hopped up imperial red, a big modified tulip works.

Calories: Stone lists the Plato of the beer so 22.5 plato to get 9.5 % abv, it had to finish around 5.7 plato giving this beer 325 cal per 12 oz, 600 cal for the 22 oz bottle.

Simply Beer Rating: 86

Stone 13th Anniversary Ale is a post from: Simply Beer

This tasting did not get off to a good start, the Stone rep was over an hour late to the tasting.  He said he was stuck in traffic, which he probably was, but this is Jersey.  There is ALWAYS traffic, you should plan on it.  If that wasn’t bad enough there were no glasses for the tasting, we had these 3 ounce cups which were angled so you couldn’t swirl the beer.  But, we’re there to try some good beer, right!

The first of five beers was the Stone Levitation, their basic session beer,  low ABV and should be a nice easy drinking beer.  Because of the glasses we were using, it tasted like plastic.  There must have been some residue in the cup, because this beer tasted like chemicals.  Nice way to form an impression on potential customers.  I will forever associate this beer with plastic, yuck!

The Smoked Porter was next for us, more of the same.  A smoked plastic beer that was server to us way to cold.  0 for 2 Stone.  At this point, most of the people at the tasting we grumbling about  the “effort” put into this.  Had this been my first tasting with the folks from the Draught Board 15, I would have laughed my way out and never given them a second thought.  Luckily, I had been to others and knew this was not the way the Draught Board operated.

Note: the Smoked Porter was used in Beer Brawl 17 – Porter, I gave it a 92.  A good beer when served at the right temperature in a good glass.

Stone Arrogant Bastard

The Arrogant Bastard Ale was the next up, using the same cup, hoping the plastic taste will go away.  Having had the Arrogant Bastard on Tap before, I have enjoyed this beer, but once again it was another plastic beer.  I’m sounding like a broken record, but how can you expect to gain customers with such an amateur display?  The people at this tasting are more of the “connoisseur” types then the drink whatever is cheapest at the Piggly Wiggly.  I would imagine these are the type of people Stone would to impress and be spokespeople for their brand.

Stone 13th Anniversary Ale

I was excited, even with all the glassware issues, to try this next beer, the Stone 13th Anniversary Ale.  Every year Stone creates a limited Anniversary ale, this year was an Imperial Red Ale.  The Rep only had 22oz bottle for 22 people, nice…  You can see from the picture how much we all got, it wasn’t enough to get a sense of the beer.  To Bad, the one sip I had tasted pretty good.  It was very hoppy!

The final beer was a completely unmemorable Russian Imperial Stout.  Beer was served way to cold and we didn’t have much to get a sense of this beer either.  A continuing theme this tasting.

Overall, I enjoyed the people there (Twitter:@geservo  & @richdigi), but as I’ve said a hundred times this review, Stone didn’t seem to care about our tasting.  It’s too bad, I’ve lost some respect for this company.

Stone Brewery Tasting sponsored by Draught Board 15 is a post from: Simply Beer

Sierra Nevada Red Ale

Pour:

This red ale quickly generated a huge head, poured out of a day old Growler.  Be a bit gentle, but you still want to have a good head.

Appearance:

Good frothy head that sticks around for a long time.  With the good head retention, comes good lacing on the glass.  This beer is very clear, cherry wood color, more ruby color when held to the light.

Aroma:

The aroma is a bit on the mild side, as to be expected with this style of beer.  What aroma is present is slightly malty, sweet, and buttery.  There is also a very mild plum aroma present.

Taste:

The beer starts off with a malty caramel sweetness, which fades into dry nothingness.  But the finish redeems the beer with fairly lengthy mild hop bitterness.

Drinkability:

With out knowing the ABV on this beer, I would guess this is between 5% and 5.25%, either way it tastes like a good session beer.  I could easily drink these all night.  Thought the beginning and ending tastes were well balance.  Would have liked to have more in the middle of the mouth.

Food Pairing:

With the mild flavors in this beer, I would have pork chops with this beer, or other light meat.

Dietary Info:

Don’t know able, but style ranges from 4-7%, putting this beer between 140- 220 calories.

Glassware: Pint or Mug, I used a Tulip

Tasting Method: 1/2 gal Growler from Cloverleaf Tavern

Simply Beer Rating: 89

Beer Review: Sierra Nevada Red Ale is a post from: Simply Beer