The first Stone beers that really caught my attention were its massive, insane IPAs.  Ruination is one of my all time favorites, and the regular Pale Ale and IPA are no slouches either.  Once I got hooked on their brews, though, I was able to see how many different things they were capable of, and their obsession with Belgian Yeast flavors has been evident in their Vertical Epic series.  Cali-Belgique is an attempt to marry the massive citrus and floral hop aromas of West Coast IPAs with the tropical, warm fruit nose of Belgian Yeasts, especially evident in their Golden Ales, but prevalent in various forms all around the Motherland.  Without a doubt, Cali-Belgique is a huge success, managing to skirt the line between the two styles in a way that is both uniquely Stone and unequivocally Belgian influenced.  Cali-Belgique pours a bright copper color, like a classic west coast IPA, with tight bubbles and a quickly dissipating head.  The nose is an awesome mixture of Belgian Yeast and West Coast IPA hop aromas, with almost no malt noticable at all.  Sipping this beer gives off great fruit and citrus from the hops which mixes very well with the fruit flavors from the yeast. An assertive yet transparent malt backbone which is a tiny bit thin for my tastes with a bitter beer like this, but they seem to be taking the dryness cue from the Belgians on this.  I was really glad to hear that Stone would be making this a year-round style, and this represents a very successful volley in the Belgium-influenced-us-and-then-we-influenced-them-and-now-they’re-influencing-us-again thing.  I’m glad New York City is smack in the middle between California and Belgium — we see a lot of good crossfire.

One other way that Stone is exploring the possibilites of brewing and stretching the boundaries of commercial beer is to participate in collaborations with other breweries.  Collaborations are all the rage right now, both in the US and in Europe, where “gypsy brewers” like Mikkeller wander the continents and collaborate with brewers they admire.  In this case, Stone is collaborating with BDB favorite Jolly Pumpkin and Norweigan trailblazer Nogne 0.  The popularity of collaborations has been overwhelmingly positive, resulting in a bunch of new beers that wouldn’t have existed if certain juggernauts had not put their heads together in a creative way.  The Stone/JP/Nogne beer is a holiday ale, meant to highlight indigenous ingredients from each brewery’s environment — Chestnuts from Michigan, Juniper Berries from Norway, and Sage from California.  This beer is also brewed with 25% rye malt, which gives a lot of spicy balance to this otherwise pretty huge beer.  This ale pours a dark brown with red highlights, accompanied by a small, quickly fading white head.  The aroma is fantastic — hints of Sage and Juniper berry come through, and a hint of spiciness from Hops and Rye.  There’s a good deal of body in this beer, which makes it appropriate for the style, but there is dryness on the finish that doesn’t make it difficult to get through the 12oz bottle. Relatively high ABV makes this a sipper, but the flavors that run through this beer, especially as it warms up, are fantastic.  The juicy quality from the Juniper berries stood out most for me, and I don’t get much Chestnut at all, but I’m not sure what to be looking for there.  Overall, this is a successful beer that has a lot going on, and is about as focused as a collaboration between three brewing luminaries could really be.  Each wanted their say, and they got it — the result is a great beer, a step forward for craft brewing, and a unique flavor and aroma profile that would be very difficult to recreate.  Check each brewery’s website for accounts of the brewing process — it sounds like it worked out quite well.

San Diego’s Stone Brewery makes an enormous amount of very good beer, and likes to make at least one special beer just about every year, with the only rule being that it come out on a certain day, where the day, month, and year all match.  Since 02/02/2002, and until 12/12/2012, they will produce a Belgin-inspired beer that can be aged until 2012 and then they should all be consumed together.  Absolutely insane.  They also publish home brew recipes for this series, which is awesome, and a lot of other good stuff. Check out Stone right away if you haven’t already.

The 08/08/08 Vertical Epic was inspired by Duvel Tripel Hop, a legendary Hopped-Up version of Duvel that the Stone brewers tracked down in Europe and brought back home.  A logical choice for Stone, who is known for producing hoppy beers, this strong golden ale with a more prominent hop character is an awesome model, and the 08 Epic beer is a very worthy brew.  It pours a great golden yellow color and is brilliantly clear.  The smells are big West Coast Hops mixed with Belgian Yeast spice and a kick from the alcohol.  The smell is kind of bright and intense like the color when you hold it up to the light.  There’s harmony in this beer and it will probably taste awesome in 2012 if you can manage to hold onto it.  I will say that when we sampled it on tap in Cooperstown, it seemed fuller and more confident, but that doesn’t pepper my feelings about this bottle — it’s excellent, grab one and drink.

The twelfth anniversary continues this grand tradition. There’s nothing like coming home after a long day of work, in horrendous heat and humidity and being excited to pour a 9.2% stout brewed with oats and bitter chocolate. So exciting I drank this just below room temp, so about 60 degrees. It pours a deep midnight black with one of the darkest heads I have ever seen. Huge aroma of cocoa. At first you taste nothing but big cocoa with some sweet malt. Then the hops creep in to play with the dry dust cocoa flavors and then about five minutes later you notice how hot this beer is.

I’m horribly sensitive to fusel alcohols. Rubbing alcohol, nail polish remover if it’s there at all I notice it and it drives me crazy and distracts me from whatever merits a particular brew might have. One of the major accusations thrown at Stone is that their beer are in addition to being wildly unbalanced (some say undrinkable) that they are horribly fusel. I’ve never really had a problem with this from any of their beers and I think I know why now. All of the qualifiers in the name of the Twelfth anniversary are there to distract you from what the beer is actually about. This beer is a paean to the flavor alcohol itself. It’s pretty clean but it is very present in the nose and the flavor of this beer. You aren’t overwhelmed by the smell of nail polish remover but this beer almost smells like a glass of spirits. Truly unique and I’m extremely curious where this beer is going in years to come. Buy a case and drink a few now and then forget about ‘em in five years. When you decide to remember about them give me a call and we’ll crack open a few more.

PS- They do make a hell of a session beer.