Stone 03.03.03 Vertical Epic Ale

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 10 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 9

Pretty tan head, Hazey brown color with orange hues. Spicey, coriander, citrusy nose with some apple notes also. Full/medium body, great mouthfeel. The coriander flavors are fairly predominant. The roasted malt flavors work well with the spices. A nice lace hangs on the sides of my tasting glass. Fruity, slightly citrus notes (coriander?) are nice. The roastiness and some caramel come into play moreso as it warms. Alcohol i s fairly subdued. Finish is dry, slightly roasty with a pleasing spicey aftertaste. Not sure about the hops though? An ibteresting project this Epic series is. Hope i can obtain the rest of the series as time goes on. Would love to get some of the 02 version. I believe the 03 will get better with age. Enjoy! Stone!

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 6

Rated in Jan. 2016. 22oz bomber, courtesy of a sweet trade with Ratebeer's FlacoAlto, pours up with a clear brown body that supports a thin light tan head. The aroma is earthy and slightly oxidized and then brown sugar, molasses and oddness. The taste delivers soft molasses and brown sugar flowing into muted dates and prunes. It gets pretty earthy and oxidized here and there.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 10 | Overall: 10

The over all is great! Could be more Crisp, but this bottle is 9years old! So, for 9 years old, this is very delicious .. Appearance is dark, cloudy and smoky... The flavor is amazing! Over the 9 years it's lost some carbonation! But not a lot! The flavor is a smoky maple bacon, sweet taste! amazing beer! CHEERS to STONE BREWERY!

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 6 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 6

Sampled in February of 2012: Time has been fairly forgiving to this '03 selection. Dark amber to brown in color with a small tan head and little lacing. Hints of roasted malt, brown sugar, and calm Belgian yeast fruits/spices are still lingering. Soft, creamy mouth feel that likely has thinned over the years. All things considered this one is still barely holding up.///////////////// Scored this as 56666 during the draft vertical tasting and has apparantly fallen off even more than the bottle I sampled nearly 10 months ago. A bit oxidized with notes of toffee, fruits, and mild cocoa. All in all not bad for 2003, but clearly a shadow of what it likely once was. The least impressive of the offerings at the event.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

This poured a dark copper to hazy brown color. The aroma contains some caramel, chocolate, molasses, and toffee. The flavor is rather sweet with more chocolate, caramel, and toffee. It tastes like a Heath Bar! Which is a good thing. Overall you can tell it’s a bit on the old side but it still tastes good to me!

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Thanks eagle for this one. Poured was a cloudy brown color. Aroma was caramel and yeast. Flavor was much the same as it warmed it finished a bitter hops to it. Not a bad one not the best of the bunch either.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Ruby brown pour with nice looking head and lacing. Wonderful aroma of caramel malts and earthy hops. First sip, taken aback by a sour fruitiness. Caramel malt base and significantly hopped and not a bad tasting beer, but the sourness was detracting. Slightly thin mouthfeel. Ok. Thanks to eaglefan538 for sharing.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Bottle courtesy Robert at SL. Pour was murky brown with a small thin head, pretty constant, no lacing. The aroma was light yeast behind strong caramel and brown sugar, light oxidized nose too. Flavor followed suit, more malty than anything else, slight yeasty bitter finish. Overall, a neat experience, but I still stand by my position that Stone is best at its pale ale, ipa, dipa product line than anything Belgian. Thanks, Robert!

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

Me gusta. I really wish I had two bottle so I could age the other one to see how it changed with age. But I'm really wondering if it would be any better with age. The appearance is just a little too brown to be ruby and the cascading bubbles almost look like golden flakes. The head is a very pale tan but forms easily and holds up nicely. Coriander is definitely evident up front as well as a peppery aroma. A bit of orange pulp wafts up as well. The flavor continues with the coriander and the pepper becomes stronger. Oddly they didn't use real pepper this time around. I guess the grains of paradise are aptly nicknamed "Alligator Pepper." Under the caramel cake malt, I'm picking up the faintest hint of banana. I'm actually a bit surprised that Stone made a beer so unabashedly not hoppy. Sure they used high alpha hops in the boil, but I'm not picking them up at all. They blend into the overall mix nicely. Very balanced, but big flavored beer. I'm actually surprised the beer is getting such low ratings here. Maybe something as subtle as a dunkel wit made by Stone throws people off, but I really like it.

Aroma: 6 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 6 | Flavor: 6 | Overall: 7

Gotta say I was kind of let down by this one. Tried it when it was first released but didnt rate it because I felt it was to young and had not come together yet. Tried another one last night and guess what? Still just a jumbled mess. Belgian hints with yeastiness and dark fruits at first, some spiciness and then the hops come in and bludgeon everything and not in a good way. Hopefully time will be kind to this one and in 9 years it will come together.