Stone 09.09.09 Vertical Epic Ale

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

Rated in Oct. 2009. Bottle poured deep mohagony with oatmeal cookie looking head of foam. Wow, the aroma is roasty to burnt to chocolate, I wasn’t expecting that. It also has layers of banana, yeasty spice, cloves and a hint of caramel. The taste is a muddled hodge podge of notes starting with dark roasty malts, chocolate, a string of cloves and yeasty spice. It then moves into all sorts of robust bright spicy notes like more cloves, some all spice, more yeasty spice and a dash of black pepper corns. All of these spicy notes mingle, in a disjointed sort of way, with lingering burnt malts and chocolate into the finish. This should come together and get very very good in a couple of years.

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

Of the annual vertical epic series, this is the one I have enjoyed the most, a truly oustanding beer. A very dark brown pour, reminiscent of a good stout. Head is lighter brown. Aroma is roasted malt, chocolate, vanilla, and citrus. Flavour is more of the coffee/chocolate notes with some citrusy notes.

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

This poured a black color with a tan head. The aroma contains some bananas and other tropical fruits, chocolate, coffee, kind of espresso like. The flavor is slightly bitter with more chocolate, coffee, and a hint of the bananas and some spices. The aftertaste is also slightly bitter. Overall I really liked this one.

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

Found this tucked away at a local drive through a while back and was able to grab one of the last two bottles. Very nice dark Belgian style, quality roast and chocolate accompany a flavorful yeasty backdrop. ///////////////// Scored this as 87788 during the draft vertical tasting so it's still close to how much I enjoyed it originally. Chocolate, roasted malt, cereal and vanilla all stood out and impressed me. Still one of my favorites from the series.

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

I bought this beer on Dec. 17, 2010 (So it had at least a year to mellow) at the Kroger in Roanoke on Brambleton Lane. I was not a huge fan of this beer. I thought it was a bit of a malt bomb - the beer was a bit unbalanced for my liking. I am glad I got the chance to try it but I wll pass on the Vertical Epics in the future.

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

Oct. 2009 - I don’t know what to say about this one. Dark pour, small roasty aroma. The flavor was a hodge-podge of flavors that didn’t meld wonderfully. A lot of dark roast and some honest to goodness banana flavors. The citrus hop flavor was the clangy off pitch note which ruined the finale. Just okay.

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

This reminded me more of a strong/imperial porter versus Belgian Ale. Flavor starts off with the malts with a hoppy/yeasty Belgian feeling finish (2 of favorite styles!) Very malty with the alcohol hidden quite well. I wish I would have read the bottle first, which recommends aging until sometime after 12/12/12....but hey, I would have been curious anyways and probably would have cracked. This was sooo good though, I am going to run out and grab one to age for a few years. I could see how it could be even better then. Super dark appearance, but not mud thick like and IPS. Tons of flavors going on, but nothing too overwhelming. Great balance.....One of my favorites.

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

This is a nice brew .. . pours out a very dark brown, light firm lacing .. . handball! .. . sweet light roast, and molasses with some a slight chocolate woodiness, awesome! .. . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zKE41IdH2g .. . My favourite so far from the epics! .. then we're shit out of luck...

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

March Madness tasting -

Aroma: Lots of roasted notes, but nothing overbearing. Bready-rye like notes, chocolate powder, fruity...odd but I enjoyed it.

Appearance: Dark brown/black body, 1" creamy light brown cap that had some beautiful staying power and nice lacing. Always love Stone beers because the head always seems to last the length of my pint.

Taste: Mild chalky-chocolate notes, light coffee roast, burnt toast, and light spice.

Overall: Nice beer that I’d be intrigued to find out what my other 2 bottles taste like in a few years.

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

Epic... that pretty much sums this up for me. Compliments of jlozier - many thanks, buddy! After a week of debate about whether to cellar it according to the text on the bottle or not and some insight from j., I decided to go for it. At first sip, I could not imagine this being any better in Dec 2012 than it was when I first opened it. This mighty fine elixir pours thickly into a glass with a deep, dark brown color that borders on black. A very slight head, but not dissappointing. Aromas of chocolate, vanilla and licorice abound and are a true delight to the nose. As smooth as silk - ay velvet - on the pallette - wow! The flavor is as equally impressive as the aroma with the same flavors as aromas. A superior beer in every sense of the word.