Tag Archives: Stone

Stone Sublimely Self Righteous Ale 2013

If you love both hoppy beers and dark beers you might find that most dark beers are too sweet, or not bitter enough. Sublimely Self Righteous is the cure to that, giving bitter chocolate flavors you might recognize from a porter and mixing in the hop flavors that hop addicts love. To see if those who hate IPAs and exclusively drink porters and stouts think, I gave my fiance a taste. He pursed his lips and said “too hoppy” so don’t expect to share this with the less enlightened among you.

Sublimely Self Righteous Ale.
Sublimely Self Righteous Ale.

In some ways, it is the darker version of the Alesmith Winter Yulesmith. Where the Winter Yulesmith has malts, this has chocolate, but both are perfectly balanced with the hop flavors. At 8.7% you might be able to finish a bottle on your own, though I don’t know if I can say the same thing about the Double Bastard. Make sure you get a bottle of this while this year’s batch is fresh, before the end of November and into the first half of December it should be the best. 

[As a fun side note, my brother thought this tasted more like beef jerky. He didn’t like it much either]

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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Stone Vertical Epic 12 12 12 1 year later

I’ve had this bottle aging for almost a year in my wine fridge. It really comes through in the plum flavors behind the spice. Much nicer than I remember it being the last time. Remember you can usually age these specialty beers for a year or two. It tends to mature the flavor.

image

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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Are you ready for Double Bastard 2013?

Somehow I didn’t notice Double Bastard until the 2012 batch was released. Of the specialty beers released by Stone Brewing, I found Double Bastard to be one of my favorites. This year Stone is going for the gold with multiple different versions of Double Bastard. Beerpulse reports that we should see two spicy versions and a barrel aged version along with a new batch of Double Bastard. It is unclear what peppers will be used in these beers but the article claims one is ultra-hot and another is even hotter. Will we finally have a widely available beer that will satisfy fans of strong beer and fans of spicy?

EDIT Nov 4, 2013: Through the official press release from Stone, we finally have an idea of what sorts of peppers were used in the making of this beer. The list of scorching edibles includes red and green jalapeño, Fatali, Caribbean Red Hot, habanero, Ghost, Black Naga, Super, Moruga Scorpion, 7 Pot, Aji Amarillo, Scorpion, Giant White Habanero, 7 Pot Douglah and Douglah peppers. To put this into perspective, consider that to the average person some of the hottest Jalapenos can be considered spicy. To the burgeoning pepper addicts, habaneros are pretty hot. Ghost peppers used to be considered the hottest peppers in the world until people discovered the Moruga and the Naga. These are some seriously insane peppers and will mean that the average person will not want to try this beer if they are not interested in a mouth of fire. More for me!

Stone Double Bastard
Stone Double Bastard

Stone recently posted this image on their facebook to get everyone excited about the upcoming release of Double Bastard. It looks like they should be in stores next week (November 4). Did you try any previous versions of Double Bastard? Are you a fan of this crazy beer?

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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Stone Suede Imperial Porter

You can count on stone to release specialty beers every few weeks (if not in reality it sometimes seems that way).  No I am not complaining. When I saw the Suede Imperial Porter brewed with Calendula Flowers, Lavender, and Honey I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it. Hey I love floral IPAs as much as the next guy but lavender in my beer? Not sure if serious.

Stone Suede Imperial Porter split nicely in two Green Flash glasses.
Stone Suede Imperial Porter split nicely in two Green Flash glasses.

So how was the beer? It has the usual texture of a high alcohol porter. The flowers aren’t as heavy in the flavor as I might have worried. The tastes are overall balanced and will satisfy fans of porters. It lacks the chocolate, coffee or vanilla flavors typically used in this style. As a result it might also appeal to people who usually find porters too sweet. The alcohol content really hides well in this one. It is easy to forget it is a whopping 9.6%.

Though I was impressed by the flavor overall, it isn’t something I’m going to rush out to buy another bottle of, especially with the new batch of Victory at Sea coming out this week from Ballast Point. Still, for those of you who were wondering if it is worth the money to buy a bottle, I say yes. I prefer Stone’s latest batch of Russian Imperial Stout though because of the coffee, especially in the Espresso version. I’m waiting patiently to try all the different varieties of Double Bastard that we should see pretty soon.

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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Stone Liberty Station

I feel it is only fitting to start this blog with a post about Stone. Not only were they the brewery that introduced me to the IPA but they are also one of San Diego’s biggest breweries. Though I don’t drink Stone IPA very much I still enjoy many of their specialty beers, including the Enjoy By IPA, Anniversary beers, and Double Bastard. Recently I got a chance to check out Stone’s new brewery/restaurant at Liberty Station and found it to be quite nice.

Nothing beats fresh IPA on tap and so I had to have a glass of the Enjoy By IPA while I was there.

I didn’t get a chance to try the food while I was there but they have a full menu just like the original location in Escondido. At the main bar they have beers from many different breweries so that even if you aren’t a fan of what Stone brews, you may find something to enjoy.

Stone Enjoy By IPA
Stone Enjoy By IPA

I look forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments. What is your favorite Stone beer?

Paul McGuire

Paul McGuire is a craft beer enthusiast. He likes to travel with his husband and enjoy the great outdoors. In his day job, Paul is a divorce attorney serving clients in San Diego California.

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