Stone Vertical Epic 11.11.11

When I was 11 in early 2002, I wasn't thinking about craft beer. I'm pretty sure I was playing Pokemon and watching Cartoon Network. Stone Brewing Company based in Escondido, California, on the other hand, was thinking of craft beer. While I was learning long division, Stone was brewing up something special. You see, they weren't your average brewery. Oh no, they had bigger plans in mind.

Cue the Vertical Epic Ale series.

From 02.02.02 to 12.12.12., Stone has subsequently released a single brew on dates ending in consecutive numbers one year, one month, and one day apart. Stone has brewed eleven different beers all designed to complement one another in a gustatory symphony never seen by the likes of the craft beer world ever before. I managed to hop on the Vertical Epic train just as the ride was coming to an end. While the earliest brews are exceedingly rare, I was able to snag an 11.11.11 and a 12.12.12. This review will focus on the 11.11.11

I let this beer sit out of the fridge for a little while before I opened it up. It definitely needs to warm up a bit for you to truly appreciate the effort that went into this brew. I poured it into a pilsner glass and observed a light tan head, a hazy orange/brown-colored body and a lacing that quickly dissipated. While the head did stick around, the lacing did not - a bizarre combination. When I put my nose up to the glass, I instantly detected a boozy aroma (which made it seem a lot stronger than its 9.0% ABV would have lead me to believe) with tropical fruits, cinnamon, cloves, and a definite smell of a peppery spice that stung the nose a little.

Now, before I get into the taste, I want to have a quick sidebar about chili beers. I usually lump them into one of two categories - beer with chili as a novelty and beer with chili for actual flavor. The former category, contains beer such as Black Mountain Brewing's Cave Creek Chili Beer, the beer with an actual chili pepper inside the bottle. This beer is terrible and should be avoided at all costs. Try it once. You won't go back. The latter category contains beers like the 11.11.11. These beers are usually better.

With that out of the way, a strange combination of flavors flowed into my mouth. Chili peppers, bananas, cloves, cherries, and hops all combined in a spicy, sweet, and mildly bitter brew that I've never even come close to experiencing in another brew. This beer also drank very nice as a light-to-medium-bodied brew.


Having aged with grace, I'd highly recommend you find Stone's 11.11.11 if you can. My only regret was not holding out to see if I could find some of its older siblings, but with a little bit of digging and a little bit of luck, I'm sure I'll be able to try again.

Go A Few Rounds With Yards Brawler Ale

This post has been a long time in the making and for no reasons other than I'm lazy and school sucks. I have finally decided to write up a review for one of my favorite regular brews.  Being in Philadelphia has afforded me the opportunity to try some very excellent beers from the eastern Pennsylvania area, as well as Delaware and Maryland.  However, this one comes right from the "City of Brotherly Love", Philadelphia, more specifically Yards Brewing Company down along the Delaware River.

Anytime I think of Yards I immediately think of their Brawler Ale.  This is one of their year round available ales.  While very abnormal for craft beer it has a very low ABV coming in at only 4.2%.  This may have you thinking it is a very light and flavorless beer as mainstream beer marketing has unfortunately done.  However, it has a considerably robust and strong flavor, especially since it has such a low alcohol content.  It has a very caramely and almost bready taste to it with subtle hints of lemon or something citrusy at the end.  One would not find this flavor a shock if they did not know the ABV in advance though because it pours a very pretty dark red and brownish color that had a very light, almost white head (that was also very small). It is most certainly a session beer in that it is a very flavorful and filling beer, but drinking one of them will not severely impact your level or judgement and coherence. To me this means it's the perfect beer to have when doing homework and projects at night.  I can grab a few of these and drink them throughout the night and relax a bit without feeling drunk to the point of not being able to complete my work.

I absolutely love the labeling on this bottle as well as it has a classic style image of a manly man boxing a devilish creature.  They also give it the appropriate title of a Pugilist Style Ale (which after using the google machine means it is a "boxer" style ale).  You can certainly go a few rounds with this one.  For someone like myself who is on a somewhat restricted budget these were also great on my wallet not costing much more than a dollar and a half a beer (when purchased in a 6 pack), which I find to be very beneficial for my stomach, liver and wallet.

Winter Shredder

I'm not going to lie to any of you, I picked this beer since there's an awesome snowman surfing on the bottle. Cisco Brewers Nantucket's Winter Shredder is an "ale brewed with natural spices".

This ale's appearance is a copper color with a very obvious opacity. There was a lush, dark, 1 finger head after the pour that quickly dissipated. It did not leave much lacing. 

The smell is spicy and malty with a vanilla hint. The taste is an interesting blend of sweet and spicy. Mixed tastes of nutmeg, and brown sugar with a bitter finish. It was a medium bodied, slightly dry ale. 

It was a pretty good winter ale, but not one of my favorites. I haven't had any other beers by this brewer, but I'd certainly be willing to try others. While doing my research I found it unusual that on their website Cisco Brewers did not mention this particular beer on their list. 

Lastly I'd like to apologize for my absence on the blog. Holidays and my birthday mean much more beer drinking than beer reviewing. But I have a bunch of beers in my fridge to review, and will be posting much more frequently. 

He'brew Origin Pomegranate Ale

Courtesy Of Shmaltz Brewing Company

For the holidays I received an excellent addition to my beer collection, the Shmaltz Brewing Company's 2012 Holiday Gift Pack. It came with 8 excellent beers, which were supposed to be consumed during Hannukah. Unfortunately I was unable to do this. Instead I felt it would be necessary to at least try one on Christmas. The lucky brew was the Origin Pomegranate Ale, which was excellent. Being a big fan of pomegranate I was very excited to try this one and see how they worked this pomegranate flavor into this ale.

Shmaltz He'brew Origin Pomegranate Ale

I was unable to get my hands on a decent glass to pour this into so I had to drink straight from the bottle. While it wasn't the most ideal thing to do it made my life easier. It appeared to be a light amber and reddish color with decent carbonation. There was a sweet and somewhat potent scent from what I could smell emerging from the bottle. The flavor was nothing too overwhelming or exciting. There was a slight hop to the flavor initially which eventually turned into a nice and surprising pomegranate and tart flavor that went down very smoothly. It definitely did not taste as potent as it is at a whopping 8% ABV. It tasted more like a mild 4% or 5% ABV session beer.

As a whole this was a beer I certainly enjoyed and would get again, but not one that I would go out of my way to find. I feel that the ratings it has been given on various beer review sites do not do it justice though. I look forward to trying the rest of the box and will hopefully review a few.

There Can Only Be One Highland Brewing Company

Having just finished my final fall semester of my undergraduate career, I felt it was time for a nice little vacation. A few friends of mine and I went down to Outer Banks, North Carolina for a few days since one of them has a house down there. Since I was far out of my usual area I decided it would be the perfect time to try and find some local beer that I couldn't find in the Northeast. We went out Sunday for lunch and football to a local bar/restaurant, which i expected to have a decent beer selection. Unfortunately, I was wrong, they had a very limited list of beers. Fortunately, they did have a few local options, so I went with the Highland Brewing Company's Gaelic Ale. Highland Brewing is located in Asheville, NC and while not within a short drive of where we were staying it was by far the closest option and one I have never seen any of back home. The waitress gave us our bottles as well as glasses to pour them into if we so chose to.

Courtesy of Highland Brewing Company

While I really wanted to drink straight from the bottle because I'm lazy, I felt it would be a great disservice to not pour it into a glass since it took me an extra 30 seconds.  As I expected it had a beautiful deep amber/brownish color. After pouring it into my glass I noticed very little head and even less lacing. What little head there was, was very light in color. There was a very nice slightly sweet aroma to it, which was rather surprising to me. Now for the most important aspect of the beer, the taste! On first sip I was very confused about what exactly I was tasting besides hops and malts.  After letting my taste buds adjust, I found it had a nice lightly sweet flavor similar to how it smelled when you first took a sip.  However, that was only how it opened and welcomed itself.  Once it hit your mouth for more than the initial moment the flavor changed. While not a dramatic or crazy change it does give a stronger hops and wheat taste.

All in all this is a solid beer. It may not be the best I've had, but it is far from the worst I've had.  I thoroughly enjoyed it while watching some decent football and would not mind having it again.