Year of New Beer: Stone Vertical Epic 2003-2012, Stone Brewing (CA)

Written By: Dion on 10/18/2015

Aging beers is a crapshoot, because you honestly don't know what's going to happen over time. Perhaps an even bigger gamble is taken by the brewery that intentionally brews a yearly beer in a series with the hope they might someday be consumed in the manner in which we did today. The 2007 was probably my favorite, still exhibiting many of the saison qualities intended by Stone. Nice spice character highlighted by ginger and cardamom. The 2004 was very good with an unusual lime kick. Possibly the biggest surprise came with the 2003. Twelve years old and still delicious with notes of coriander and still present hop bitterness. This was a fantastic tasting and I was honored to be a part of it.