BeerBorg

A few months bag Jeff sent me 2 of his Stone Vertical and suggested I keep one a bit longer and taste it. I've been wanting to for awhile so I couldn't wait any longer.....it's Stone! I'm pretty sure this is the 09-09-09 but at my age, at least I know he sent it to me.
It's a meal in a glass! Dark, heavy, with a great tan colored lacing. The aroma is slightly woodsy and somewhat citrusy but smells like a porter. It also has a bit of a sweet smell as well.
The taste......definite but slight roast taste with a hint of orange peel and banana with a slight amount of vanilla. Midly sweet and it hides the alcohol well. Almost a fruity chocolate and caramel finish. The belgian yeast definitely is present and balances out the candi sugar and fruitiness.
I know I enjoyed the first one but as it's been awhile, I'm sorry to say that I can't point out any major differences between the 2 due to the age except that I can't tell that this one is older. It has been kept refrigerated at 40 degrees for a while.
Great job as usual Jeff and thanks for sending this to me.

I've got one of these in the fridge chilling. Now I know what to expect, cool.
I'm not typically a dark beer fan because of the toasted/roasted notes so I'm interested to have a crack at this one and compare notes.
Even if I don't like the style it will be fun to compare notes on what I smell and taste.

Ron, that's the great thing about sharing beer. I'm drinking awesome beers that aren't in my style zone and that's so damn good to me. Drink outside my cat box.
I do like dark beers but this one jumps out in terms of quality. You can taste it in every sip. I'm not sure I could take on this challenge and even come close.

I've had this one as well. Not a typical style that I would drink. Really sweet, a little bit of strong alcohol taste, and a rich mouthfeel. The orange flavor lingers at the end of each sip, and there wasn't a lot of hop bitterness. I think I ate pork ribs the day that I poured it, and that paired very well with the beer.

I'm sad to report that this just isn't my style of beer. It smelled sweet and a bit woody to me, almost like a sherry or wine. The taste definitely had a warm alcohol presence and the mouthfeel to me was somewhat slick. I'm sure this was a very finely brewed beer, it just wasn't suited for my tastes.

Thanks for the opportunity to try it Jeff! If we never try new things, we never know if we'll like 'em.

Mine is still in the fridge. I just like looking at the naked cat staring back at me everytime I open it and it's been to hot to pop open a big beer.

But my temps have been getting chillier at night, so pretty soon it will be consumed.