Liberty Station Lifeblood
Stone Brewing

Pint from draft at Liberty Station for $8, been looking forward to trying this for a while now. Had Lifeblurred a few months ago but this is actually better. A proper Brown, which is hard to find these days. Delicious roasted malt profile with lots of chocolate, char, tobacco, dark coffee, and some wet wood. Super drinkable. Bravo!

Pours a dark brown color with a nice head and lacing
Aroma has cocoa and caramel hints
Taste has a cocoa and caramel flavor
A medium bodied decently carbonated beer
A good Brown ale

 

 

 

 

A 2019 batch on draft in Pasadena from Liberty Station site. Excellent brown ale.

 

 

 

From tasting notes 01/31/18
Had on-tap at Stone World Bistro and Gardens in San Diego, CA

Appearance - Served in a 16oz tulip, brown in color with ruby red highlights when held to light. Sandstone, half finger width head. Decent retention before a thin, consistent layer of suds. Good amount of lacing holds in a web-like fashion, with some broken lining and spotting dancing around the outside.

Smell - The aroma is whipped chocolate with lesser coffee roast character. Some caramel and faint nuttiness.

Taste - The flavor is surprisingly balanced with malt and hop character. Mocha-like malty character upfront that's equally sweet with milk chocolate as it is roasty with coffee, and then the citrusy hops kick in. Mild grapefruit. Hints of caramel, but the finish is a culmination of those three main flavors.

Mouthfeel - Medium-bodied with tingly carbonation. Slick, slightly creamy texture with an easy, semi-dry finish.

Overall - In the land of well crafted but often boring browns, this one shines. Interesting, cohesive flavor profile, but still light enough to land well within that brown style range. Take notes, brewers. This is an innovative take on a classic style.

February 12th, 2015 - Beer does indeed feel like a life blood, nourishing and energizing, something to look forward to, bubbling at the subconscious and steeped in history. And this brew does indeed look a little sanguine, pooling with a deep red-black color in the glass. The aroma is incredibly rich with malts, but also shaggy with mushroom and dirt, as if a heaping handful of rich soil had been added to the brew vat. It appears the aroma masked the hop profile because I catch it on the taste, balanced brilliantly against the malts. It is a sharp bitterness though, but acts more like an accent than it does a core taste. The rich, rounded dirt aroma is infused in the flavor too, imparted with a slight sugar sweetness. This is an exceptional brew, coursing with flavor and careful brewing engineering.

 

 

 

On tap at the Stone Company Store in Pasadena, CA.

Pours a hazy dark orange-brown with a foamy tan head that settles to a partial film on top of the beer. Tiny dots of lace form around the glass on the drink down. Smell is of toasted malt, roasted nut, toffee, and earth aromas. Taste is much the same with toast, earth, nut, and burnt caramel flavors on the finish. There is a medium amount of toast and earth bitterness on the palate with each sip. This beer has a lower level of carbonation with a slightly crisp and medium bodied mouthfeel. Overall, this is a good beer that is tasty and easy to drink.

Serving type: on tap.

 

 

Tried a 4oz sample at Pasadena (Liberty Station) store

Appearance - 4/5
No head, deep red brown, quite clear and crisp looking.

Smell - 4/5
Smoky malts, slightly sweet

Taste - 3.75/5
Smoky malts, sweet, maybe a hint of brown sugar, some herbal hops, slight fruit

Mouthfeel - 4/5
Medium body, smooth

Overall - 3.75/5