11th Anniversary Black IPA - Simcoe
Stone Brewing

RB transfer

Dusty bottle from the cellar.Dark brown pour, lots of short-lived tan bubbles. Arom is roasty with hotes of oxidization. taste is shadow of the the original brew, plus has some soy sauce vibe. Still drinkanle.

 

 

 

from notes.

A: Pours a dark opaque color with a tan head.

S: There's some citrus on the nose with some dry pine and a touch of smokiness. The nose is sweet overall.

T: The flavor is a huge dry roasted malt bill, some dry chocolate with some citrusy hopping and sticky pine. Theres a definity pine sticky resin character to the palate with a great roasted malt presence that is deep and very rich. Definitly tastes like they combined their arrogant bastard and smoked porter recipe. Drinks very well for a 8.7%abv. Overall I thought it deserved a very good rating, my only complaint was it failed to bring something new to the table considering it was an anniversary beer. Typical Stone hopping with Chinook with some new Amarillo lemon hops used to give it a distinct citrus/lemon hop flavor. Reminds me a little of the Oaked Aged Yeti by Great Divide malt and hop wise, but not nearly as good. A good combination of malt and hopping and very well balanced. There was a nice lingering bitterness from the hops that hung around for a little bit as well.

M: Medium bodied, and malty.

D: A big sippin ipa worthy of respect.

I was lucky enough to try this over at Tria in Philadelphia. Not only was it cool to get to sample this rare beer, but I got to talk to the brew master, Mitch Steele, for quite a while about how he got involved with beer.

What a beautiful looking beer...Onyx colored with nice head served in a wine glass. Lace covered the sides and really maintained well. Definitely nice looking after the 07.07.07 Vertical Epic and Aged Double Bastard, both headless.

Smelled nice and hoppy, which only boggled me since it was so dark. A very raw smelling beer, which I loved since I'm a big IPA guy.

Sweet hops (amarillo and simcoe) were noticeable but were not overpowering. Compared to other IPAs, it was much calmer but still maintained many of the characteristics of other IPAs. The mouth feel was thicker, which was awesome and confusing, since it tasted exactly like an IPA. There was also a slight roast flavor at the end of each gulp, but nothing too extreme to scare me away.

What an interesting beer! Mitch Steele told us this story of how he came up with this brew, which only made the experience of drinking it better. He also hinted that they may make more of this - I hope he wasn't just teasing...

I'll agree with what the other guy said in that this was a bit more agressive on the hops in both the taste and bitterness but I don't think its necessarily overdone.

This beer poured a very dark color with little light shinning through, just like the regular version. Also the head was about the same at about a half inch tall and tan in color and was fairly sticky and laced the glass.

The smell was of some dark malts and was loaded with hops. I don't understand why this beer is labeled as 11th anniversary with simcoe hops. I mean, the original already had tons of simcoe in it. The wethops used added a nice freshness to it that may help the beer age nicely for the next year or two as the hop presence won't diminish quite so quickly. The flavor was a little more bitter but again, not quite over done. If you don't like it now, try it again next year if they still have any left.

The beer was pretty drinkable but I was running around trying everything I could get my hands on including all the anniversaries from 4th to 11th and vertical epic 03 to 07. So I didn't actually drink much of this.

8 ounce glass of this out of the hand pump at Stone Winter Storm this afternoon for four dollars

Color was different shades of very dark brown, almost black, 1/2 inch super creamy vanilla colored head that settled after about five minutes, decent retention and some lacing, this one looked extremely creamy right out of the cask

Smell had lots of floral and dry hoppiness, faint citrus aroma that consisted of lemons and oranges, mostly strong wet hops, small amount of bready malt, faint roasted barley scent, which must be where the darker color comes from

Taste was potent with a nice dry finish, wet hops gave this more of an aggressive bitter flavor, not balanced like the orginial version, the fruity hoppiness was overpowered by the wet dryness, could not taste much malt either, smooth as they get but most beers like this at room temperature are, wish the hoppiness was a little lighter, probably will not hear that from me much, just a little skunky and too dry in my opinion, could have been a lot better if it was not so aggressive

Body was nice like most beers on cask tend to be, more fun to look at than anything else, very small amount of carbonation but a long lasting taste, creamy and dry mouthfeel

Could not have drank too much of this, pretty heavy and extremely hoppy, the taste got tiresome because the hops were so strong and there was not much else going on, alcohol percentage is fairly high as well

Did not expect to see this one there, must have missed it on the list, did not taste as good as the regular 11th Anniversary, wet hops made it a little overpowering and the subtle bitterness was the best part of the normal one, I still recommend trying it if you make it Stone soon, decent india pale ale out of the cask