Stone RIS Vertical...

I hosted a '09-13 when 13 came out in April. There were six of us and we sampled and scored each individually. 2011 was the runaway winner after that '09, 13,12,10. '11 was my fav so that tells me to hold onto 2-3 bottles and drink around the two year mark.

 

2013 was great got a 2012 ima try tomorrow through i have no doubts it will be amazing. I'll report back

 

I was part of a 07-12 vert tasting last year, and the overwhelming favorites were 08 and 09, but 07 was damned good too. I dunno if it'll make it a decade in good shape but I'll try one day.

 

Is there any particular pattern to how this ages? That is, does it generally get more of a chocolate-malty flavor, or more dark fruit flavors, etc?

 

I have had 08-10 recently and they were all still drinking quite nicely. I have 06-13 and plan on drinking them soon.

 

I am not generally of the opinion that Stone's RIS gets better with age. Now, having said that I must confess and admit that one of the single best stouts I've ever tasted is the RIS 2005. I tasted it at Stone from the purportedly last keg they had. This was about 2 years ago and, at the time, it was simply spectacular.

 

It has been a while since I have cracked an older bottle but the last time I had an 08 along side a 12 (back when the 12's came out) the 08 had much more of a dark fruit flavor than the fresh beer. I love the beer fresh but was blown away at much more I enjoyed the 4 year old bottle over the fresh one.

 

Just had an '07. Keeps getting better and better.

 

I've only had vintages from Stone when they put them on tap and they're amazing! I did though watch a stone beer u when they claimed at a certain point the beer would become bad and after another year would become very fruity.

I think they said buy 5 years it "may be" soy saucy and later get very dark fruit flavors.

 

2000 and 2001 were the favorites on tap a couple years ago. Blew everyone away. I cursed. It was like BCS Rare complexity but without the heat, and maybe not quite as complex.

We have a bottle vertical of the same (00 through current) that we need to do soon. But sadly most of us only have the older bottles. My vert goes from 2000, and stops at like 08 or 09, heh. Such problems.