Stone - Americano Stout

All bomber prices, per ounce, are much higher than 12oz bottles. Why, I don't know. From a weight perspective, one brings home a 5 pound bottle of beer, and discards about 3 1/2 pound of glass. I buy bombers constantly, because I have to if I want that beer, but please, someone, make sense of this for me. C'mon Greg, you're an honest guy.

 

WANNA SEE ROUGH? $4.95 a single welcome to PA BEOACH!

 

This. This. This. Unless you either plan on sharing a bomber with friends, are really not sure about a beer, or love drinking 8.5% bombers to the dome
regularly, there's nothing good about bombers. It's just bad math. Personally, I trust Stone enough to take a flyer on their beers and drink it over the course of a week or two.

I would love it if they put IRS into 6-packs. It would make aging them much easier. Expedition Sout is great for that purpose.

 

Anyone else notice this has no bottle dates??

 

Remember when American craft beer was made with barley, hops, yeast and water?

Me neither.

 

I noticed the same thing with some of their hoppier beers like Delicious and Ruination 2.0; made me steer clear of them

 

Ya weird. Didn't see any of the date on the bottom either. I don't care with a stout. Just weird for Stone. I wouldn't trust the hoppy beers both of those fall off bad to me. Worse than enjoy by lol

 

I'm okay with no bottle dating on an AIS, even with coffee in it. Might lose some of the espresso flavor eventually, but probably not for at least half a year and with how tasty this is, I can't see myself aging it anyway. Maybe they're banking on the fact that, since it's seasonal, it'll fly off shelves and people will just put 'em back without worrying about enjoy-by dates. Weird that people've been seeing their IPAs and hoppier offerings lacking dates though... that is certainly uncharacteristic of Stone, for sure. Maybe there's an issue with whatever they use for bottle dating. Guess I'll keep an eye out for that in the future.

Anyway, this is really very good. Pricing is a mild contention... it really depends on if you're willing to pay more up-front for longer lasting enjoyment, as with most debates about 1x22 oz vs 4 or 6x12 oz formats. I paid almost $20 for a sixer (didn't really realize it was so expensive until I took it to the counter as I grabbed it straight from the counter of a local store right after it was delivered but right before they put price stickers on this and the Pataskala Red X IPA six-packs ) but I don't regret it. At first, I was like "ouch, sorry wallet" but when I thought about it for a bit (in between bouts of instantaneous buyer's remorse, obviously ) I realized that if the beer's good and I actually want to drink 72 oz of it over a period of, let's say several months, it's essentially like getting almost a quart of beer for essentially "free". No doubt that if this were in bombers, it would be about $8-9 per bottle, which is approx. $0.36/oz. At $19.50 or so per six-pack, that's about $0.27/oz. If that six-pack pricing translated to bombers, you'd have around a $6 bomber, which tends to be very uncommon, especially for Stone seasonals/limited releases.

 

Every bottle dated, drinking incredible, nicely done.

 

So much this.

 

Well, for me the pricepoint for a beer is relative to what else is available in the same price range and format.

Also, I remind you that Stone IRS used to be $5.99 a few years ago, and now goes for $6.99 in CA. It's also higher abv.

As far as the beer goes, I just don't think this is worth 3-4 dollars more than Bell's Expedition or even Storm King. Santa Fe's Java Stout six pack is very good, as is Brooklyn's Black Chocolate Stout, and they are considerably cheaper.

I'd be fine with this at a 13.99 price point; and I'm happy with Xocoveza at $14-15.99 I don't think this one is particularly good or interesting. It's a good beer, though. I thought their 20th Anniversary was excellent though.

 

Storm King and Expedition seem to be going for about the same per oz. here in San Diego. I dig this beer a lot, and might pick up more at some point, but it's a little our of my budget in general.

 

Fair enough, although as mentioned in the previous post the price per oz is fairly close to Storm King 4-packs for example (6-packs were at a cheaper rate), including in my neighborhood. For my particular tastes, I agree there are preferable beers at this price point. My point is just that while beers like this in general are at a fairly high price point, I don't think Stone or this beer in particular is jacked up compared to similar product.

 

I'd honestly just rather get rasputin 4-packs for 9.99.

 

imagine coffee rasputin...

guys...

 

I agree for 5 dollars for the single I would get 20th Anniversary from Bells over this beer any day!

 

Oh lord, that Bells 30th Anniversary I'll pay 20 bucks a six pack for. One of the best stouts I've ever had. Can't find it around here anymore though, alas.

 

Picked this up today. 15.99 @ Binny's. Nice coffee presence but as others have mentioned, a bit thin & watery in mouthfeel. Perhaps this is what Stone were aiming for but I'd choose V@S every day of the week over this. No dates imprinted on the bottles either. I dug the Espresso IRS the last time & was hoping (perhaps unfairly) this would be representative of that release. It was not unfortunately.

 

I enjoyed it. Thought it was creamy, brightly hoppy w lots of bitter roast. Had all the body I want in an 8% stout.

A lot of the beers that this stout is being compared to on this thread are not going for the same thing and so I think the comparisons are a bit unfair. Yes storm king is a hoppy stout but it's stronger and has no coffee blended into it. VaS has always been a vanilla first-coffee second beer to me. Bells 30th and Old Raspy are much stronger straight up imp. stouts. Seems like apples and oranges to me.

Also my bottles had dates clearly printed - 1/16/16

 

Going to have to agree to disagree here. V@S is a coffee first-vanilla second beer to me. Cheers!