Stone Brewing Verticals

I drank an 06 Stone IRS last year and it was phenomenal. So I can say they hold up well for at least 5 years. I have no experience with any that were older.

 

Stone RIS is a good one. Ive had back to 02 & 05 they were awesome.
I have 09-12 now

Mid 40s will really slow down flavors and changing. Its a tad cold but not end of world.
Cheers!

 

Heard of people keeping verticals of Old Guardian, RIS, & Double Bastard. I'm super curious as to how the '06 RIS is doing, bought couple in 2008 from a rep kept it as cool & dark as possible until finally getting a proper winer cellar last month.

 

If you decide to cellar some Double Bastard I've had all the way back to 2003. The 2003 was the best in my opinion with the 2006 right behind it. 2004, 2005, and 2007 were good but not on the same level as those two. 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 were still to hot for my liking. I've decided I won't drink Double Bastard if its younger than 4-5 yrs

 

Yea!! A total stone geek topic! I soooo got this one lol. OK so its all dependent on YOUR tastes, that said the rest is based of the tastes of me and my 2 bff's.

I've got the IRS going back a decade. However in the past year and a half or so all we've opened are some of my 2005's since I have more of them. They taste EPIC, its really amazing how its aged. Very sweet and smooth. I remember a kind of cherry flavor to it thats so satisfying. When we finally decide to do a vertical of the beer older than that i'll let you know how it holds up. Honestly its been too long for me to give a solid review.

On the Double Bastards, mmm my favorite! I COMPLETELY agree with brandon0350. 2006 is the depth of my cellar so I can't back up his comments on the years prior, but is by far the most amazing! The years following i'm finding that the 2007 is almost there and agree with brandon on the rest. I as well wait it out on these beers at least 3 years before opening to see how they are coming along. Worth the time and taking up of the space in your cellar.

Old Guardian- Me and my friends went to the old guardian release earlier this year. They had all the way to the last case of 1999's that day all for $4 a glass. We share-sipped our way up thru 2006. Myself and others were convinced that the beer stands the test of time amazingly. I found the 2002 to be even better than the 1999 though. I later found out that it was due to a different hop profile for that year (thank you marlene owner of stuffed sandwich, your knowledge is unsurpassed). So again its all taste, but either way they are TOTALLY worth the time aging.

Lets see as for keeping it in the fridge, i've always been told that 55 is optimal for proper aging. That extra 10 might slow the process for ya. There are wine cellars on craigslist super cheap though. Thats what I did and it makes things easy. Only drawback is that the sediment that you will get from aging the beer will be on the side and not the bottom obviously. So you have to take the beer out and set it upright for a day so you can get a clean pour. I think its a small price for space management.

Good tasting!

 

lol i'm actually not against that, i'm all about sharing with the true geeks

 

To the OP, we had a 5 year vert of old gaurdian last night. The 2009 and 2011 were my personal favorites. I could see being amazing with even more age as well

 

Sublimely Self-Righteous actually ages surprisingly well. The hops are completely gone, but it ends up as a very nice vintage stout, more or less.

 

My God, I wish I lived near an awesome brewery like Stone. A glass of '99 OG for $4? Consider my mind blown.

 

That's good to know. I've got a bottle of Stone 11th Anniversary, and I've been planning on picking up a fresh SSR to do a side by side.

 

i enjoyed a stone 15th anniversary on tap today and it is drinking really well. the sharp resinous pine in the nose has faded quite a bit but there is still some hop bitterness remaining in the taste which is very smooth with roast and chocolate. i'm not sure i'd cellar this beer away for too much longer but i was pleasantly surprised at how well it was doing almost a year later.

 

Yeah I gotta say I'm always impressed at how stone doesn't rip you off. They will pull old bottles out of their archives to sell to you. Example- At the old guardian release this year they had them for sale going back to 06. There was like a 2-6 bottle limit depending on the year but even the 06 was only $12. If you end up visiting the brewery they also have a very cheap bottle list. Its very impressive, I don't know why people talk so much shit toward stone.

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(leaving this area for stone haters to comment) haha

 

a friend and I did a vertical of old guardian(02-11) last year and they all held up very well and he just kept them in his basement (55winter - 70summer). I feel like as long as the bottle is not sitting under a light for years and not getting above 75 they will develop amazingly

 

Stone's prices and selection on beer is extremely reasonable. And it's a nice place to have a drink. Service can be very hit or miss though, and the food is not terribly good and quite overpriced. Their event dinners are quite well done though, and used to be massively underpriced - though they seem to be catching on and raising rates recently.