Stones Epic failure??

Mind you, I've had 11.11.11 fresh when it came out last year. I know it went south.

 

I had a chance to try 09-12 the other day. I thought the 09 was phenomenal, and the 10 had gotten better since it had been released. Wasn't much of a fan of 11 & 12.

 

That's definitely it. No doubt about it. Mine sat in a dark closet. Time to start evacuating. Damnit.

 

I saved 6-9, so it sounds like my myopia on the early years and disdain for the later years will work to my favor.

 

Were the beers great? Nah, I tried the 03-12 last week and thought they ranged from not that good, to pretty tasty.

http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/stone-vertical-day.55151/page-3#post-742643

But I wouldn't say it was a failure. If nothing else, it was fun getting people together to try all these different bottles.

I wonder if some people just don't care for aged beers? I know it's something I don't enjoy all that much except for certain releases/styles.

 

Clearly you let the '12 age too long.

 

I still love '09. '10 is fading FAST. Just got my '12 today, slated for a New Year's finish of what I have left.

 

This has a serious effect on how you percieve flavor, and will cause you to miss out on a LOT of flavors and aromas.

 

i had 06.06.06 through 11.11.11 (i'll get to 12.12.12 next week) from bottles that i purchased and stored in the fridge since release. 07.07.07 was a bust; just not good for whatever reason. all the other bottles ranged from decent to good to really good (06.06.06 was my favorite).

none of the bottles showed any signs of poor aging which was impressive and confirmed to me the wisdom of proper storage (fridge is the only way to go IMHO but I know that's not the collective beer geek wisdom perspective on proper cellaring).

i really enjoyed opening each of my bottles and seeing what the years had done - thanks Stone!

 

I've only had them fresh. I have an 11-11-11 that I meant to crack open this year but missed the occasion (11-11-12). We'll see how it holds up in 2013.

 

I tried the 12.12.12 on Friday and I thought it was pretty meh. Interesting how the freshest one is the worst one in my experience.

 

I basically ignore all Stone products !!

 

Not forever. It is substantially muted for active smokers; this is pretty well known information. One of the big perks to quitting smoking is that when you stop, food tastes better. As a side note, there is actually a correlation between subdued tastebuds from smoking and overuse of salt in food, which contributes to cardiovascular problems.



OT rant aside, I think the Vertical Epic beers are a fail, especially considering the going rate of 02/02/02. I haven't had it since 2005, but even then it was a shadow of its former self. I think 11/11/11 was garbage fresh and I can't imagine it got any better; my favorite is still 2009. I'll confirm tomorrow with a tasting of 07-12.

 

I thought the series actually worked out pretty well. We did a tasting the other night to pre-game a neighborhood Xmas party. We only had 07-12. None of them were "properly" stored (55 degrees, dark) and the 07-09 used to be stored in a brightly lit, fairly warm place (before I knew about proper cellaring). However, none of that seemed to affect the flavor at all. 07 was awesome, very citrusy. 08 was okay, a hoppy pale ale won't really age well, but it wasn't bad. 09 was awesome, super chocolatey. 10 wasn't bad, it was my least favorite originally. All the women loved 10 the best. 11 was good, the Hatch chiles actually came out more instead of fading like I thought they would. 12 was good IMO, but a lot of people didn't like it. The cloves were very very strong. I honestly think that the 12 could do so well with some age on it so the spices all blend together and become one cohesive flavor rather than a bunch of flavor battling for dominance.

 

New Mexican hatch green chillis I believe

Partner in Crime is from New Mexico and wouldn't allow me to not correct this. Those chillis and their hot air balloon festival seem to be the pride of the state.

 

To be fair on the bottle it does say "Anaheim chiles from New Mexico's Hatch valley" or something along those lines. I remember because I thought it was weird.

 

I found the 11.11.11 quite tasty