Stone Vertical Epic Ale 09.09.09

I’m writing about Stone Vertical Epic Ale 09.09.09 because the brewery sent me a bottle. That doesn’t mean I’ll blog about the next beer that shows up at my doorstep, or even that we’ll drink it. (At 8.9% abv and in a 22-ounce bottle this is definitely a “we” beer.)

If it were just kind of OK I might write about it eventually and I might not. If I disliked it as much at 04.04.04 I’d be telling you it sucked. As is my habit I bought two bottles of 04.04.04 in April of 2004. We opened one not long after and cared for it so little we dumped it. Waited several months and tried again. Dumped again. Obviously we should have never opened the second one and instead sold it on eBay (current bid $40).

This is one to go out and buy (I already did, in fact — my local store had three cases early this afternoon). Since 12.12.12. isn’t that far off you might even want to consider saving a bottle for some sort of grand event (sans 04.04.04). It’s got the heft to age. I don’t expect that any of the three bottles I bought ($5.99 apiece) will be around.

That’s pretty much all I have to say. Mitch Steele’s excellent tasting notes don’t need adding to, but were I scoring this beer (fat chance) I would give it six out of a possible five for mouthfeel.