Stone Brewing Vertical Epic Ale 02.02.02

Vertical Epic Ale 02.02.02

 

Stone Brewing in Escondido, California, United States 🇺🇸

  Belgian Style - Strong Ale Series Out of Production
Score
7.03
ABV: 7.5% IBU: 45 Ticks: 95
A new Vertical Epic will be released every year, with the goal being to collect them all and have a Vertical Epic tasting once the final Epic is released on 12/12/12. Each new Stone Vertical Epic Ale will be release one YEAR, one MONTH and one DAY apart.

Vertical Epic 02/02/02 was not brewed "to style". Instead, we tried to create something new. It’s triple-ish in nature, with wit character, coriander and orange peel, and has way more hops than either a Belgian triple or a Wit would. Belgian yeast was used. Belgian Strong Ale is the closest category that fits -- Greg Koch, Stone Brewing CEO.

What about Stone Vertical Epic Ale 01.01.01? Well, there are two reasons for its non-existence: (1) We didn't want to participate in the whole overhyped media nonsense of "Millennium this" and "Millennium that," and (2) we didn't think of the Stone Vertical Epic Ale idea until the fall of 2001 (which was already too late for a 01.01.01 version.) Sure, we could wait until the year 3001 to start this series, but we were afraid that with all that time between now and the next millennium, we might forget. Besides, that millennium will probably be overhyped as much as the last one.
 

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7/10
Medium sweet malty and fruity, some ornamge notes, bitter citrus peel, layers of herbal accents and spices throughout, yeasty linger, sweet malty support, spices sweet fruity finish.
Tried on 26 Mar 2025 at 11:41

7.4/10 Appearance 8 Aroma 7 Flavor 7 Texture 8 Overall 7.5
Bomber from the lcbo. Tropical fruit Aroma, lots of yeasty esters, some bitter citrus oils, and some light spice. Effervescent mouth feel, and lively carb. Finish is medium to highly bitter with a very dry, bitter bite. Dry cardamon flavour with lots of yeast and tropical fruit. Reminds me of a dialed up tripel. I don’t see age helping this much, fresh would be best I think on this one.
Tried on 28 Feb 2025 at 05:40

7/10 Appearance 8 Aroma 7 Flavor 7 Texture 6 Overall 7
From tap at BeerTemple, Amsterdam. Aroma is spicy Belgian yeast, coriander, fruits, soft floral notes, with a touch of hops. Flavour is sweet and surprisingly bitter for a Belgian style strong ale, though I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised coming from Stone. Medium bodied, enjoyable stuff.
Tried from Draft on 10 Feb 2025 at 04:50

7.1/10 Appearance 6 Aroma 7 Flavor 8 Texture 6 Overall 7.5
Bottled. Hazy yellowish orange colour with a small white head. Aroma is banana, yeast, spices, citrus and some sweet malts. Flavour is sweet malts, fruits, some spices, yeast and quite nice floral bitterness in the finish. Wellbalanced on the fruits and spiciness.
Tried from Bottle on 31 Dec 2022 at 10:01

8/10
Mad coriander
Tried from Bottle on 25 Jun 2021 at 21:45

5.1/10 Appearance 6 Aroma 5 Flavor 5 Texture 6 Overall 4.5
Bottle sample at a tasting at troubles' place. Thanks kerenmk. HAzy golden. Oxidation, yeast, orange, tangerine, marmalade, sweetish, bitter finish, some alcohol.
Tried from Bottle on 03 Mar 2021 at 17:58

7.1/10 Appearance 10 Aroma 7 Flavor 6 Texture 8 Overall 6.5
Older check-in shared with Marko and Ogi, thanks. Hazy golden, big creamy white head. Malts, esters, fruit, tart fruit, pear, citrus, banana and some alcohol. Sweet, candy-like, metallic and some spice in the flavour. Sticky, medium body, moderate carbonation, light finish.
Tried from Can on 19 Jul 2020 at 20:14

5.8/10 Appearance 6 Aroma 6 Flavor 6 Texture 4 Overall 6
Quite hazy orange and yellow golden coloured body with a thinnish, pure white head that hovers in at around a single centimetre. Aroma of grass, hay, light floral and perfumey hops with a faint citrus component, and relatively balanced throughout, but more of a dry scent, especially at the end. Medium-bodied; Strong grassy and herbal flavours at first with a nice, but mild, alpha acid bitterness from the hops that shows nicely, but also shows off the malt and balance nicely, albeit relatively simplistically with no real complexities or depth of flavours - just a good balance on top of some fresher notes. Aftertaste shows the grainy and herbal elements towards the end with a dash of flowers and very low alpha acid hops that don't show much bitterness or character, but some light citrus notes are noticeable. Overall, a nice enough beer that shows some nice flavours, but not too strong in any regard to have enough character or depth to make this good or worthwhile in terms of spending extra money on. I sampled this 65 cL bottle, purchased at The Perfect Pour in Elkridge, Maryland on 28-November-2016 for US$8,99 sampled a thome in Manassas, Virginia on Christmas Eve 2017.
Tried from Bottle on 28 Feb 2020 at 21:32

7.5/10 Appearance 6 Aroma 7 Flavor 8 Texture 8 Overall 8
Tap. Golden color. Oak, shades of Peach fruit in the aroma. Well hopped with earthy grassy hops. Stones. Nice bitterness. Good beer.
Tried from Draft on 26 Aug 2019 at 08:34

7/10 Appearance 6 Aroma 7 Flavor 7 Texture 8 Overall 7
Tap@Skaal, Copenhagen - hazy golden orange with a white head. Medium sweet malty and fruity, some ornamge notes, bitter citrus peel, layers of herbal accents and spices throughout, yeasty linger, sweet malty support, spices sweet fruity finish.
Tried from Draft on 27 Jul 2019 at 19:38