Vertical Epic Ale 07.07.07
Stone Brewing in Escondido, California, United States 🇺🇸
Belgian Style - Strong Ale Series Out of Production|
Score
6.87
|
|
In this year’s edition we took our inspiration from two Belgian styles: saisons and golden tripels. As such, Stone 07.07.07 Vertical Epic Ale has a deep, deep golden hue and the flavor is spicy, fruity, complex and refreshing. We used four different malts and a subtle, yet distinct, blend of Glacier and Crystal hops to get just the right balance. Then, for the complexity, we added in some exotic spices—including ginger, cardamom, grapefruit peel, lemon peel and orange peel (the latter three acknowledging our Southern California home)—and a special Belgian yeast strain. All in all this is yet another case of us drawing from classic Belgian influences and cavalierly making it our own...San Diego style!
Sign up to add a tick or review
7.1/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
bottle - Pours lightly hazy orange with a thin, disappearing head. It smells very much of yeast and citrus. The flavor is of sweet malts with some yeast and lots of citrus. All those fruit peels are definitely coming through. Medium bodied and easy drinking, it has a light hops finish and a little more of the citrus that runs all the way through it. This beer is really good though doesn’t live up to last year’s effort, in my opinion. The citrus needs to smooth out a bit. Now to see how it ages...
Tried
from Bottle
on 03 Sep 2007
at 14:56
7.2/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7
22 oz bottle mail order from South Bay (Imperial Beach, CA). Pour is clear golden with a slight amber twinge with a one inch off white head. Aroma is spicy bread (Belgian) yeast and some fruitiness bananas, peaches maybe? Taste is peppery spice at the start, than bready, then midway through becomes very sweet. There is some hops in the finish, and a bit of a sticky sweet aftertaste. This one was a bit cloying for me, but was fun to drink nonetheless.
Tried
from Bottle
on 28 Aug 2007
at 17:13
6.8/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
Pours a translucent, hazy orange with no white head. Smells of wild yeast, vanilla and alcohol. Flavor is yeasty, with banana, peanuts, vanilla, hard candy and a touch of tangerine. Heavy alcohol contributes to a heavy mouthfeel. Might do well in the cellar for a year or two.
Tried
from Can
on 21 Aug 2007
at 09:01
6.6/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
Clear straw-orange body, thin-medium off-white head. Aroma with (oh no!) strong spices, especially ginger, with clove, sugary, bready malt, and a touch of citrus. Rather dry, well-spiced body emphasizing ginger with some bubblegummy esters and modest bitter, citrusy hops in the finish. The residual sugars coat the palate after a few sips. This could be a re-release as far as I’m concerned, another Tripel/Saison hybrid that lacks the elegance of either. Not a bad beer, but a boring one, and aging it seems pointless.
Tried
on 20 Aug 2007
at 18:50
7.5/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 6
Texture 10
Overall 8
Strong ginger, cardamon, citrus aromas. Almost burns the nostrils. Golden amber color with a beige head that actually lasts awhile. Medium bodied with creamy carbonation. The first impression is ginger. The second impression is ginger. Thinking about this, there is some pale or caramel hop flavor. There’s even some hop bitter. However, the ginger is helping clear the sinus. Reminds of Blandford Fly.
Tried
on 08 Aug 2007
at 21:07
7/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
Bottle. Pour is a coppery amber color with a pretty nice frothy head that sits about two fingers high. Aromas are fairly subtle. Smells like honey, ginger, and some citrus. Flavor is extremely sweet up front... candi sugar, caramel, sugar cane, etc. (maybe I’m exaggerating a little, but it’s way sweeter than I expected.) Flavor then yields to a citrus peel and spice finish... which is then capped off with an alcoholic burn and astringent flavor. It will be really interesting to see how this one ages and if it blends out some of the rough transitions and unseemly qualities.
Tried
from Bottle
on 08 Aug 2007
at 20:13
5.6/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 6
Texture 4
Overall 5.5
Bottled at Oliver Twist, Stockholm. Clear amber, average head. Aroma of coriander and winegum. Sweet and estery, very fruity. Medium bodied with rounded mouthfeel and evident crystal malt character. A fairly streamlined, highly spiced beer, typical American-Belgfian style. Lots of flavours, but not so much depth. Finishes slightly stick. A drinkable beer for it’s size, but it leaves me rather unimpressed. Perhaps I’m not worthy?
Tried
from Bottle
on 07 Aug 2007
at 02:47
6.9/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
Bottle: Lots of spice with a strong presence of cloves, corriander, and orange peel. Maybe I could sense a little ginger, but lots of spices overall. A little bit of florals and yeast, but mostly dominated by spices. My first in the series, but I will cellar one until 2012.
Tried
from Bottle
on 03 Aug 2007
at 18:15
7.4/10
—
Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 8
Texture 6
Overall 7.5
Pours Amber/golden. Aroma is slightly sweet, with a notable spice hints. Flavor is malty with a nice amount of citrus and spice. Finish is quite sweet. Alcohol presence is slightly noticable - will see how it is in a few years! Update 09.12.2008: Beer mellowed with age, citrus still present, alcohol diminished a bit, spice a lot more subtle.
Tried
on 27 Jul 2007
at 23:08