09th Anniversary Ale
Stone Brewing in Escondido, California, United States 🇺🇸
Strong Ale - American Special Out of Production|
Score
7.00
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As has been a tradition, we have “Anniversary-ized” a recipe from our history by cranking it up, making it stronger and more assertive. With this year’s anniversary we decided to look back at a wheat beer that we released a couple of spring/summers a few years ago: Stone Heat Seeking Wheat. While it was a plenty tasty beer, we ultimately decided that it wasn’t that reflective of what Stone was all about, and we unceremoniously dropped it from our lineup. For the Stone 9th Anniversary Ale, we carried some of the characteristics from the Stone Heat Seeking Wheat–clear, not hazy; hoppy, not yeasty; combining a delicious hop bitterness and wheat tartness–and made some…well…adjustments.
Lively carbonation and medium body make this beer feel refreshing. Hops lightly attack the tongue, yet the finish is very soft and clean. Dangerously delicious.
Lively carbonation and medium body make this beer feel refreshing. Hops lightly attack the tongue, yet the finish is very soft and clean. Dangerously delicious.
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7/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
Golden color with a thick frothy white head. Relatively hoppy aroma. Rather sweet taste with some hints of wheat.
Tried
on 01 Dec 2005
at 00:16
7/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 7
Hazy orange body, medium off-white head. Big Amarillo hops aroma, citrusy, with a touch of pine, and bready malts. Bready, toasty, caramely body , light tartness, with plenty of grapefruit rind and pine. A touch earthy. In the APA "Harvest Ale" vein. Medium-bodied, rindy finish. This was well-made but it’s not quite my thing. The hops are already fading into biscuity malt, which makes drinking this ASAP a priority. Though I wasn’t overwhelmed, Stone continues to produce a quality product for a reasonable price.
Tried
on 26 Nov 2005
at 21:05
7.1/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 6.5
If you were to do a blind tasting of Ruination, Stone IPA, and this beer, I doubt you would be able to pick it out with any accuracy - however, that DOES mean that it’s a damn fine brew; it’s just not something all that "special" for a Stone product - very citrusy and hoppy, but with major caramel malt so that the huge hop profile doesn’t overwhelm you - if allowed to age, perhaps the other subtle background flavors would come to the forefront, but right now it is mostly a hop explosion with sticky malts trying to counteract - the result is a confusing, albeit flavorful experience.
Tried
on 29 Oct 2005
at 22:18
7.9/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
Pour and aroma are great. Beautiful coloration, orange-ish gold, with effervescent carbonation. Head is substantial, foamy and a dingy cream color. Aroma is heavy of peach, honey, wheat-grain and hops. Peachy fruit is noted in taste as is a bit of an alcoholic fire that pairs nicely with slight sourness of wheat. Crisp finish.
Tried
on 25 Oct 2005
at 21:36
6.8/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 6
Texture 6
Overall 7
Bottle. Sweet peach/apricot/cherry and hops aroma. Golden orange color with small head. Sweet apricot and bubblegum flavor initially fading into a strong bitter hops finish. Alcohol content apparent but masked by the hops.
Tried
from Bottle
on 21 Oct 2005
at 16:24
7.4/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
Thanks to Killer for this one! Hazy dark yellow body with a loosely constructed frothy head. Fruity pine aroma but one that is distinctly different all the same. Sweet and hoppy, again, different from a Pale Ale or IPA, but hard to describe. An interesting and enjoyable beer. I don’t know how this would age, I think it’s really all out front right now, but I wouldn’t mind drinking a few now while they’re fresh. Another Stone not distributed to Tennessee.
Tried
on 21 Oct 2005
at 08:04
7/10
—
Appearance 6
Aroma 6
Flavor 7
Texture 8
Overall 8
750 ml bottle-pours a white head with clear gold color. Aroma is hops. Taste is a too sharp/biting hops, creamy. rerate-Taste is rich, hoppy this time.
Tried
from Bottle
on 09 Oct 2005
at 17:43
7.9/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 8
Flavor 8
Texture 8
Overall 7.5
Hazy golden color with a thick and rocky off-white head. Thin and stringy lacing. Aroma of citrus, spice and hops. Light, zesty body with a crisp and peppery character. Grapefruit, hops and spice flavors dominate but there is a bit of sweet malt in the background too. The finish is spicy with more citrus. Pretty good hodgepodge style beer.
Tried
on 18 Sep 2005
at 23:41
4.4/10
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Appearance 8
Aroma 5
Flavor 3
Texture 4
Overall 3.5
Bottle consumed on 9/13/2005. Pours a copper-orange colored body with bottle-conditioned tiny bubbles forming a foamy white head, fair retention, little to no lacing. Smells like ruination. Very Hoppy. Bit of pineapple and coconut milk, lots of leafy green hops. Finally, some alcohol in the nose, detracts. Flavor has very low malt sweetness. Aside from the bottle conditioned carbonation, it has a papery, dry astringent feel. Gets rather sour as it progresses and then a flood of alcohol comes. Sour, heavily astringent, heavily alcoholic/fuelic. The hops bitterness exacerbates this and it just falls apart as it warms. Incredibly alcohol ridden in both nose and flavor now. 3/4 of the bottle goes down the drain. Not sure what to think. I bought this bottle in a cooler, the first week it was out and then kept it in my fridge until I was ready to drink it. Problems in transit? Who knows. Mike always says that the trucks are kept air-conditioned, so it’s hard to believe. Will certainly give it another try though.
Tried
from Bottle
on 16 Sep 2005
at 15:45
6.6/10
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Appearance 6
Aroma 7
Flavor 7
Texture 6
Overall 6.5
Bottle. Amber beer with a nice off-white head. Citrus hop aroma - dry hopped with Cascade? There’s a bit of spiciness to the flavor, more citrus hops, and some sweetness backing it all up. Some fruitiness (pears and others) to go with a bit of graininess. Wheat not really present, and there’s some alcohol presence. I think the wheat clashes and leads to grain astringency, and just a strange finish that I can’t put my finger on. It’s like playdough meets grains of paradise. I’ll skip it for another of their IPAs.
Tried
from Bottle
on 08 Sep 2005
at 22:07