Two reviews in a row? Two stouts? Rut. Rut? Maybe rut. Really rut? Rutty at least. Too bad. Not really. I have a guilty secret. Maybe two. I really like Stone's big format beers... and I really like Canadian Federal elections. And we are moments away from the dropping of the writ up here and the first thing that came to mind was a value priced big bomb of a stout covered in Satanic messaging. See, Stone does what I wish other craft brewers would do. They keep it under ten bucks a bomber. Well under. Whenever I have a screamingly over priced and over hyped next big thing US craft brew, I think of old reliable Stone. Dull value? Maybe. Quiet and shy? Perhaps.
Apparently a re-brew of their 11th anniversary ale, this sublimely self-righteous stuff pours deep chestnut under a rich mocha froth and head. Lots of action on the sniff with cocoa, licorice and sweet malty goodness. In the mouth there is cream, dry Dutch droopje licorice even with that slight salty tang, a passing tickle of hot spice as well as cocoa and pumpernickel. Like a milk stout crossed with a Black IPA with an imperial mild blended in. Maybe. Maybe not. Sorta. Not really.
BAers know the love.
Comments
Craig - March 24, 2011 10:04 PM
Ya got me, I had to look up droopje.
M. Noix - March 25, 2011 7:34 AM
Careful now. I got a telling off when I mentioned the whole demonololological thing in relation to Stone's branding. The brewery insists they're gargoyles, though more properly they're grotesques.
Though if you drink a Stone beer backwards you can hear the Duvel.
Alan - March 25, 2011 8:55 AM
Oh really. And such things are not part of the vision of moral order, a reminder of the gates of Hell? I will have to remind the medieval cathedral makers.
Stone might as well be called "Beers by Baal". Still great value but the Evil One would make it that way, wouldn't he.