I WANTED an IPA...so I had one. A BIG STONE ONE!

The kids were away -- ha! KIDS, Thomas is 20 and Nora's 18, they went to see The Bourne Legacy (after we had a marathon of DVDs last night: Iron Man I and II, and 9) so I met Cathy for dinner at Char Koon, a little overlooked gem of a Chinese/Thai/sushi place right here in Langhorne, and I can't recommend it enough. We split an order of shrimp dumplings (tasted like the great ones I had at Ruby Rouge in Montreal (dump the "I eat dim sum in NYC..." douche-reviews and you'll see what it's like)), then Cathy had the house noodles and I had the Singapore noodles (smoky curry, delicious!).

It's BYOB at Char Koon, and I was packing a cooler. We opened with the Stone 16th Anniversary IPA, which was perfect with the dumplings. The 16IPA is spiked with lemon oil and lemon verbena, an herb I'm very familiar with (have a bottle of the dried stuff in my spice cabinet, too). It was plain in the nose, a lemony, herbal wash that really perked up the olfactory pleasure centers. There was a hint of the rye crack in there, too, a minty splash around the edges. In the mouth? A blast, but not a slam: this was a nicely balanced beer indeed. I'll be looking for more of it, and so should you!

(Followed it up with a bottle of Upright Brewing's 5, an IPA malt/hops recipe with saison yeast, and it was quite refreshing, tasty...but a bit overwhelmed by the curry. My fault, not the beer's, and I'll be looking for another bottle for sure.)

Stone TBA

Those who know me well, know me in my unguarded moments, know me from my unpublished as well as published works...know that I'm skeptical of the vaunted impact of homebrewers on American craft brewing. Fritz Maytag wasn't a homebrewer, Bert Grant wasn't a homebrewer, Jim Koch may have brewed some batches at home, but all directed at his commercial product. Oh, I'll give you Ken Grossman, and Charlie Papazian, and -- here in Philly -- the influence of homebrew pioneers like George and Nancy from Home Sweet Homebrew. But I can't help thinking the industry is outgrowing the connection, and that homebrewers are mostly responsible for this bizarre fascination with stuffing hops into beers in every way possible...

And then I get a glass of something like this Stone/Fat Head's/Bear Republic collaboration project: TBA. I know this beer has homebrewing DNA (I know one of the homebrewers who was involved in the early origins of the 'style'), and I have a glass poured and waiting by the keyboard, and...wow, I can smell Columbus from here and it's grabbing me...

Poor little unsuspecting broonale...

Texas Brown Ale. The source of American Brown Ale, one of the earliest examples of the American habit of sneaking up on an unsuspecting English ale type, sapping it with a weighted floating hydrometer, dragging it into a dark basement, and ramming it full of hops until it shrieks with pine and citrus aromas... And it turns out to be a killer success. 

Why? Because it's a variant on our beloved hopsamatic, an IPA with sweet body, a sweet brown ale with a knife-sharp keel of steely hops. It is a beer that pleases, teases, and -- no, 'squeezes' would rhyme, but this beer slaps, there's no way around it. Excellent aroma, with the brown sugar and molasses swirling up through all the pine and citrus hops; good body, and again, sweet and bitter battle through. It fights to the last sip, and the finish stays bitter.

All right, homebrewers. You win this round. This is a beer with impact, and a beer that goes back to the beginnings of craft brewing, and at the earliest...it's a homebrew.

Stone Video; just a great time

I've known Greg Koch for a while now, and done questionable things with him. Now that he's an international man of mystery, he's doing even more questionable stuff (questions like "Why didn't I think of that?" and "How cool is that?"), and just to tease me, sent me a sneak preview link to a video about the trip he and Stone brewer Mitch Steele (...more questionable things) took to Norway and Scotland to brew with the folks at Nøgne Ø and BrewDog. I was skeptical -- come on, another beer porn video? -- and wary -- I think I may have been the only person who ultimately didn't like Greg's "I Am A Craft Brewer" video -- but damned if I didn't enjoy watching this one.

You can too, tomorrow. The first installment will be up on Stone's blog here at 1 PM PST. Have a look. The scenery alone, and the hard ass-pounding Greg takes on the way to lighthouse, is worth your time.

09.09.09 Stone Vertical Epic

Stone Brewing's doing this -- oh hell, you all know what the Stone Vertical Epic is. I'm not telling you something you don't know, except I will reinforce that it's a thing of real scope and genius. Anyway, Stone sent me a sample bottle of 09.09.09, and I got it today, and for once, I'm not forgetting or hoarding, I'm drinking. Here's what I "tweeted" (and I put it in "quotes" because I think the word's "stupid", not because I didn't know what it meant, or because I thought you might not) about it:

Stone Vertical Epic 09.09.09 is black, smells of roast malt and sweet orange, roasted bitterness, not heavy, and just slightly medicinal... it's like an herbal tonic. Stone says: "Belgian porter." Reminds me strongly of the Ellezelloise Hercule Stout.

That's actually pretty high praise -- I really like the Hercule Stout -- but it makes me wonder: has Stone, in brewing this beer, created a style? Will there be more? Will the GABF include a "Cali-Belgian-style Porter or Other Dark Ale" category in their continuing efforts to suck up to the brewers of California?

Yeah, I'm a bit burnt about the whole "style" thing lately. This isn't a "style," and if there isn't a "style" that contains a beer like this so that contests can "judge" it and award it a "medal"... Well, that's a flaw in the whole idea of contests. And it can't be fixed by adding more semi-styles.

Back to the beer. Cathy went to bed, so I'm stealing hers. I'm picking up some unsweetened chocolate as it warms up, and a bit more malt sweetness under the overlying draw. The finish hangs in the mouth -- black coffee, maybe grounds -- but is refreshed with each sip as that sweet orange hits and fades, leaving the dry roasty bitterness. Good stuff, and hats off to the brewers.

This isn't an easy beer. It's not expected (well, unless someone said, "Hey, try this, it's a lot like Hercule Stout!"), it's not bitter or funky or super-strong. It's probably not something you'd move to just after mastering Samuel Adams. But it's very well-made (as should be expected from Stone these days), it's intriguing, and it's unlike 99+% of other beers. For a once-a-year one-off release? That's perfect.