Stone's Vertical Epic: The Tasting

Beer from the Stone Brewing Company in Escondido, California, is stellar, praiseworthy, and seriously epic.  It's no wonder we've travelled cross country to visit their brewery and bistro gardens twice and our local, Boston's, is the two time "Most Arrogant Bar" award winner.  

Starting in 2001, Stone started an eleven year brewing mission to release an "epic" beer on the date where the day, month, and year matched.  The beers were Belgian-inspired and meant to be cellared from the first release on 02-02-02 to the final on 12-12-12.  At the end, they were to be enjoyed one after another at a tasting.  The series was aptly named: Vertical Epic.

As with most great things, I arrived late to the game.  Actually, really late.  I think the first bottle I held on to was 2009.  Every year I bought two bottles.  One to drink and one to save.  Thankfully, with the help of the fellow Backyard Brewer, Dave, we were able to score 2006, 2007, & 2008.  

Not only did I arrive to the hunt late, I about derailed it.  Somewhere along the line, I accidentally drank one of the early releases…go figure, but Dave saved the day again and had it replaced.

With 2013 upon us, we decided to do something we don't normally do: have a proper beer tasting and a structured dinner.  Usually it's mad dash brewing and random nibbling.  For our Vertical Epic tasting, we were going to do things right.

As I nervously opened the first bottle, I was relieved to hear the reassuring sound of "psssst".  I have never had a six year old beer and was glad it at least sounded good.

 With nine of us in an attendance, everyone was able to get a pretty good pour.

With glasses full, we settled into a routine of me, reading the label…which oddly enough, got harder as the night went on.  I chock it up to small print.  We then toasted, and toasted and toasted...

With each round we talked about what we liked.  I would say we also talked about what we "didn't like", but there was no "didn't" on the scale.  It was more of what we liked and what we liked more.

Although we hadn't amassed the full vertical series, it was still fun just going back six years.  Funny enough, Zach, our youngest brewer wasn't even 21 in 2006. Youngn'.

Our favorite year? 2006.  It was the best, hands down.  It was so good, we were dying to have more.  For me, 2011 is a solid second.  It had a wonderful spicy hit thanks to the inclusion of chile peppers.  Deilcious.

Now not only was this a once in a lifetime tasting, it was dinner, too.  What else do you have with a hearty round of Belgian beer, but a healthy dose of prime grade bone-in rib eyes.

Thanks to the searing heat of the Weber Grill Center, the steaks cooked hot and fast.

Although it may seem daunting to grill as many steaks as you have fingers, it really isn't.  Ensure a hot grill with a uniform temperature across the grates.  Next, check with your guests for preferred level of doneness.  I had 2 medium steak eaters.  The rest were medium rare.  The goal is to take all of the steaks off at the same time, so I started the medium steaks a few minutes ahead of the rest.  I kept the medium steaks anchored to the far left side of the grate to not get them mixed up with their medium rare brethren. 

After removal from the grill, allow the steaks to rest a few minutes and then serve.  

Empty plates and bones gnawed clean of meat signified a successful meal.  It was also nice for a change to eat together as a group sitting down. 

As we tend to do, we trekked to the backyard to get a group shot.  I'm not quite sure what we were laughing at in the first shot, but it was such a candid and honest shot, I had to post it.  It was probably Brian cracking a joke.  He has that look.

In the end, we regained our composure and promptly broke the lens.

We left for the night with full stomachs and another chapter of memories in our never-ending journal of Backyard Brewing Society gatherings.  A beer tasting with friends is a great idea and is one we will try and repeat in the future.  Stone has posted homebrew recipes for each of the eleven releases and Eric pitched a great idea in creating our own "time shifted" vertical tasting.  

It is really a rewarding experience to sit with friends and taste rare and unusual beer.  It's hard to describe how much fun it is.  Tastings can be done with one friend, or they can be done with a clown car load of friends.  Sometimes these gatherings are great and others, they are truly epic.  I suggest you plan one with a friend today.