Brewery: Stone Brewing Co.
Country: USA
ABV: 8%
Style: American Imperial Porter
Other Notes: 2016 release. Drink fresh or age at cellar temp

Brewer Description: (from bottle) Stone 20th Anniversary Encore Series. No single day can contain something as momentous as our 20th Anniversary here at Stone Brewing. So we’re celebrating this milestone throughout 2016 by bringing back some fan-favorite beers from our past, using their original recipes and bottle art (with either the classic or new back-label text, depending on which one you get), while looking forward to a future filled with continued creativity, passion and a helluva lot of fun. Join us!

Stone’s 6th Anniversary Porter
An ode to density, viscosity and the unbearable opaqueness of being…

Considering that we were barrelling down on a beeline path in what might have seemed to be a ruinous (get it?) direction with previous Anniversaries’ IPA offerings to the hop god-hops are not a real religion, but perhaps they should be? Already a large and ravenous throng is ready and willing to offer their palates up on the sacrificial altar unto the not-yet-deity-it might seem that we are grabbing the bottom of the steering wheel, thrusting our full body weight and then some downwards to increase the force to the brakes while downshifting and spinning the wheel in an attempt at a vulpine Starsky & Hutch-esque move (how’s that for a dated-not-pertaining-to-anything ‘70s reference there, Huggy Bear?) to reverse direction in a din of screeching tires and acrid rubber smoke (along with the obligatory camera shot of the lone-rolling hubcap), thus treating our brewery as if it were some sort of asphalt-faring drogher, to which I say a hearty “Nay!” to all that lurpy (which isn’t even a real word, but it sounds cool and seems to somehow be apropos in this context) puerile nonsense, for this is not what it seems by any stretch of the imagination, as it is instead simply a very sharp turn within the context of that which is the Stone Anniversary Ale, allowing us each to glow in our own individually pulchritudinous way as we pay homage with this sui generis “goosed up a notch or three” version of our much loved and equally misunderstood Stone Smoked Porter, which we think is truly the bee’s knees in brewer’s trousers. Capisce? Good. And don’t worry about them succubuses (succubusi?)… our gargoyle is watching.

Note: This logophobic nightmare of a label contains ludicrous amounts of rambling, nonsensical text due to Team Stone members submitting words such as “lurpy” and “Huggy Bear” for Greg to incorporate into the copy for the original release.

My rating: 3
My beeradvocate.com rating: 3.75
My ratebeer.com rating: 3.6

Intro: A 22 fl oz bomber bottled on 3rd April 2016 and poured into a Moonzen teku glass.
Appearance: It poured a clear dark brown colour with a one finger tanned head good retention and moderate lacing.
Aroma: Toasted malts, cherry and vanilla with a hint of smoke and chocolate.
Taste: Roasted malts and smoky char dominate with bittersweet chocolate in the background and a hint of vanilla.
Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with moderate carbonation.
Overall: A pretty good Imperial Porter that’s balanced and surprisingly easy to drink. Glad I got to try it.