Beer – #1,071 – Stone – 20th Anniversary Encore Series: 6th Anniversary Porter
Stone 20th Anniversary Encore Series: 6th Anniversary Porter. Always time in my day for a celebration beer.
a fresh shot
A 650ml bottle of beer that is 8% ABV, making it around 5 standard drink units. The bottle would be around 500 calories worth of intake.
Smiling like it’s a birthday
We celebrated our first five years in business by releasing anniversary India pale ales, with each subsequent IPA brewed to be hoppier and more intense than the previous.
For our 6th anniversary in 2002, we extended this concept by making an intensified version of Stone Smoked Porter.
We cranked up the malts and hops a notch or three and conditioned it on French and American oak, which accentuated our porter’s distinctive smokiness and amplified its chocolate and roast coffee flavors while also adding subtle notes of toffee, cherries, dried berries and vanilla.
We’re proud to give those who missed out—as well as those who didn’t—a fresh shot at experiencing this smoky, dark-as-night wonder
So, What could possibly go wrong?
Smoked ales, generally I’m a fan, there’s a fine line though. Aroma on opening os more chocolate than a smoke, but then it subtly changes, it’s very inviting.
Pour I more hazelnut in the light but it settles into a goodly blackness with a lovely thick full head that is slightly off white. There’s nothing immediate in the aroma that stands out.
It’s all things at once, there’s an underlaying nagging bitterness, then there’s a smokey top note, and the mouthfeel is quite full and creamy, I really don’t know what to think. That bitterness is very persistent and lingering. It might improve as it warms of course, as it will.
That bitterness never really settles, and the smokiness seem to have given up, I’d really liked to have had that the other way around to be honest.
I am enjoying it all, after all this is well crafted and overall quite tasty beer, which looks lovely in the glass and leaves a lovely lacing as you drink it. I’m a big fan of that fuller mouthfeel too. It’s a pity about the smokiness.
The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 7 of its things from the thing. It is nice enough, but I wasn’t in love with that bitterness, and the low smokiness wasn’t enough to revive my love or where I wanted my love to be. It does look great, and there’s a lovely mouthfeel, but these too were not enough to bring this beer up to my expectation.
The double dip review
- Where did I get it? The local Liquorland of course.
- Am I enjoying it? I am, but differently than I wanted to
- Would I have another? Not really
- Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? It’s nice, and would make a lovely discussion about smokiness in beers, but I just can’t go past that underlying bitterness which I wasn’t expecting and wasn’t enjoying.
Music for this: ”Smooth Big Cat by DOPE LEMON on the Spotify layer
PORTER
Black or chocolate malt gives the porter its dark brown color. Porters are well hopped and heavily malted. This is a medium-bodied beer. Porters can be sweet. Hoppiness can range from bitter to mild. Porters are often confused with stout
A life just as ordinary 