Falling behind. Vertical Epic 11.11.11 and Seaward final

So. Stone brewing has a series called "Vertical Epic." I'm not typically a huge huge fan of Stone, but I decided to try out the vertical epic 11.11.11. Here's the brewmaster's take:

Appearance:

The Stone 11.11.11 Vertical Epic Ale pours a deep amber with a cream colored head of foam.

Aroma:

The Belgian yeast strain we used this year has more pronounced banana aromatics than the clove flavors produced by some of the yeast strains we have used in past years. Mixed in with the banana esters are toffee malt notes, hints of spice — clove and cinnamon — and a trace of very mild green chili in the back. The aromas all blend together incredibly well.

Taste:

Upfront, the yeast-derived banana flavors are blended very nicely with toasted and toffee-like malt flavors, fruity esters, and balanced hints of cinnamon. Mid palate the Perle and Pacific Jade hops and the Hatch green chili flavors come through. The beer finishes dry, and bitter with just the most subtle of hints of chili heat and a touch of alcohol.

Overall:

Not your typical chili beer! The famous mild green chilies from the Hatch Valley in New Mexico add layers of delicious flavor with a very mild heat component. The base beer itself is very reminiscent of a European amber beer, with Perle and Pacific Jade hops, Munich and other roasted German and Belgian malts, hopped and brewed to a very Stone like 65 IBU and 9.4% ABV. Cinnamon is a wonderful spice if used judiciously, which we did here-it doesn’t by any means dominate the beer’s flavor, but definitely adds a subtly complex spice note that blends amazingly well with the banana esters and green chili.

I was a wee bit hessitant since it invokes the most risky of brewing spices...chili peppers. I was surprised though. This was a very very complex beer, and I'm sure the pepper and cinnamon were in there, but they simply worked to balance out the rest of this beer (which was a big amber with belgian yeast). This was an excellent beer and was well beyond my expectations.

So, tonight I went to Chumleys for a few, and finally broke down and had Founders Breakfast Stout. I have had bad bad experiences with coffee stouts, and have thus avoided this beer. Well...I am a dumb human being. Your typical coffee stout is a mediocre stout with Maxwell's house thrown in. Founders though? Well lets just say I want like a million pounds of the coffee they used for this...for my coffee. This was an excellent stout combined with fantastic coffee. Introducing myself to this beer may have just taken years off of my life span.

I bottled my batch of Seaward tonight. After the hops stole their share, I got 26 bottles out of it. The final gravity was 1.006, which puts it at 6.7% (can we round it to 7% please?). The flavor is fantastic. Beyond fantastic. If this thing keeps this flavor as it carbonates it will be close to Two Hearted as far as awesomeness. As soon as it carbs I'll share with a select few, but I want to keep most of this to myself.

-James