New Vertical Epic is out!

The new Vertical Epic has been released. I know, it was actually released on 07/07/07 (in shops 06.18.07) but it is new for me and has not seen actual pictures of the beer before.

If you have not heard about this experiment before, it is Stone Brewery in San Diego that has started to create a special brew for each year. It follows each month, day and year with the above form. So it started out in 02/02/02 and the plan is to release one new beer each year until 2012. The main idea is to create beer that will last until 2012 or that you can use them for vertical tastings during the time. The main idea with the brews is as follow;

EPIC, meaning
1. Heroic and impressive in quality.
2. Surpassing the usual or ordinary, particularly in scope or size.
3. Of, constituting, having to do with, or suggestive of a literary epic.

So it is basically what the word means, a "epic" beer that will standout and will give you something extra in taste and beer experiences. Taken from the first bottle released by Stone at 02/02/20 it looks like below;

"As with any good epic, herein lies the promise of larger-than-life experiences, heroicss and twists & turns as the adventure unfolds. Think of this bottle as the first chapter. The tale of the Stone Vertical Epic Ale is just now beginning. You see, this bottle-conditioned ale is specifically designed to be aged.

Until sometime after December 12th, 2012 to be exact. At that time, it is designed to be enjoyed in a "vertial" tasting alon with its other Stone Vertical Epic Ales cousins. Eleven of the to be exact. Each one bottle-continioned. Each one unique to its year of release. Each with its own "twist & turn" in the plotline. Each one released one year, one month and one day from the previous edition."

I have not been fortune enough to actually get a bottle, simply because you can not buy them here in Europe, and that they are sold out almost the same day they are released. So you lucky people that can by locally I say, "hurray", and hopefully I can plan for a vertical tasting myself when the time is getting close to 2012, hopefully Stone will have a big tasting that year where you can bye yourself in, :).

But basically at least the idea is great and nothing that has been seen from other breweries, at least not in the form of the Epic line.

So what kind of beer can you expect, well a blogger in the USA (Summer of Beer) recently could not wait for 2012, and here is some notes from that blogger;

"The '07 pours with a nice dark golden color, ever so slightly orange, although I was drinking this on the back patio at night in dim lighting. Aroma is contributed by the Belgian yeast, a good deal of fruit in the aroma and also a bit of must (saison heritage?) and earthiness which I thought was coming through from the hops. The taste evolves from a bitter initial bite, to fruit over the middle of the tongue, to some subdued earthy/mustiness in the end. This beer is carbonated on the higher end of things and I liked it that way. Sometimes Tripels or other Belgian Strong Golden Ales get a bit viscous, or sticky, and it seemed like the carbonation cut that down a little. I also thought that this beer tasted better at its colder temperatures, more so than the last 1/4th of the glass that had warmed up a bit. This was a pretty nice beer to drink, and although I couldn't really bring myself to giving it any higher than a 4 in any of the Beer Advocate rating categories, I probably would have scored it higher in an "overall" category (strange I know, but I am an enigma). Overall, I gave it a 4.0 on BA (higher than its average so far of 3.85)."

And regarding the 06/06/06 (Summer of Beer);

"The 06.06.06 was a pretty tasty Belgian dark ale, though not the best I've had."

So it simply sounds that they should be rested for a while and it will be more fun in drinking them together in 2012, :).

Picture from Stone Brewing Company site and if you want to read more about Epic ales;