Happy 13th Birthday To Stone Brewing
Stone Brewing Company is celebrating its 13th Anniversary this year and to commemorate the event they released a special beer, their 13th Anniversary Ale. This year they brewed an American Red Ale with a ton of hops. I picked up a bottle at my local beer store to give it a taste:
Appearance: Dark, dark, red pours into the glass from the bottle. The beer is sediment free and allows some light to get through the pint glass. The head is slightly off-white and it sticks around. Lacing is pretty good.
Smell: Hops, hops,and more hops! This is a very hop forward beer, but not the resinous/sappy kind. The freshness of the beer comes through in the smell as there are plenty of citrus/floral components. Very nice.
Taste: The taste is like the smell. I got a ton of citrus and sweet pine along with some malt sweetness, enough to balance out the hops. I got grapefruit, lemon, and fresh pine. The hop flavor is extremely fresh with none of the sappy/resinous flavors you sometimes get. The 90 IBU’s of the beer definitely show themselves with a nice hop bite as you swallow the beer.
Drinkability: The 9.5%ABV is VERY well hidden, so be careful. Despite that, and the high IBU count, this beer drinks fairly well.
Thirteen is definitely a lucky number for Stone, although I don’t think luck played much part in the brewing of this beer. The people at Stone know how to make good beer and their 13th Anniversary Ale proves it. The beer is a “hop bomb” with all the hops anybody could want, backed up with enough malt sweetness to make the whole experience of drinking the beer extremely enjoyable. That being said, this is a beer for hop heads. I do think you need to really like hoppy beers in order to truly enjoy this beer. If you can get Stone products in your area, get out and grab a couple bottle of this beer before they’re gone. You’ll thank me 
Here’s To The Future
Congratulations Stone Brewing on a great 13 years. You have earned your success by brewing great beers. I’m definitely looking forward to your next 13 years and beyond. Cheers!
Here is the score:
- Appearance- 8 points (out of 10)
- Smell- 8 points (out of 10)
- Taste- 18 points (out of 20)
- Drinkability- 8 points (out of 10)
Total 42 (out of 50) Points- 4 Mugs
I wonder if this beer will age well? It felt a little unbalanced to me – as if the malt flavor was too sweet and the hops too bitter to really work well together. Having said that, I enjoyed the attempt, but it just didn’t quite work well for me. I’ll have to try it again in a few months to see if the flavor profile has changed.
I recently had Port Brewing’s 3rd Anniversary and it appears they hit the reddish double IPA nail on the head!
Hi Ben,
I didn’t get the “unbalanced” aspect you got. To me the hops were really the main act, the malt was just along for the ride. I’m going to get 1 more bottle and put it away for a few months as well to see how it changes.
That Port Brewing sounds good. I’ll see if I can get some here and give it a try.
Good stuff. Probably my favorite new beer of ’09.
Solid review here.
Hi Brad,
Thanks for the kind words! Stone 13th is a great beer with a ton of fresh hop flavor. I really like it.
I checked out you blog, nice job! I’m subscribing as well as adding a link. We have good friends in Baltimore. Maybe we can get together for a beer when we’re up there to visit.