DC Beer Week- Stone Tasting

This is the last event for DC beer week. It was on Monday- Bob Tupper was the host and Greg Koch of Stone was the guest. Last year, Greg was part of the Lupulin Reunulin, but he had his own tasting this year. We tasted 9 beers at this event. I'm pretty glad we had Sunday off in order to recover from SAVOR/the rest of beer week. I'm not sure I would have been up for drinking 9 beers if all of the events had been in a row!

Levitation: smells slightly of pine and tasted of hops, but not a huge presence. It had a dry finish. It is a pleasant enough, drinkable beer, but I wouldn't drink it all the time. It is 4.4% abv, so it is a good "session" beer. We both ranked this a 3.

Vertical Epic 2007: smells of ginger, clove and rosemary and tastes of ginger, Belgian sugar and citrus. It aged really nicely! This was probably my favorite beer of the night. It is 8.4% abv. We both ranked this a 5.

Vertical Epic 2006: the aroma of dark fruit was barely there, and it tasted of chocolate, coffee, licorice and wheat. It was sweet. It is 8.4% abv. We both ranked this a 5.

Arrogant Bastard: smells of pinetrees and tastes piney. It is 7.2% abv. I don't have a lot to say about Arrogant Bastard because I've had it so many times. It is a great beer. We both ranked this a 4.

Oaked Arrogant Bastard: smells of pineapple and hops, tasted like piney hops. It is the same beer as Arrogant Bastard, except they brewed it with oak chips. It was interesting to taste them next to each other- there is a big difference. Also 7.2% abv. We both ranked this a 4.

Ruination: smells of pine, tastes of pine, resin and grapefruit. At some point a not-so-beer-geek asked why it was called "Ruination." Really? She couldn't tell it ruins palates? We both ranked this a 4.

Red Wine Barrel Aged Old Guardian 2008: smells of grapes, alcohol and candy and tastes like alcohol, fruit, raisins and butterscotch. It is 11.4% abv. We were lucky to have this on tap at Max's in Baltimore a few weeks ago- it is a great barrel aged barleywine! We both ranked it a 5.

Imperial Russian Stout: smells of smoke and roastiness, tastes like chocolate, roasted malt. Really smooth. It is 10.8% abv. Ben ranked this a 5 and I ranked it a 4.

Double Bastard 2006: smells of candy corn, tastes complex- sugar, pineapple, butter, vanilla, plum, gummy bears, cherry and peaches. Ben ranked this a 5 and I ranked it a 6. I love this beer!

While I'm sad DC Beer Week is over, my liver is pretty glad. Sadly there probably won't be another beer event for awhile, but I do plan to regale the blogosphere with reviews of the beers we drink at home.