Stone Brewing Co. – 15th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA Review
This was pretty interesting. We reviewed this on Jay’s Beer Review back in September and I enjoyed it immensely. I immediately went out and snagged a bottle for myself with the intention of drinking it then, but ended up completely disregarding the bottle’s recommendation and letting it sit for months in my cedar beer storage closet. The bottle date was August 2011 and JD and I enjoyed this last week, making this about 8 months old.
It was a completely different beer. Hasn’t changed much visually, but absolutely no hops in the nose nor in the taste. Still some lingering bitterness, shit ton of malty, chocolatey molasses flavor with a ton of alcohol present. This was much, much closer to a RIS to me than a Black IPA. Really interesting how it’s changed. This was a very good beer, but Stone makes some really kickass stouts already so I’d say stick with what is says on the bottle: Enjoy Fresh.
matthew 'fuj' scher 