Nuzzy doin’ his damn thing.

Sadly I missed out on any of the big Northeast Stone Vertical Epic events that happened in December. Participating in any of the ones that had VE 03.03.03 and up would have required a trip to NYC or Boston on 12/12/12 and just wasn’t in the cards that close to the holidays. Luckily, the guys from The Ruck had some vintage Stone kegs stowed away for us Capital District folks to get a taste. The lineup for the night:

• Stone BELGO Anise Imperial Russian Stout [5.11.11]
• Stone Old Guardian [2010]
• Stone BELGO Old Guardian [02.11]
• Stone Sublimely Self Righteous [01.24.12]
• Vertical Epic 10.10.10
• Vertical Epic 11.11.11
• Vertical Epic 12.12.12
• Lucky Bastard
• Arrogant Bastard
• Smoked Porter w/ Vanilla Bean (bottle) 12oz
• Saison Du Buff (bottle) 12oz
• Vertical Epic 06.06.06 (bottle) 22oz
• Vertical Epic 07.07.07 (bottle) 22oz

I’ve had all of the VE’s available at some tasting or another, so I stayed away from them for the most part. I was driving that night so I didn’t get too crazy, but I did small pours on both of the Old Guardians and the RIS (my favorite beer of the night) as I’ve never had any of them, and grabbed tastes of both of Bill’s VE ’06 and ’07 bottles.

BELGO Anise Imperial Russian Stout

Kyle Murphy’s epic mustache filtering an Arrogant Bastard.





Bill double-fisting, actin’ a damn fool.

I really enjoyed myself that night at The Ruck, it’s a good way to get together with some friends, eat Ruck wings and try some beers you wouldn’t normally get your hands on. That said, it’s been a week and a half since the Vintage Stone Night and most of these beers are still available on tap. I really hope that is not a deterrence for these kind of nights since these are the types of event that keeps things interesting at bars in the Capital Region instead of the same boring ass lineup of Brooklyn Lager/Saranac (anything)/Rare Vos/Apricot Wheat/UFO/UBU/etc. at every bar around here. Here’s hopin’.