Stone Bottleworks 13th Anniversary Ale
When it came time to brew Bottleworks 13th anniversary beer, we turned to Stone to brew this behemoth. "The Matts" traveled down to San Diego in December to help create this 13-hop, 13-grain monument to our 13 years of selling great craft beer!
3.6
246 reviews
Escondido, United States
Community reviews
Aroma: Earthy Malts, Mildly Boozy
Appearance: Dark Brown Hue, Passes Mild Light, Off White Head, Mild Lacing
Taste: Dirty Earthy Malts, Mildly Sweet, Mildly Boozy
Mouthfeel: Average Carbonation, Medium Bodied, Mildly Boozy, Mildly Drying
Tasted @ RBBSG II, Courtesy of ajax25g. Pours a super dark brown with a small tan head. the smell is sweet dark malt, molasses, coffee. The taste is ;iconic, molasses, dry char, wood, finishing dry. Medium body with active carbonation. Decent charred beer.
Bottle from Amfo. Pours deep dark brown. Nose is dark fruits, peat, earth, and molasses. Tastes of pine, plums, molasses, peat, mushrooms, chocolate, resin, and all sorts of things that you may find in a basement. A lot going on but pleasant. Alcohol is there and this is nice for a cold evening glad I drank before spring.
Rating #4400!:
Deep brown body with almost no light getting through at all, with a two centimetre tall rich chocolatey brown head. Aroma of smoked peat, oats, nuts, oak, alcohol, pit fruits, milk chocolate and even some wormwood. Full-bodied; Dense rich malty mouthful with a pungent brandy, cognac and alcohol burn at first then fading to a subdued smoked peat note, a little mushrooms and a hint of spices, but mostly malt. Aftertaste shows some sweetness, a little bit of pit fruits and caramel and a lot more malt with alcohol. Overall, a nice and refined beer that is more complex than I initially thought, and finally showing a Stone beer worthy of a good score! I sampled this 65 cL bottle purchased from New Beer Distributors in New York, New York on 04-June-2012 for US$7.25 sampled at home in Washington on the opening night of the Sochi Olympics in Russia for Rating #4400 on 07-February-2014.
Bottle - Vintage 2012 - Chocolate and nutty notes with a ton of booze. Almost like a liquor chocolate. Jet brown with a brown head. Malty syrup, chocolate and booze. I was hoping for so much more but this is a bit of a mess of flavors and not very good.
Now close to a year and a half old, let’s see what it turned into.
Pours black with a three finger tan head (aggressive pour). Good lacing, thick but not as dark as an imperial stout.
Smell juicy, roasty, sweet. Very hard to pin down, combination of American Strong Ale, Barleywine, and Imperial Stout. Roast and nut, red fruit.
Taste is roasty toffee, burnt sugar, caramel, fruit. Pretty sweet.
Very full bodied.
Less of a clusterfuck then when it was fresh, but still think there’s a lot going on, not sure if I’m a fan.
Dark brown pour with small beige head. Aroma of malts, toffee, fruits and hops. Taste of roasted malts, toffee, dark heavy chocolate, hint of vanilla and tons of hops but not bitter at all, sweetness probably masking the bitter finish. Lower carbonation, full bodied and creamy mouthfeel. Good beer.
Bomber from Beer Run. Pours a dark brown color with an thin creamy tan head. Decent head retention. Aroma of big toffee malts and citrus hops. The taste is toffee, raisin, chocolate, big spicy, citrus hops. Medium-full bodied, lingering bitterness, booze.
Bottle from unnknown place. Pours coca cola brown with an inch of khaki foam. Doesn’t leave much lacing. Dark fruits on the nose. Lots of raisin and brown sugar On the tongue. Finish lingers a bit. Hides it’s alcohol well. Solid but not spectacular.
Bottle. Brown pour with a mocha head. Malty aromas. Good body with a decent mouthfeel. 15 or so months of aging and this bad boy still has plenty of hoppy bitterness. Beginning to almost take center stage are rich grain and malty notes. Hints of baker’s chocolate. It’s a little muddled and somewhat void of complex flavors. Wonder how this will be in another 3 years or so?
22 ounce bottle into tulip glass, bottled in March 2012. Pours nearly opaque dark brown color with a 1-2 finger dense khaki head with great retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lingers. Spotty soapy lacing clings on the glass. Aromas of orange, grapefruit, toast, caramel, brown sugar, roasted malt, brown bread, floral, pine, molasses, light chocolate, light smoke, and roasted/floral earthiness. Very nice aromas with good balance and complexity of malt and hop notes; with good strength. Reminds me of double bastard in a way. Taste of orange zest, grapefruit, caramel, brown sugar, toast, molasses, roasted malt, light chocolate, floral, pine, brown bread, light smoke, and roasted/floral earthiness. Fair amount of earthy pine bitterness on the finish; with lingering notes of citrus, caramel, toast, brown sugar, brown bread, roasted malt, molasses, light chocolate, light smoke, and roasted/floral earthiness on the finish for a good bit. Very nice balance and complexity of dark/bready malt and hop flavors; with a good malt/bitterness balance and zero cloying flavors after the finish. Medium carbonation and medium-full bodied; with a creamy, slick, and fairly sticky mouthfeel that is nice. Alcohol is very well hidden with only a slight warming noticed after the finish. Overall this is an excellent strong ale! All around nice balance and complexity of hop and malt flavors; and very smooth to sip on. They may have used 13 hops and 13 grains; but they definitely found a good balance to make it work. A very enjoyable offering.
This seems to be doing ok age wise .. . deep amber .. light head, lacing is good .. . light to medium mouthfeel .. . maple, forest wood, and touches of aging malt .. . easy mouth, like i said, age is alright on this but i would drink mine if i had a bottle
.. . . picture a balloon ...
.. i can do that.
Had this fresh and hated it; better with a tear on it but honestly it couldn't really get much worse. Ashtrays and burnt malts before turning boozy. It's just bad. Let's forget this particular year of Bottleworks.
Bottle pours black with a small white head. Nose is musty and hoppy. Taste is a bit sweet, with a nice malty richness and just enough hops to balance this out well. Delicious.
Bomber purchased almost a year ago at Stone Brewing ($6.00). Pours close to black with just a hint of brown on the edges and one finger of light tan head. Aroma of rich caramel, dark roasted malts, smoky-peaty malts, spiced chocolate, some dark sticky fruit, and really not much left of those 13 hops. Flavor of thick chewy roasted dark malts, sticky toffee, smoked figs and other dark fruit, salty dark chocolate, sweet molasses, and a hint of hot bourbon. The high ABV is well concealed. Kind of has a bit of a barrel aged character in the flavor (due to the aging?). Before drinking, I was not sure if this was more malt-centric or hop-centric, but it certainly appears to be the former…so the year of aging seems to have done this well. There is little hoppiness left in this bottle, but the result is still really pleasing. (217, 779)
Bottle from Breukelen Bier Merchants they stashed away for most of a year.. Pours a rich dark brown with big tan head and decent lacing. The aroma is strong cooling pine, minerals, rich sweet roast with light smoke. The flavor is heavy sweet with and intense bitterness featuring a little charcoal, more pine, licorice, cocoa, and a boozy end. It’s dry though big bodied with a long duration. It’s an excellent and quite powerful beer without being to overwhelming.
Charred malt and smoke aromas along with some minerality and sweetness. Very dark brown with a tan head. The char and smoke follow into the flavor, but not nearly as strong as the aroma would indicate. Big booze and sweetness follow with licorice, molasses and cocoa flavors. The alcohol burns through the sweetness and almost overpowers it. Some fig and plum flavors followed by dark chocolate. Ends hot and sweet and smoky.
well while we are on beers that i forgot to rate. Nose of darker roasted malts brown bread ligjt smoke earth caramel dark fruit a whole bunch of shit. Floral hops some pine pepper and alcohol. Pours dark brown tan head. Flavors of roadted malts caramel dark fruit floral bitterness hint of peat pine dank chocolate. Some alcohol and decent bittetnrss in finish. Way too much going on here for my liking. Confusing beer.
Bottle. Dark brown,clear with tanned small head. Malty aroma with some chocolate, nuts and caramel and hints of grass. Medium heavy sweetness and medium bitterness with some salty notes. Slightly more than medium body with a sticky texture and soft carbonation. Some bitterness but mostly malty in the finish. A fun beer with lots of tastes and aromas. You feel that it’s made of so many different malts and hops. Quite good in small amounts.
This pours a dark brown color with deep red hues and a light brown, dense head. It has a complex, roasted, and sweet malt aroma with a unique, almost smoky, spicy, plant-like nose. It’s complex, but easy in the mouth, smooth but spicy, with notes of roasted and burnt malts making for a very neat flavor. This is aged about 9 months, and it’s already pretty smooth. There’s a deep, dark and almost over-caramelized fruity finish that kicks in to balance the 11% ABV, resulting in a serious, mean, but smooth beer.
Pours a dark brown color with tan head. Aroma is of chocolate, floral hops, and some alcohol warming. Flavor has plenty of alcohol warming on the finish with some floral hops. Overall, pretty delicious.
Late December, 2012. 22oz bottle from RIBCO. Dark brown pour with a small khaki head. Rich sweet malts and dark fruits with bits of roast and spice. Reminds me of a barleywine with a dark kick. Not bad.
Bottle. Cocoa, cocoa, cocoa. Damn this brew is good. It almost reminds me of a lighter bodied stout. I need a bottle so I can properly re-rate.
Bottle pours a nice opaque black/ Nose with roasted malts, coffee, chocolate, and mild hop. Taste bitter chocolate, roasted malt with a nice viscous mouthfeel.
22 ounce bottle
Bad bottle or just too much? Either way I think trying to cram so many malts and hops into a single beer has resulted in a confusing mess. Thanks to someone for sending me the bottle but I think I will jump off the "more is better" bandwagon for the time being.
Aroma / Appearance - The ruby red pour gets darker as the head settles from a tan buffer to hardly anything. The nose is a muddled mess of hops and malts. Finding it hard to pick out anything in particular it is better just to move on to the flavor profile instead.
Flavor / Palate - Chocolate, caramel, and coffee grounds straddle the line between imperial IPA and a heavy stout. Florally resin aspects pop up from the crowd from time to time. If this were two or three different beers it would be enjoyable. Trying to cram it all into one is like making a bacon, peanut butter, and cajun chicken sandwich into something salvageable.
A very fruity American Strong Ale. Poured quite dark, a beautiful pour with just the right amount of head that dissolved slowly. Pine notes, grapefruit. Tons of malt and mega hops. A bit saucy, the taste has a instant strong impact yet the after taste was pretty smooth. Maybe not as full bodied as I expected from 13 hops / grains. But quite delicious, strong and not really OTT. A job well done!
Bottle from South Bay Liquor: Created a violent growth of thick shaving cream like head while a dense brown liquid poured into my pint glass cup. Aroma is thick and structured with a sturdy backing of rich sugary caramel or malt syrup. The flavor is rich and robust with a velvety smooth palate of sweet caramelized malts that completely dominate this drink but there is just the right amount of hop balancing. Sort of reminds me of drinking a double arrogant bastard that has been oak aged except I don’t taste any wood and I mean this not in a good way.
As the name implies, there’s a lot going on here... perhaps too much. The aroma is chock full of resinous pine tar notes. On the palate, it’s clear that there are a ton of malts, but they cannot cut through the hops in the nose. The malt backbone attempts to balance out the intense bitterness of the hops and the significant alcohol burn, but doesn’t quite make it. It’s intense and enjoyable, but not technically great.
Bottle. Pour is dark brown, tan head, good retention/some lace. Aroma is pine, resin, roast, dark chocolate, coffee. Taste is sweet, very bitter, pine/floral/resinous hops, roast, molasses. Palate is thick, sticky, bitter/sweet finish. What a mess.
Bottle. Poured black with a tan head that settled to a ring and left light lace. Aroma of milk chocolate. The flavor found chocolate with a nice roasted malt backing. Medium body, sweet, and a cocoa aftertaste.