Stone Brewery Night in New York City

Hello again everybody.  Aplogies for the radio silence here the last couple weeks. Truthfully, I started out this blogging adventure on a torrid beer run, and ended up getting a little bit burnt out. In the month of August I reviewed nearly 40 beers and posted nearly 30 blog entries. I decided to take a little time off to recharge my beer writin’ batteries, and I’ll be back with regular (albeit not as frequent) blogging. I’ll still cover any special beer events/trips, as well as homebrewing adventures, but my coverage of regular drinking will be a bit less... regular. Enough with that though, on to the brew tal

My most recent beerventure, and the last event I attended from this year’s NYC Craft Beer Week was Stone Brewery night at the Rattle n Hum on Thursday, featuring brewery founder Greg Koch. There was a similar event last year (with admittedly a much more epic tap list) that ended up with the RnH as packed as any bar I’ve ever been to, so to make sure I had a seat for the night I made it there  by mid afternoon. The only flaw in my plan was that I got to the bar so early that they weren’t pouring any of the Stone beers yet. I decided to start with Allagash White, a true classic, and nice and refreshing after the 15-20 minute walk to the bar from Port Authority. Next I decided to go with Captain Lawrence St. Vincent’s Dubbel. Captain Lawrence is a brewery that seems to be fairly well respected within the beer community, but aside from a couple sours they’ve brought to beer festivals in the past, I’ve always been fairly underwhelmed by them. This beer did nothing to change that, as it’s probably my least favorite version of the style that I’ve ever had. The requisite plum fruity and light pepper notes were there, but were largely dominated by a buttery, caramel sweetness. It tasted like someone blended a bunch of malty English brown ale in with a dubbel.

Two beers into the night it was finally Stone time, and I started with their Green Tea IPA collaboration. It’s a beer that was brewed as a fundraiser for Japan in the wake of the earthquake/tsunami, and it’s an IPA that was “dryhopped” with a type of Japanese green tea. I was glad to try this one, as bottle distribution was a bit scarce here in New Jersey. It was good, though the tea didn’t lend the beer as much of a unique flavor as I might have thought it would. It basically reminded me of a (more intense) version of Sam Adams Latitude 48 in that there was a balance between citrusy American hops, and a more herbal flavor (from noble hops in Lat 48, and presumably the green tea here). Next up was Stone’s 2010 Vertical Epic. It’s a strong Belgian pale ale that was brewed with white wine grape juice. I enjoyed it fresh, but the intense white wine flavor gave it a bit of acidity that had nicely mellowed out nearly a year later. Around this time Greg Koch. After he got some food and some beer for himself he ended up climbing on top of the bar right in front of me and delivering a gospel church style sermon about craft beer, replete with cries of “Amen!” from the many drinkers below. The video here is from a very similar speech Greg gave last time he was at the Rattle n Hum. Don't mind the spotty sound quality and occasional profanity.

Third up for me was the Stone 15^th Anniversary Imperial Black IPA. I’ve had it a couple times before, and it’s one of my favorite beers from this year. The hop lineup reads like the start of the “Bill’s Favorite Hops” list, utilizing both Citra and Nelson Sauvin hops. The great juicy fruit/citrus/white wine flavors from those hops end up playing very well against the chocolate and coffee roasty notes from the dark malts. I closed the night with their Old Guardian BelgoBarleywine. They fermented their regular Old Guardian with their house Belgian yeast strain, and while it’s seemed to be fairly polarizing on Beer Advocate, count me firmly in the “I like it” camp. I dig the way the fruity esters from the yeast play against the aggressive hopping, and I might even prefer it to regular Old Guardian (at least fresh). Part way through the beer I managed to track Greg down in the by now mobbed bar, and he was happy to take a picture with me in exchange for me shilling for his new book in said photo. It was a fair trade to me, and a great way to close the night. I would have liked to have made it into the city one more time for Craft Beer Week, but Stone Night at the Rattle n Hum was a great way to close it out!

Myself and the man himself, Greg Koch