WILK Friday BeerBuzz–23 Sept 2011 (Stone 15th Anniversary w/Mitch Steele)

I’m a huge fan of Stone Brewing.  The beers are wonderfully creative,  the packaging is gorgeous and the brewery is amazing…so it’s no surprise that we love featuring their beers.  Last year we were joined by head brewer Mitch Steele to premier Stone 14, so it was an honor to have Mitch join us again for Stone 15th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black Ale.

Stone 15 is a BIG beer in every way.  With the layers and layers of  specialty malts and the abundance of some big and unusual hop varieties, it’s no surprise that this is a beer with big flavor.  Add in the big 10.8% ABV and the coffee, cocoa & bitter flavors and it’s no surprise why Mitch said it is perhaps the “darkest, hoppiest and most colossal beer Stone has ever brewed.”

As a bonus today we sampled the Stone / Troegs / Kevin Shepard / Jason Fields co-brewed Cherry Chocolate Stout.  This is a rare co-brewed beer so it was fun to sample it with Mitch, especially after we just had John Trogner on the show with us 3 weeks ago.

Finally it was a ton of fun to hear about all of the upcoming expansion plans that Stone has underway.  Their World Bistro & Gardens is already an amazing place to visit, but it sounds like Escondido will become even more of a craft beer destination (if that’s possible).

Don’t forget to come out tonight from 5-7PM to Krugel’s Georgetown Deli & Beer for our very special Stone Tasting (Facebook Event Details).  Come out tonight and Sample Stone 15th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black Ale with the WILK Friday BeerBuzz Team!  Lee Marren will be on hand from Stone and we’ll have some great glassware and giveaways too.  See you tonight!

Thank you
to Mitch Steele from Stone Brewery, Nancy, John, Joe, and Bosco for yet another fun Friday. 
The Friday BeerBuzz…bringing good beers and good people together. 
As always you can check out the video on-line at the WILK Friday BeerBuzz page by clicking HERE.