Fantasy Football and Stone Brewing

So I finished my second and final fantasy football draft this week...maybe not FINAL, but last live money league. Pretty confidant in both of my teams so we will see how the season turns out. I will say I am extremely excited for this season, I am a huge Washington Redskin's fan and cannot wait to see what RG3 does this year. Anywho, nothing goes better with fantasy football and the NFL than good ol' BEER!

Last week I picked up a special beer; so special I saved it for a special night. I picked up Stone Brewing Company's 16th Anniversary IPA. I have never had the pleasure of tasting any previous aniversary brews from Stone (they have celebrated with Stouts, Ales, Porters and IPA's), but I am confidant that they would have been amazing, I mean look at who we are dealing with here! This IPA is actually a Double IPA and boy is it tasty. When researching the beer the first place I went was to the Stone Brewing website where they describe the process behind the anniversary beer. They chose to brew with what they call a lemon persuasion. All I know is that this beer was great! It clocks in at 85 IBU's which is obviously a lot and an ABV of 10%, which will kick your butt! (Here is what Stone has to say about it)

I poured the beer into a standard tulip glass to capture the head and aroma after the pouring. It is a very clean looking beer sits in the glass with a bright reddish orange look with a pearl white head to top it off. At first smell you get the lemon, but it is not the only fruit smell to it. The aroma will give you a slight idea as to just how complex this beer is. After taking a few deep sniffs I can pick up lemon (obviously), but also peaches. It is amazing what our sense of smell does for us, just smelling this beer I wanted to be sitting around a table sipping away chatting with friends taking in every scent the beer can give off.

I dove into my sip with unabashed enthusiasm, because really, I was tired of looking at it longingly and wanted to finally taste the beer inside! The beer was wonderful! Stone has done a wonderful job of making a big hoppy beer have a mellow malty side to it. For such a strong brew it had a very clean mouth feel to it and welcomed you into more sips, I found the fruity nature very refreshing and really kept the extreme bitterness to a slight roar which is not easy to do with this many IBU's. At first taste you get a bit of the hops, but the fruit really shines through and then finishes with a nice malty flavor. Even the after taste is great leaving a bit of spice flavor in the back of your mouth...very inviting! This really is a great drink for humid summer night sitting around the table with a bunch of buddies. Ultimately this is probably one of the more complex beers I have ever, which makes me think I should try it again just make sure that what I say above is correct, lets call it research!

I do recommend rushing out to pick up a bottle or two (or more) of your own and cracking one open right away, storing one away for a year or maybe even two. I plan to pick a couple more up myself and start a Stone Anniversary collection, opening a new one each year.

Cheers

TThis is Rhys wanting to cheers with daddy and have a picture of his drink of choice taken as well