Turns out 13 is lucky afterall

BottleWorks 13th Anniversary Ale

M ark at Wine World told me this one was hard to get. This 22oz looked appealing. I’ve been sitting on it for about 4 months now waiting for a special occasion. Brett drop by the other night for the first time in forever. He’s been on the road for 2 months. What better time. Now I paid a pretty penny for this one because it was a larger size.

I was a bit worried. I had put this and several other brews (of the 55 I’m slowly moving through) in a small wine fridge that Mrs. Dan had picked out of a catalog for her 15th anniversary at work. I got to thinking: Wine on side, Beer up top. Wine has to keep the cork wet. Beer, if it’s corked you never want to put on its side. With a cap? I dunno. I haven’t bothered to Google it but I noticed there was some beer sludge on the bottom of the wine cooler. Maybe its bad. ( I think it was from the Gordon Biersch Marzen).

I determined this wasn’t the one leaking. I also moved all 4 bottles of brew from the wine fridge and moved it to the little fridge with the rest of their brethren.

Interesting beer. I could not have finished this brew by myself. Too much, too intense. This is a very chocolaty beer. It’s got 13 grains and 13 hops. Now this brew says Bottleworks 13th Anniversary Ale at the top. At the bottom it says Stone Brewing Co. I checked out their website and it appears that Stone brewed it for BottleWorks  which is a specialty brew store in Seattle.

I remember having a 15th Anniversary Ale from Stone last year so I was confused about having a 13th Anniversary Ale a year or two later.

I did some searching and found the official blog of Stone Brewing. Sure enough this is an anniversary brew for Bottleworks. The blog says that Bottleworks each year works with a brewer to produce a brew to celebrate their anniversary.
Here’s what the blog by Randy Clemens says:

Malt bill: Pale Two Row, White Wheat, Aromatic, Weyermann Chocolate Rye, Light Munich, Brown Crisp, Oats, Crisp Light Crystal, CaraMunich, Baird’s Chocolate, Lightly Peated, Simpsons Dark Crystal, Crisp Amber.

Hops bill: Bravo, Target, Columbus, Cascade, Delta, Warrior, Magnum, Apollo, Calypso, Perle, Galena, Chinook, Mt. Hood.

Tasting Notes, provided by Brewmaster Mitch Steele: Appearance: Beer pours a deep brown with a tan head of foam.
Aroma: A complex blend of hops—citrusy, piney, tropical fruit notes, blended with toffee and dark coffee-like flavors from the roasted malts.
Taste: Roasted malts come through a bit stronger in the taste, especially up front. Hops reassert themselves mid-palate, and the beer finishes smooth, but bitter, with lots of caramelly roast notes, lingering herbal hop flavors, and a hint of alcohol
Overall: 13 grains and 13 hops were used in the brewing of this beer to celebrate Bottleworks’ 13th Anniversary. The result is an Imperial Porter loaded with malt flavors, and the hop notes run the gamut from citrusy and fruity to herbal, piney and spicy. This is a beer designed to drink fresh, or lay down and cellar for several years. I choose to do both!

I took notes as Brett and I sampled it. This is one dark almost black brew. Nice brown creamy head. The chocolate jumps up with a toffee/coffee flavor. Very sweet at the start then a slight bitter taste pops up as the sugar wears off. I noticed on the bottle it says lightly peated. It does have a slight hint of that peaty flavor of some Scotches.

As I started reading the grains and malts and it started to influence what we were tasting. After I saw caramel I started tasting the caramel.

Then it started to warm up and the bitterness at the end was dropping off and the sweetness seemed to last longer. And I have to admit that the peaty flavor changed and I could swear a bit of a plastic taste. Maybe laying the bottle on it’s side picked up the plastic liner at the top.

Like I said it was a bit intense for me to drink by myself but it was worth the wait.
From: North County San Diego, California
Brewery: Stone Brewing