Another Stone/ Ken Schmidt collaberation!!!!

Great beer!

For those of you that have been following this blog since day one, first off, let me say thank you. Second, you may recall one of my first posts, titled "The Thrill of the Hunt" in which I documented my quest for find a collaboration brew from Stone Brewing in Escondido California, and Maui Brewing in Hawaii, and Ken Schmidt, a home brewing also from the Hawaiian islands. The brew was an amazing Macadamia nut, Kona Coffee coconut porter, that is, to this day, one of my favorite, most memorable beers I've had the pleasure of drinking. I bought 3 bottles at the time, and wish I had bought a case of it! It was a one time brew, and since that batch, I have yet to drink it again.

I can't wait to try this!

Well, you can imagine my excitement, when I saw the news that Stone and Ken Schmidt have hooked up once again, this time adding Iron Fist Brewing to the mix, to create another beer, that, sounds, at the very least, intriguing. They have come up with an Imperial Mint Chocolate Stout! Set to be on shelves today (Oct 8th) you can be assured, I will be hunting this one down as well! Hopefully this time I will have to for thought of either buying more than three of them, or not drinking the ones I do have do quickly!

Listed as a Double/Imperial Stout, it weighs in at a pretty hefty 9.6% abv.

Here is the video Stone has released to announce the launch of this beer.

If any of you out there happen across this beer, please let me know where!!! I'll be looking around for it this week.

Until then, bottoms up my friends

The Beer Czar

The Thill of the Hunt!!

After weeks of dragging the baby into Whole Foods, or calling liquor stores, stopping by Total Wine on the way home from work, I finally found it!


Over the last year, Stone Brewing (one of my favorite brewers) has been releasing one time run collaborations with different brewing companies. These beers are run in one fairly small batch, making them fairly hard to find. I had not had one at all, but then I heard about the most recent one, I made it a point to get one.
It was collaboration with Maui Brewing, and Hawaii home brewer Ken Schmidt. It is a Kona Coffee, Macadamia Nut, Coconut Porter. Coffee, and Porter, 2 of my favorite things, and I LOVE coconut, so I figured I had to get one of these.
It was released the middle of Sept. The day it was, I was at Whole Foods, talking to the beer buyer, whom had never heard of it and not sure if, they would be getting it. I stopped at Bevmo, AJ’s, Cost Plus, and Total Wine, none of which had heard about it yet. I started calling Sun Devil Liquors, Topps Liquors, no luck. After a week, I started getting discouraged. I ended up talking to a person at Whole Foods that stated she didn’t even think they would be getting it!
Another week or two went by, and I basically gave up. Yesterday, for what ever reason, after picking up my 8 year old daughter, we were driving to pick up my baby daughter, and we drove past Whole Foods, and I decided to swing in and grab a case of Bigfoot for the up coming camping weekend. Well, they didn’t have any more Bigfoot, and am I glad they didn’t. I went down to the Stone section, and low and behold, there it was!

I grabbed 3 12 oz bottles ($6.99 a piece!)

I was going to save them for a special occasion, but last night, I could wait, I poured one, and sat back, ready to enjoy.

It was VERY dark. Had a slight coconut, toasted coffee aroma. I was excited!!! I took one sip, and was a little disappointed. Not as much flavor as I would have figured. Then I realized that it was VERY cold. So I decided to let it sit for a few minutes, and let it warm. Boy, am I glad I did!! Totally different beer after a little warming. Very complex! Not a lot of coconut flavor, but a pretty strong macadamia suggestion. Mostly coffee however. Not like brewed coffee, but more like a taste of a roasted espresso bean flavor. A very rich, full flavor. Very complex. It finishes with another hint of coconut, and a sort of chocolate covered macadamia nut.

This is the first beer I ever “set out” to buy. Most of the time, when I find something in limited release, I sort of happen upon it. This is the first time I ever made a point to get something hard to find.

Honestly, this may not have been the greatest beer in the world, but the quest I went through to find it, I think really added to my enjoyment of it. The “thrill of the hunt” so to speak. It was a lot of fun, and I plan on keeping an ear out for something else to try and hunt down. When I do, I’ll be sure and write about it!

Learn more about Stone at http://www.stonebrew.com/