Stone 11th Annniversary returns!!!!

Last night, I received the best news I have had in quite some time with regard to beer. In September of 2007, Stone Brewing out of Escondido, California released their annual anniversary beer. The commercial description goes a little something like this:

Our Stone 11th Anniversary Black IPA uses de-husked dark malt imported from Germany and American high alpha hop varieties, including Chinook, with Simcoe and Amarillo hops combined in the dry-hop. These ingredients combine to provide this beer with complex citrus and roast flavors, neither one overwhelming the other, but both intense enough to assure a totally unique and deep flavor profile. It's not a Porter, and it's not a Stout.

Upon release, I acquired a bottle, tried it, and proceeded to acquire at least an entire case worth of this magical nectar. Roasty, citrusy and hopped to Hell and back, this beer quickly became a favorite. In fact, most of that case worth of 22oz bombers was meant for cellaring, but the temptation proved too great. So, before the calendar rolled over to 2008, I had run through my supply, and I was heartbroken that this beer, a perennial top five-er, was gone...forever.

Then, upon visiting Liquor Barn in Lexington last night, I discovered, on the shelf, multiple bottles of Stone 11th Anniversary. I stopped for a few minutes, staring, convinced that my eyes were playing tricks on me. But no, Stone, apparently aged a certain number of cases of this beer and released it a year later. The best part is that you know these cases were cared for. They weren't "aged" in the back corner of some non-climate controlled warehouse. Stone cellared these themselves and released them.

Here is the "bad" news. I am not 100% certain if this is the case, but from what I understand, there are only 15 cases of this beer here in Louisville, and they are split up between the three Liquor Barn locations. That is not alot of beer, especially if the beer geeks, such as myself, catch wind of this soon. That allocation could be scooped up pretty quickly.

So, if you have never had this beer, do yourself a favor and grab a bottle. You won't be disappointed. If you have already had this beer, chances are, you didn't even read the rest of this post and you are already on your way to procure some bottles.

One final thing: I saw these bottles in Lexington. I have no guarantee that there are even any in Louisville, although I was told that there were. I will be confirming today and I will post an update either confirming or denying the legitimacy of what I was told. Cheers, all.