The Stone 13th Anniversary Ale was created for an obvious reason: their 13th birthday! Well with Stone entering their teenage years as of 2009, their product was this American Strong Ale. Unfortunately for me, the bottle clearly states to consume immediately and not age. Well, it’s 2010, so forgive me if it’s past its prime.

Going into this, I’m expecting the flavor profile to have changed dramatically. So, if you’ve had this before, ignore my ignorance and keep in mind this has been aging an entire year (June to June). I poured the 750ml bottle bit by bit into my snifter glass for this review. The color was a cloudy mahogany brown brushed with some maroon hues. A nice creamy, tan head formed in the glass and left a bit of lacing behind.

The nose is full of rich flavors overwhelmed by an immense sweetness. There’s no doubt this has come from the aging process, though it may have been intended to be sweet to begin with. The sweet malt sticks out first, accompanied by an assortment of dark fruits, most prominently raisins and figs; even smelling like a Fig Newton cookie. The back end of the nose had some calming sweet mango and white grapefruit cutting through the thickness of the dark fruits.

For being past its prime, this has an incredible mouth feel on it. It’s on the heavier side of being medium-bodied, but not to the full-bodiedness of a Stout. There is some carbonation here but it seems to have settled after being bottled for so long. The palate is dominant on the malt flavor coupled with the dark fruits again; sweet raisin and prune. The finish is big on the white grapefruit with some under-toned bitterness from the hops, though terribly weakened.

The flavor profile seemed to be dominantly heavier in the sweet malt and dark fruit. For being the situation it’s in, it still held its ground one year later and proved to be an excellent American Strong Ale. It went down smooth, was extremely well balanced and definitely still enjoyable.

Overall: 8.7/10