Place visited: 5 Stones Brewing Company
Date visited: 12/22/13
Recently, one of my favorite breweries to visit is the very creative, 5 Stones Brewing Company. Not only do they already bottle some of the craziest beers around these parts, they have a lot of new and exciting beers for sampling at their brewery open house events. As usual, these guys were awesome hosts. They had a nice spread of snacks and munchies for everybody in attendance. It is always a very friendly atmosphere at this brewery. I enjoy coming out to their open houses to taste their new beers, and to get to talk to like-minded beer crazy people like myself.
The guys at 5 Stones decided to do a Christmas Open House right before the actual Holiday, so they can showcase some beers that will future releases in 2014 and beyond. For those of you know have not been able to try any 5 Stones beer, you don’t know what you are missing. Here is a list of their current line up that has hit the shelves already:
Aloha Pina – Golden Ale brewed with fresh pineapple and roasted jalapeños
Norma Jean – Blonde Ale brewed with fresh strawberries and a hint of vanilla
Rhubarb Cherrylicious – American Wheat Ale brewed with rhubarb and sweet cherries
Manmosa – Ale brewed with fresh oranges and orange zest
Flower Child – Amber Ale brewed with chamomile, piloncillo, and lemon zest
Zero Anniversary – Belgian Style Saison brewed with honey
Camo – Pale Stout brewed with cocoa nibs and espresso beans
Sleepy Hollow – Ale brewed with smoked pumpkin and natural spices
Merry Christmas – Ale brewed with cinnamon, vanilla beans, nutmeg, and allspice
As you can see, I was not lying when I say these guys brew up some crazy beers. Be on the lookout for beer reviews of their current line-up soon. Right now, you are able to read my review on Norma Jean here.
Check out their upcoming beers for 2014 that I was able to taste:
Jack Apple – Brewed with McIntosh apples, Granny Smith apples, cinnamon, and nutmeg. They wanted to try to create an apple pie vibe in a beer, and I think they achieved that perfectly. The apple flavor was dominant, with the spices soon following, giving me that apple to crust combination, making this one taste just like an apple pie.
Snipe Hunter – A Stout brewed with graham crackers, cocoa nibs, and marshmallow. Yes, this is a S’mores beer! What I thought was really interesting about this beer is that the marshmallow was a dominant flavor, so I asked brewer, Paul Ford how this was achieved. His response was “a lot of marshmallow.” So my obvious question was, “How was the clean up afterwards?” Paul replied, “Messy!” Ha ha, yeah I figured that much. This was an excellent beer, and it was amazing to drink outside on this cold day. I can not wait until this one is bottled.
Toby G’s PP – Brewed with roasted pecans, vanilla beans, and local Texas honey. A beer I have had the pleasure of tasting once before at a previous open house at the brewery. I was excited to taste another batch of this fine beer. The “PP” part of the name stands for Pecan Pie, as this beer was brewed in dedication to Seth Weatherley’s father who used to bake pecan pies for Thanksgiving. What a way to be remembered. This beer is amazing. Again, these guys went out and wanted a beer to taste like a pie, and yet again, they achieved this. This beer is already being bottled and will be hitting shelves soon. (Side note: A huge thanks to Seth for giving me one of the unlabeled first bottles of this beer!)
Peppermint Bark – Brewed with peppermint leaves, vanilla beans, and cocoa nibs. I was a bit scared of this beer before trying it, as I did not like the idea of peppermint in a beer. It took some convincing from the group of drinkers around me, and Paul Ford. What the heck, I’m a risk taker… pffft! I was expecting a stout or porter, but instead I was handed a clear copper colored ale. I was actually blown away by how good this beer was. All the added ingredients really popped out, and the peppermint was subtle, and very tasty as a compliment to the vanilla and cocoa.
Heaven’s to Mergatroid – Wheat Ale brewed with prickly pear fruit. First noticeable thing about this beer is the color. It is an unusual fuchsia-like color with a pink bubbly head. I really wanted this beer to be more sour. It is in fact a tart fruit beer, but I was expecting an even more tart flavor. There was an off flavor that I found to be a bit unbearable, which was described to be flavors of bubblegum or of kiwi nature. I really wanted to like this beer a lot more than I did but my palate might have been wrecked by this time as I had all the other beers prior to this one. I am hoping to try this one again as a first beer to give it a fair chance.
The beer was all so awesome, and so was the company I had while there. Hanging out with Odie and company from The Brewface Killahs is always a treat with funny as hell conversations. I enjoy talking shop with industry people such as Ryan Bishop & Justin Barton of Guadalupe Brewing Company. Of course, the highlight of conversation was with Seth Weatherly (Owner/Brewer) and Paul Ford (Brewer) of 5 Stones Brewing Company, as they introduced their new beers to me, and future plans.
All-in-all, I had a blast at 5 Stones Brewery. I am really looking forward to having these beers in bottles at the BMD Headquarters one day. I can really see a bright future for these guys, and one day expanding into a bigger facility. Cheers!
Please check the brewery’s Facebook page for upcoming events.
Beer Metal Media 