Stone Crime

Crime is a  9.6% ABV and 102 IBU special limited release from Stone Brewing of Escondido, San Diego County, California (they should also give its Scoville units, which measure spicy heat levels). It is part of their Quingenti Millilitre series released in 500 ml (thence the name) bottles holding on imperial pint. This is batch number 8 of the 2013 series. It is the partner to Punishment.

To celebrate the 13th Anniversary of their Arrogant Bastard ale, Stone blended Arrogant Bastard, Oaked Arrogant Bastard, Bastard Ale and Double Bastard Ale into Lucky Bastard Ale. This beer results from taking that Lucky Bastard and adding large amounts of freshly harvested peppers, including red and green jalapenos, along with ultra-hot black nagas, Caribbean red hots, Moruga scorpions, and fatalis peppers. This was then aged in American oak bourbon barrels. 

The beer pours a deep and dark amber, deep and dark burnt orange and brown, with hints of garnet. There is a tall, thick, somewhat creamy head of off-white to very light tan foam. The aroma is powerful roasted and hot peppers. There is a bit of caramel and a hint of bourbon, but peppers certainly dominate. My lips rubbed the foam while I was taking in the aroma, and now they are burning, and this from a person who loves hot, spicy foods. The taste is a wave of roasted peppers, both the flavors and the heat, then a wave of vanilla, light bourbon and oak. This is then followed in turn by a wave of heat that tingles the lips and tickles the throat, at the back and all the way down. There is a warming sensation that goes all the way down to my stomach.

If you aren’t a big fan of hot peppers, then avoid (I am serious). Even if you are a fan, this is a pint best split, it becomes a bit overwhelming (not from the heat so much as its massiveness in every way). These beers were a mixed bag for me, with some very enjoyable aspects, but also a strange vomit like vibe.

I saw this for sale at Zombie Burger in Des Moines, the chalkboard sign said ‘No take backsies.” Very true, no going back once you get into this beer. 

(By the way, if you have never read Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, then your life is incomplete and you should immediately get the book and read it.)