Stone Farking Wheaton w00tstout

Brewed By: Stone Brewing Co. in Escondido, California

Purchased: 22oz bottle bought at Binny's in IL; 2013

Style/ABV: American Double Stout, 13.0% 
Reported IBUs: 65

I don't know how Will Wheaton suddenly became super popular or relveant, but apparently the dude is infamous these days. Apparently, he also likes beer. I lucked into tonight's beer, and hope that everyone has a chance to track a bottle down. Word on the street is this beer is just now popping up outside of Cali, so keep searching. About Stone:

Stone Brewing are one of the more prominent breweries in the American craft brewing scene. They were founded in 1996 in San Marcos, California, and moved to Escondido, California where they recently expanded their operations. Stone was founded by Steve Wagner and Greg Koch. Koch has a reputation among the craft beer community for voicing his opinion, not putting up with shit, and standing behind his beer. 

Like most of Stone's collaboration brews, the Farking Wheaton w00tstout is all kinds of ridiculous. This beer is a collaboration between Stone/Greg Koch, and actor/uber-geek Will Wheaton, and Fark.com creator Drew Curtis. Brewed with rye, wheat malt, and pecans, this beer is partially aged in Bourbon whiskey barrels, and clocks in at a punishing 13% ABV and packs 65 IBUs. 

Stone Farking Wheaton w00tstout

Not at all surprising is this beer's super dark pour and the three fingers of THICK, bready, ice cream float head. The head is brown/coffee/mocha-colored, and has a thick, foamy consistency. No doubt the wheat and rye are keeping this bad boy afloat. This beer is also pretty true to its black body, letting in only the faintest brown tones. As you might expect, there's some nice lacing.

You get rich pecans, nuttiness, coconut, GIANT coffee, roast, cacao/cocoa...and then some hints of dark fruits, wood, and some faded whiskey/bourbon on the aroma. This doesn't remind me of the Stone RIS, and for that, you rock.

I'm drinking this at just below room temperatures, and I have to say...this beer is dense, creamy, rich, and boozy. This reminds me of something from the Southern Tier wheelhouse, or a Hoppin' Frog B.O.R.I.S....or something like that. Up front is rich, velvety cocoa, coffee, roast, and woody richness (edit: there's also some mild soy sauce and umami character); that rolls into some dark fruit complexity, with booze-soaked raisins and prunes, figs; you get some bourbon/whiskey next, with coconut and pecan/almond/nut following. The whole thing starts out super rich and sweet, but finishes sticky and dry with lingering booziness and alcohol complexity. I'm belching up rich chocolate. 

This is full-bodied, rich, boozy, and unapologetic about the whole thing. At 13%, I'm not looking for drinkability or sessionability, I'm looking for something that takes some time to drink and will get me through a couple of hours of TV. Mission accomplished. This beer has outstanding palate depth, with each sip lasting 20-30 seconds on your palate. The complexity is very high as well, with huge cocoa sweetness, coffee/roast, boozy dark fruits ala Stone's RIS, subtle whiskey/bourbon, and a pecan/nutty finish. This beer adds a layer of complexity that would elevate Stone's RIS into something truly remarkable. From front to back: rich, velvety chocolate/cacao, roast, coffee, woody thickfreakness; then you get some booze soaked dark fruits (raisins); the bourbon/whiskey show up; then you get nuts, pecan, pecan pie, boozy coconut; the back end is trailing boozy dark fruits, fade to slightly hoppy/dry/sticky. 

Rating: Divine Brew (4.5/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Decent Divine Brew. In a lot of ways, this is the beer that I wish Stone's RIS was. This is a thick, milkshake-like beer, with huge roast, cacao, coffee, pecan nuttines, and boozy complexity. It's a fun beer, and the 13% means you can both sip on this and then nap it off. I didn't even look to see how much this was going for, but my guess is this was around 10 dollars a bottle? A steal. I would pair this beer with this beer and sip on it over an evening, but you could also go with ice cream, rich chocolate cake, cheese cake, a super aggressive burger with strong cheeses and mushrooms, or a slice of pecan pie. I'm assuming a bottle of this stuff like like 900 calories, but #youonlyliveonce. 

Random Thought: Tomorrow: The Bruery's Bois. Hopefully. Stay tuned.