Stone Twelfth Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout

I had the pleasure of going to the most fabulous bottle shop this weekend. It happened to be in East LA. I saw a variety of Belgian bottles that I hadn't run across in SF yet, and a fabulous assortment of my favorite domestic brews. This one happened to be my favorite, and so for you who haven't had the chance to drink one and read the back, here is an excerpt. A little bit of commentary from the brewmasters on the state of brewing and the current hop shortage.

"... Hours later it's dark and I'm finally home. A moment to contemplate. A moment to enjoy a hard earned beer! Time to write the lable and muse on the things at hand. And what immediately jumps forward to the mind? Hops. Or lack thereof. Never before have we ever had to think to ourselves 'What if we wanted to brew another new, uber hopped beer, but couldn't because the hops weren't available?' Well that's exactly the scenario we're faced with now. It's a situation that's traveled from rumor to semi-awareness to hard reality to panic to grim resolution in the brewing industry in the last six months.... "

it continues on, and they use artisanal chocolate to get the appropriate amount of bitter. its also really delicious.

go get one!