Stone, Evil Twin, Stillwater: The Perfect Crime

The Perfect Crime is another collaboration beer that I picked up just because, well it was a new Stone Release and I have tried pretty much all of the collaborations. I have been reading a lot of mixed reviews of this one so I was not sure what to expect. Especially now since the bottle has about 4 or 5 months on it. I was not sure how or if the smoke character would come through.



The interesting thing about this beer is that Stone brought together some of the "Gypsy Brewers". Mitch Steele talks about that a little bit on the back of the bottle.

I first heard the term "gypsy brewer" in reference to Mikkel Borg-Bjergsø, back in 2008, when we brewed our very first collaboration beer with Mikkel and Peter Zien of AleSmith. And now we are thrilled to welcome two more famous gypsy brewers to our brewery: Jeppe Jarnit-Bjergsø of Evil Twin Brewing (Mikkel's brother-hence the name) and Brian Strumke of Stillwater Artisanal Ales.

Jeppe and Brian have brewed together before, and both have excellent pedigrees in brewing unique Belgian-inspired beers. Their shady influence was felt throughout the brewing of this mysterious black beer, and we were excited to be able to brew it.

I know of one other story on the back of the bottle, I am sure there is a third but I have not heard it. Over at Daily Beer Review you can read one take on the back of the bottle.

So, The Perfect Crime poured pitch black and it had a nice creamy tan head. I picked up some plum, spice, a little bit of smoke and pear on the nose. I was expecting more smoke, but like I said this is an "aged" bottle. Only a couple of months... or maybe it was not that smokey to begin with...

Smoke was the first thing to roll across my tongue, for sure though. Toffee and that plum flavor followed. It is very fruity and light bodied. I am not really seeing anything saison about this. It drinks more like a dubbel to me... way lighter in body, but that is what I think of as I take each sip. I actually enjoy this one even though it taste nothing like what I was expecting.

Cheers!