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A Summer of Stone with Stone Brewing Company

A Summer of Stone with Stone Brewing Company

Gargoyles are known to stave off evil spirits and generally promote good fortune wherever they are employed, and at Stone Brewing they take this idea seriously. Looking at Stone’s logo or any of their beers and you’ll find their figurehead gargoyle front and center, helping to ward off any evil spirits looking to do your beer harm. Gargoyles aside, it’s what is inside the bottle that has made Stone Brewing a powerhouse of craft beer for more than 20 years and counting.

Stone Brewing Co. was founded in 1996 by Greg Koch (pronounced “cook”) and Steve Wagner in San Marcos, CA. The first keg of beer ever produced by the brewery was their Stone Pale Ale, and while not in production today, it was the beer that launched an empire, so to speak. In their first year of brewing, Stone Brewing produced 400 barrels of beer, which was easily surpassed by the 2,100 barrels brewed in 1997. This tremendous growth has continued throughout Stone’s history up to today.

Fast forward to 2016 and Stone Brewing produced 350,000 barrels in a single year. This steady growth should stand to show how consistently great Stone’s beers have been and continue to be. Today Stone Brewing Co. brews out of their Escondido, CA brewery, which they’ve been in since 2005 as well as their newly opened brewery in Richmond, Virginia. For those with more European interests, Stone also opened their Berlin brewery in a former gasworks facility originally built in 1901.

To celebrate the opening of the new Berlin brewery, Stone is releasing a line of collaboration beers brewed in Berlin and imported into the US. Found in large magnum bottles, these unique beers are definitely not single serve, and as with the ideals of craft beer, are meant to be enjoyed with friends.

With breweries on both coasts of the US and in Germany, getting fresh Stone Brewing beer has never been easier.
The Beers
While Stone Brewing makes some seriously amazing year round beers, their seasonal program is really where it’s at. By keeping things fresh and changing up the big unique beers throughout the year, Stone Brewing helps to give us a taste of something different while continuing to come out with new and interesting beers on a regular basis, especially those special Berlin-brewed beers we’re dying to get our hands on.

Stone Tangerine Express IPA
Hops are amazing. Not only do they impart bitterness into the beer they’re brewed with, but they also add a host of other flavors ranging from pine to pineapple to citrus and beyond. All that flavor hiding in the small flowers of our favorite bine.

An excellent example of this is Stone Brewing’s Tangerine Express IPA. This beer is brewed with Citra, Centennial, Sterling, Azacca, and Mosaic hops to give it a fresh, citrus body that’s then accentuated by the addition of tangerine and pineapple puree.

Coming in at 6.7% ABV and 75 IBUs, Tangerine Express is a refreshing take on the classic West Coast IPA style that’s thankfully going to be around in 22oz bottles and draft year round.

Stone Ghost Hammer IPA
A fermenting beer never slumbers, or so says the folks at Stone Brewing and for good reason. The night shift at any brewery will tell you that when things quiet down and the night gets dark, those otherwise innocuous tanks and pipes take on a life of their own. Knocking, banging, and making all other sorts of ghostly noises while brave brewers and brewery staff do their best to assure themselves they ain’t afraid of no ghost.

With this in mind, Stone is releasing a new seasonal beer named Ghost Hammer IPA. This 6.7% ABV beer is being released in cans and features Loral and Magnum hops to give it a refreshing, bitter flavor that’s perfect for summer days and nights when you need a little liquid courage scaring off some ghosts of your own.

Stone Mocha IPA
Now I know what you’re thinking, hops…coffee…chocolate…really? Sure, on the surface these tastes may not initially seem like they go together but once you try this seasonal warm-weather beer, you’ll be convinced that coffee and mocha in your IPA is the best idea since beer and grass cutting.

There’s something to be said about sticking to the traditional styles, and something else entirely to cross the unspoken boundaries and mix the ideals of an IPA and a stout to make an amalgamation of styles that somehow works perfectly. Brewed using cold brew coffee, this beer gives you all the coffee flavor you love without added bitterness.

While Stone’s Mocha IPA is at its core a respectable double IPA, there are notes of coffee, milky sweetness from milk sugar, and a latte-like character that flows alongside the citrusy, juicy hops and the refreshing bitter finish. This seasonal beer comes in at 9% ABV.

Stone RuinTen
Originally brewed in 2012 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of one of the most intense, hop-forward beers in the Stone Brewing portfolio, Stone RuinTen continues to celebrate everything that makes Stone Ruination amazing while doing so much more.

Stone RuinTen is a triple IPA coming in at a staggering 10.8% ABV and 110 IBUs. Described by Stone Brewing as “A stage dive into a mosh pit of hops,” RuinTen is an over-the-top IPA that utilizes five pounds of hops in each barrel of beer to give it exceptional bitterness as well as a substantial flavor profiles that really has to be tasted to be believed.

So how do you make a beer this good even better? It may be hard but the brewers at Stone found a way. By adding orange peel and vanilla bean to the mix, we’re left with a beer that’s just as big and bitter as the original with some extra flavor added into the mix.

Stone RuinTen is available seasonally, stays fresh for only 90 days, and can be found in 22oz bottles and on draft.

Stone Farking Wheaton WootStout
What do you get when you cross a group of beer-loving nerds with a brewery that’s not afraid to do something a little weird and wild? Well, if you’re Wil Wheaton, Drew Curtis, and Stone Brewing founder Greg Koch you join forces and brew an outstanding beer and share it with the world.

With a name that’s more than a mouthful, Stone Farking Wheaton WootStout was originally released in 2013 as one of beer’s nerdiest collaborations. Fitting with Stone Brewing’s want for being different, this brew is a summer seasonal beer.

WootStout is available in 22oz bottles and on draft, and as you can imagine is one of the more rare seasonal beers in Stone Brewing’s portfolio, so keep your eyes peeled for some, and when it comes to buying some for yourself, do as Wil’s TV boss says, and “make it so.”

Stone Enjoy BY 7/4/17
Stone Brewing is dedicated to fresh beer. Some breweries say they love fresh beer, but few are so dedicated as to not only print the expiration date on the bottle, but to actually make it part of the beer’s name.

Stone Enjoy By is an insanely fresh double IPA that has a staggeringly low 37-day shelf life. This dedication to freshness can’t be achieved alone, it takes support from amazing local distributors like Vecenie Distributing to make sure the beer gets into our hands as quickly as possible, and to make sure only the freshest beers are in the wild.

Stone Enjoy By 7/4/17 is available in 22oz bottles, on draft, and for the first time ever, in 12-oz cans. Check out the patriotic-themed cans and bottles today and toast to freedom the best way possible.

Stone Berlin Groundbreaking Collaborations
With the opening of Stone Brewing’s, well, groundbreaking, new brewery in Germany, the company felt the need to release a line of collaboration beers brewed at the new facility to celebrate. Released in large magnum bottles, these beers are in short supply and while they may cost you a few bucks thanks to their epic size, the beer inside is definitely worth it. Just make sure to get a few friends to help you enjoy them.

The first of these special beers to hit our shores was an imperial coconut porter with Maui Brewing called Aloha! Berlin that featured hand-toasted coconut, Maui coffee and hazelnuts.

Next up for Stone Berlin was a collaboration with Victory Brewing and Dogfish Head Brewing called Royale Imperial Saison Du Buff. Released in February of this year, this imperial farmhouse style ale comes in at 10% ABV and features parsley, sage, rosemary, and lemon thyme.

Release number three was Stone’s collaboration with Brewdog Brewing Co. called Super Bashah. This blank Belgian-style double IPA features chocolate malt and Belgian yeast with an ABV of 9.7%.

The last of the initial launch beers from Berlin is a collaboration between Stone Brewing and The Lost Abbey called Sticks N’ Stones. This dark imperial lager comes in at 8.3% ABV and is brewed with Belgian yeast and aged with wood chips in granite barrels.

That’s not all though. There are a total of 14 collaborations headed our way from Berlin. Keep your eyes open for more big bottles to hit our shelves as these are released into the wild.

Of course Stone still offers their lineup of year-round and seasonal offerings, all of which are currently available with these amazing special beers listed above. So kick back, relax, and make this the summer of Stone.