So Stone Brewing announced they are barrel aging. The “Quingenti Millilitre” coming soon, with this beer kicking it all off. Kona Coffee Macadamia Coconut Porter. A collaboration between Maui Brewing, Stone, and home brewer Ken Schmidt. The beer Continue Reading →
Stone Brewing (Escondido, CA) announced they are doing some barrel aging. This isn’t entirely new, but never in bottles and never formally introduced to the public. Even as the beer geek starts salivating over this news, these won’t be easy Continue Reading →
Stone Brewing is working on a European project. The plan is to build a brewery SOMEWHERE in Europe. A few weeks ago, Stone asked their fans what they want to know about the project. Today, they answered them on the Stone Blog:
A little while back we asked you via Facebook if you had any questions for us about our European brewery project. From the fusillade of responses, we have deemed the following to be worthy of answers. If you’ve got a burning query we didn’t cover here, feel free to ask in the comments.
John & Chris Trogner arrived in Southern California today to work on a collaboration between Stone & Troeg’s Brewing. Troeg’s is a small brewery based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania with an incredible lineup.
2011 is Stone Brewing’s 15th year. That means two things – a party, and Stone’s 15th Anniversary Ale. This year’s party is bigger and better than ever before. This years celebration is scheduled for August 19-20, 2011. Here’s the event breakdown.
We had such a great time last year that we’re doing it again, but even bigger and definitely better!
Help us kick off the celebration before Saturday’s main event.Get an exclusive 15th Anniversary Brewers Reception commemorative glass. Meet the world-class brewers who are bringing their beers to Saturday’s festival. Sample dozens of exceptional beers with no wristband tabs required! Feast on complimentary gourmet food by Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens and several new vendors! Enjoy your food and drink in a relaxed, uncrowded atmosphere. Groove to live music all evening long.
[quote]Chief among those is the Stone Hotel, an intimate 50-room venue that will be situated across the street from Stone’s main brewing facility in Escondido (which will undergo an expansion to add a new brewery and additional parking). The timeline on this ambitious project is fuzzy, but other projects on the docket are already under way.[/quote]
To recap – Brewery expansion – from 150,000 (2011) to 500,000 capacity by 2012. New retail store in South Park area of San Diego, CA. New Hotel. Farm for organic foods for Stone World Bistro. European Expansion to either Germany or Belgium.
<Info Via Stone Media Day search on Twitter, San Diego Reader, The Full Pint>
Arrogant Bastards At Stone Brewing Announce Expansion
Stone Brewing is growing. To the tune of 26 million dollars. In addition to expanding the brewery, Stone is planning a few other additions too.
Expansions Include:
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400 seat restaurant in Point Loma, CA. Including 19,000 ft beer garden w/ brewery, outdoor screening venue, & bocce ball
The brewery in Escondido will be doubled. Maxing capacity at 500,000 barrels a year
Adding a 18 acre farm in North County, CA to supply organic food to the restaurant
San Diego based shop for bottles & growler sales
[/unordered_list]
Also, this is in addition to the Stone Brewing – Europe venture, which is still in progress. Stone is planning on building in Germany or Belgium in the near future. When this expansion is completed in 2012, it will boost Stone’s output from 150,000 barrels to 500,000. 250 more jobs are set to be created.
Stone’s annual revenue is in the neighborhood of $62 million per year <SignOnSanDiego>
So Stone Brewing announced they are barrel aging. The “Quingenti Millilitre” coming soon, with this beer kicking it all off. Kona Coffee Macadamia Coconut Porter. A collaboration between Maui Brewing, Stone, and home brewer Ken Schmidt. The beer was released late 2009 in 12 ounce bottles by Stone. This revamped version finds the coconut porter aging in bourbon barrels
Label: What a great beer for our very first release of our new 500ml bottle size! We’re reserving this bottle for occasional limited releases of very special beers, and there’s no question that the Ken Schmidt/Maui/Stone Bourbon Barrel Aged Kona Coffee, Macadamia, Coconut Porter qualifies as just such. A while ago, we secretly squirreled away two oak barrels of this beer for a year+ nap and some resulting bourbonification.
It’s cool to reflect on the fact that our now-yearly collaborations with local homebrewers are not just an acknowledgement of the amazing homebrew scene here in SoCal, but of our own homebrewing roots. Steve was quite an accomplished homebrewer when I met him in the early 90’s, and I think together we’ve accomplished quite a lot between then and today!
As our head brewer, Mitch, can attest, this beer was not easy to make (the sheer volume of the fancy ingredients alone was a bear), and the wait has been long for the barrel-aged version, but worth it. I look forward to relaxing at home with it — maybe on now, and one in a few more years! Cheers from me, Steve, Mitch, Ken, Garret and the entire Stone Team!
Availability: 500 ml bottles, corked & caged. 1st edition brewery only release
Stone Brewing (Escondido, CA) announced they are doing some barrel aging. This isn’t entirely new, but never in bottles and never formally introduced to the public. Even as the beer geek starts salivating over this news, these won’t be easy to find by any stretch of the imagination.
Here’s the rub: There will be very few of these bottles available, and irregularly at that. At least for the foreseeable future. Space is our biggest constraint, and filling up our brewery with barrels just isn’t an option. So if you can’t get these, we’re sorry, we really are. We’ll try to make more, and if you can make it to one of our events, there’s a chance you’ll get to try them on draft. But that’s the best we can do…for now.
Stone is calling the series the “Quingenti Millilitre” (latin for 500 milliliters). The brewery has a mix of bourbon and wine barrels in it’s arsenal, including some 184 Scotch whiskey barrels. Name dropping some residents in these barrels include the soon to be released editions of Imperial Russian Stout, and BELGO Anise Imperial Russian. There’s even a collaboration sitting in bourbon right now (as seen at left) done with Maui Brewing. 672 bottles of Ken Schmidt / Maui / Stone Kona Coffee Macadamia Coconut Porter Aged in Bourbon Barrels is slated for a brewery only release in July.
Quingenti Millilitre will feature more than just barrel aging. Stone plans some double dry hopped editions of some beers too. 500 ml bottles. Corked, caged & rare. All to be announced in due time. <StoneBlog>
Stone Brewing is working on a European project. The plan is to build a brewery SOMEWHERE in Europe. A few weeks ago, Stone asked their fans what they want to know about the project. Today, they answered them on the Stone Blog:
A little while back we asked you via Facebook if you had any questions for us about our European brewery project. From the fusillade of responses, we have deemed the following to be worthy of answers. If you’ve got a burning query we didn’t cover here, feel free to ask in the comments.
Q: Are you going to use European ingredients?
A: Yes, undoubtedly, although we’ll probably import some American hops. Fortunately, you get a lot of bang for your buck with hops; they’re compact, lightweight, and pungent. So it shouldn’t add up to much in the grand scheme of things…even with the copious amounts we love to use.
Q: Are you going to explore new styles of beer or keep the same style that Stone is known for?
A: We will continue making Stone-style Stone beers. As in, we will certainly make new beers, but they will always keep with our approach to brewing. We will look for inventive ways to incorporate local ingredients, riff on regional styles, and generally exercise our creativity in the brewing process, but our beer will still be recognizably Stone.
Q: Why Europe and not [my hometown]? We’d love a brewery/your beer here!
A: Undoubtedly you would, and we are in fact rolling out distribution in new areas at a rate of approximately 2 states per year. That’s the fastest we can sustainably enter new markets. So if you can’t get Stone right now, hang tight, we’re on our way.
As for building a brewery in Europe rather than somewhere else in the U.S., keep in mind that the primary goal of this project is to build a production brewery. No amount of capacity will make it any cheaper, more environmentally sustainable, or freshness-preserving to ship beer across an ocean. So there’s a basic logistical reason for the choice.
More abstractly, we believe Europe is in the early stages of a brewing revolution. The forces of consolidation and homogenization have wrecked havoc on the noble European brewing tradition in much the same way things got so desperate in the U.S. prior to the craft beer revolution (admittedly, things aren’t as bad as the low point of 45 or so breweries in all of the US that we had in the late 1970’s). A smattering of small, highly creative European breweries are challenging the dominance of fizzy yellow beer, and we want to be a part of their movement.
Q: Can I get a job at your European brouwerij?
A: Maybe, if you’re amazing at what you do (and speak several European languages.)
Q: Will you make brews available only in Europe?
A: Pretty much. We believe it’s important to support the struggling postal system by forcing American beer geeks to trade European beer geeks for our Euro-only beers.
In all seriousness, yes of course there will be Europe-only beers. The whole point is to avoid shipping all that glass and liquid across the world. Consider it an excuse to engage in beer tourism. That being said, we’ll probably ship the odd keg or case back and forth a little for special occasions, but it’ll likely be a rather insignificant percentage of our total production.
Q: Will your beers abide by the Reinheitsgebot?
A: First, some clarification. The Reinheitsgebot stopped being part of German law in 1988, so we’re certainly under no obligation to comply with it in the event we build our brewery or sell our beer in Germany. But backing up even farther, the Reinheitsgebot was essentially a labeling law; you could still make beer with just about anything you wanted, you just couldn’t label it “beer.”
That said, most of our year-round beers are Reinheitsgebot “compliant,” while many of our special releases are not.
Q: Do you think Europe is really ready?
A: “Europe” as a whole is not ready, and neither was the U.S. in 1996 when Stone was founded. But our goal isn’t to make beer for everyone; it’s to make beer for the people who share our incredibly good taste in beer. So we’re neither concerned nor interested in whether an entire continent’s worth of people are ready for our beer. But we do know that there are Europeans who are excited about breaking the hegemony of fizzy yellow beer by supporting innovative brewers. And that’s enough for us.
John & Chris Trogner arrived in Southern California today to work on a collaboration between Stone & Troeg’s Brewing. Troeg’s is a small brewery based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania with an incredible lineup.
The Trogner’s will join Stone brewer Mitch Steele as they create something sure to be tasty.
Details to follow
Another note: Chris Trogner has joined Twitter, @CTroegs
2011 is Stone Brewing’s 15th year. That means two things – a party, and Stone’s 15th Anniversary Ale. This year’s party is bigger and better than ever before. This years celebration is scheduled for August 19-20, 2011. Here’s the event breakdown.
We had such a great time last year that we’re doing it again, but even bigger and definitely better!
Help us kick off the celebration before Saturday’s main event.Get an exclusive 15th Anniversary Brewers Reception commemorative glass. Meet the world-class brewers who are bringing their beers to Saturday’s festival. Sample dozens of exceptional beers with no wristband tabs required!
Feast on complimentary gourmet food by Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens and several new vendors! Enjoy your food and drink in a relaxed, uncrowded atmosphere. Groove to live music all evening long.
Saturday Stone 15th Anniversary Celebration & Invitational Beer Festival – $40 Session A 11:00 am – 2:00 pm | Session B 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm
This is the main event! Here’s what you can look forward to this year:
A 15th Anniversary Celebration commemorative tasting glass
Admission to one 3-hour session
Tickets for ten samples of delicious craft beers
Over 40 participating guest breweries
Over a hundred amazing beers to choose from, including one-offs
and special releases
Stone Collaboration tent featuring our latest collaborative efforts
Special cask section with half a dozen Stone brews on cask
Free homebrewed sodas by the Society of Barley Engineers
Samples of the world-famous Mike’s Beer Cheese
All Access Pass & Rare Beer Section – $70
11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Last year’s Rare Beer tent was hugely popular, and we’ve added even more to the all access pass this year! Here’s what you’ll be entitled to:
Admission to BOTH 3-hour sessions. Take your time!
EVERYTHING that’s already included in the main festival (see above)
Access to the Rare Beer tent up the hill. It’s less crowded and much cooler!
Your 10 wristband tabs may be used in BOTH the Rare Beer tent and the main festival area (these 10 tickets are for the entire day, no additional tasters will be sold)
The privilege to come and go between the main festival area and the Rare Beer tent
Dozens of extremely rare and one-off brews available ONLY in the Rare Beer tent
Complimentary food by Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens
Guest appearances by some of the world’s best brewers
Live music to go with your exceptionally rare beers
