For Stone Brewing Co’s (Escondido, CA) 17th Anniversary, they went German. Meaning the above IPA coming this August is chock full of German hops. In true Stone form, and pushing the boundaries, Stone cites economist Joseph Schumpeter’s theory in making this IPA -“Creative Destruction.” Steve Wagner explains below.
Life is never dull at Stone, but the last year has been one of the most eventful yet. We threw open the doors to Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station, our second decidedly eclectic brewery restaurant installed in historic former U.S. Navy buildings (which includes an original mess hall). We outfitted that venue with a 10-barrel brewhouse, 40 taps serving Stone and guest beers, a huge outdoor garden area, and 650-plus seats. Hey, “small” is for other people. Well, I suppose we do have our own version of “small” in our brand-new-as-of-August craft beer-centric bar and eatery in Terminal 2 of San Diego International Airport,although it’s on the large size as airport restaurants go. At any rate, plan your trip accordingly. And we doubled the size and production capacity of our brewery, built the new Stone Packaging Hall and, oh yeah, found out we’re now the tenth largest craft brewing company in the country. We can hardly believe we fit that all into one paragraph, much less twelve months. Through all that growth, like hop bites rooted in fertile soil (see what we did there?), we kept our feet securely planted on terra firma, remembering that it’s all about the beer–we’d be nothing without it. And so, as we prepare to celebrate seventeen years of straining the seams of the ale envelope, we again focus squarely on beer via our annual anniversary offering, while at the same time laying to waste much of our West Coast methodology as well as what the world–thanks much in part to our family of beers–has come to know about IPAs.
Inspired by new experimental German hops, our brewing team is celebrating our 17te Jahrestag by taking palates on a tour of Deutschland by way of Southern California. In doing so, they used a grain bill comprised exclusively of pilsner malts and German hops (Herkules, Hersbrucker, Magnum, Merkur, Opal, Smaragd, Strisselspalt). Dry-hopping with Sterling, a U.S. hop with Saaz parentage, lends a bit of familiarity, but be forewarned, this is a unique beer that takes the IPA –a style we’ve already pushed far beyond its limits over the years–to uncharted new territory. It’s not that dissimilar to Stone, really. Joseph Schumpeter (the economist who popularized “creative destruction”) chose economics; we chose beer. Our creative destruction has been aimed squarely at the previously-held-dear conventions of what beer can and should be. Stone 17th Anniversary Gotterdammerung IPA is the latest in a long line of innovations, but nowhere near the last. Not by a long shot.
Style: Imperial IPA
Hops: Herkules, Hersbrucker, Magnum, Merkur, Opal, Smaragd, Strisselspalt, Sterling (Dry hop)
Availability: 22oz bombers, Draft
Arrival: August, 2013
9.5% ABV
It wouldn’t be a Stone press release without self-congratulation and talk about how innovative and envelope-pushing they are.
I would expect nothing less from those arrogant (but loveable) bastards!