Stone Brewing Company
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| Stone Brewing Co. | |||||||||||||||||
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| Location | Escondido, California, USA | ||||||||||||||||
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| Owner(s) | Steve Wagner and Greg Koch (independent) | ||||||||||||||||
| Year opened | 1996 | ||||||||||||||||
| Annual production | 67,841 US barrels/year (2007); 88,000 US barrels/year (projected 2008); 250,000 barrels/year (eventual projected capacity) | ||||||||||||||||
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Stone Brewing Co. is a craft brewery headquartered in Escondido, California. It was founded in 1996 in San Marcos, San Diego County, California.
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[edit] Summary
Stone Brewing is known for the aggressive Arrogant Bastard Ale, although the brewery considers Stone Pale Ale and Stone IPA to be its flagship beers[1]. Most of their beers are characteristic of west-coast craft brews; that is to say, most beers have a traditonally 'hoppy' flavor. Stone beers are bottled in 22 ounce bottles, 12oz six packs, and occasionally 3 litre bottles.
The beers available in six-packs are the Stone Pale Ale, Stone IPA, Stone Levitation Ale, Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale, and Stone Ruination IPA. Stone uses 22oz bottles to feature their "bigger character" beers and Stone Special Releases. Compared to most brewers, many Stone brews feature alcohol percentages that are well above average. The alcohol-by-volume content of Stone brews ranges from 4.4% to well over 11%.
Stone Brewing is consistently rated as one of the best brewers in the US, and world, by the two largest beer enthusiast websites, RateBeer.com and BeerAdvocate.com.
[edit] Brewery
In 2006, Stone relocated from its original brewery in San Marcos to a new, custom-designed facility in Escondido. The new brewery currently has a capacity of 70,000 US beer barrels per year, with capacity expandable up to 250,000 barrels, and also includes an on-site bottling line. The site is also home to a restaurant, Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens, a 300+ seat restaurant which features interesting architecture, a large outdoor patio and 1-acre (4,000 m2) of gardens. The restaurant serves a rotating menu of food -- concentrating on organic, free-range and local ingredients -- and beer from Stone, local San Diego and regional California craft brewers, and other specialty breweries in the United States and abroad. The brewery also houses a "Stone Company Store" where Stone merchandise can be purchased in addition to 2L and 1L growlers which can be filled with Stone's 7 year-round beers and special releases.
In June 2008, Stone Brewing became more eco-friendly when they covered the roof of the brewery with solar panels, nearly cutting their energy costs in half. The 1,561 roof-mounted solar modules will offset more than 538,000 pounds of carbon emissions over its lifetime, which is equivalent to planting 204 acres (0.83 km2) of trees.
 Stone Brewing Bottles |
[edit] Beers
[edit] Arrogant Bastard Ale
Arrogant Bastard Ale is an American strong ale. It is marketed by warning potential consumers that they are "not worthy" of such a sophisticated beer, suggesting most people cannot appreciate a beer of such quality and depth. It is a popular beer among craft beer aficionados.
Local designer/illustrator Thomas K. Matthews created the original gargoyle in 1996. He also drew the Arrogant Bastard Ale, Stone Ruination IPA and Stone Levitation Ale gargoyles, as well as barley and hops motifs.
OAKED Arrogant Bastard Ale is a variety aged with oak chips, and has been produced in limited release 3 Liter bottles with a lock three times: November 2004, 2005 and 2006. In August 2007, OAKED Arrogant Bastard Ale 12oz six packs became a year round release. It has also been produced on draft from time to time under no set schedule since its first release in November 2004.
Double Bastard Ale is a more intense version of Stone's American strong ale, Arrogant Bastard, with an ABV of about 10%. It is a special release item and goes on sale every November in 22 ounce and 3 liter bottles.
[edit] India Pale Ales
Stone produces several highly-hopped examples of India Pale Ales.
Stone IPA is a fruity, hoppy IPA featuring Magnum and Centennial hops.
Stone Ruination IPA is a very highly hopped Double India Pale Ale. The bottle bears prodigious warnings of the high levels of bitterness (rated at over 100 IBUs) as well as its ruinous effect on the palate.
[edit] Stone Vertical Epic Ale series
Since 2002, Stone has been releasing a series of eleven beers under the Stone Vertical Epic Ale header. Each one uses a different recipe and are designed, when the release is complete, to complement its partners in a tasting of all eleven, one after the other (a "vertical tasting"). Each is released one year, one month, and one day apart, beginning with the first on February 2, 2002 (02.02.02 in a common date format on the Gregorian calendar); thus, the second was released on March 3, 2003 (03.03.03), the fourth on April 4, 2004, and so on. The last in the series will be the Stone 12.12.12 Vertical Epic Ale.
[edit] References
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Stone Brewing Company |
- Stone Brewing Official Site
- Arrogant Bastard Ale Official website
- Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens Official website
- Stone Brewing Co. grows in Escondido
