STONE BREWING COMPANY

'Stone Brewing Co.', founded 1996 in San Marcos, is a craft brewery now located in Escondido, San Diego County, California.

Contents

Summary

Brewery

Beers

Arrogant Bastard Ale

India Pale Ales

Stone Vertical Epic Ale series

Trivia

External links

Summary

''Stone'' is best known for the aggressive Arrogant Bastard Ale, although the brewery considers Stone Pale Ale and Stone IPA to be its flagship beers. Most of their beers are characteristic of west-coast craft brews; that is to say, emphasis is placed primarily on the recipes' hop character. Most Stone beers are purchased in 22 ounce bottles, but select beers are sold in traditional six packs, kegs, and 3 litre bottles.
The beers available in six-packs are the Stone Pale Ale, Stone IPA, Stone Levitation Ale, and Stone Ruination IPA. Stone uses 22oz bottles to feature their "bigger character" beers and Stone Special Releases. Compared to most brewers, 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.

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 one acre 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.

Beers

Arrogant Bastard Ale

'Arrogant Bastard Ale' is an American strong ale. It is marketed by warning potential consumers that they are "unworthy" 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, the ruination and the levitation gargoyles, as well as many of the other icons associated with Stone.
A variety aged with oak chips is available as OAKED Arrogant Bastard Ale, and has been produced in limited release 3Litre bottles with a lock, three times: November 2004, 2005 and 2006. The 2006 limited release saw the addition of six packs of 12 ounce bottles. 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.

India Pale Ales

Stone produces several highly-hopped examples of India Pale Ales.
'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. Despite being touted as a supremely bitter beer, Stone Ruination IPA has a great depth of character for those who are attuned to hop flavors.
'Stone IPA' is a fruity, hoppy IPA featuring Amarillo hops.

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'.

Trivia

Stone's website occasionally features April Fools jokes featuring fake products such as Low carb beer which is out of character for their beers.
Arrogant Bastard Ale is featured in the horror movie Cabin Fever in which several of the characters engage in a competition to drink only beer during their camping trip.

External links

★ Stone Brewing Official Site

★ Arrogant Bastard Ale Official website

★ Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens Official website

★ Stone Brewing Co. grows in Escondido