ESCONDIDO, CA—San Diego-based Stone Brewing Co. has nabbed another prestigious distinction. The 10th largest craft brewing company in the U.S. was recently named one of Inc. Magazine’s “5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies.” That alone is great news, but even more impressive is that Stone is one of a very select group that has made the publication’s list seven years in a row. In fact, this is the second recognition of substantial growth the company has received this year. In July, Stone was recognized by the San Diego Business Journal as one of the city’s “100 Fastest-Growing Private Companies” for the 10th year in a row. Stone is the only company to have ever achieved this distinction.

“It’s an honor to receive national recognition for our efforts over the years,” said Stone CEO & Co-founder Greg Koch. “Our growth has progressed due to our fans’ desire for better tasting, quality craft beer that they can trust. In order to address demand, we’ve added brewing capacity with the new Stone Packaging Hall, opened the 750-seat Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station, and launched a Stone Brewing Co. outlet in Terminal 2 of the San Diego International Airport – and that’s just our expansion this year! We’ve accomplished this all despite never discounting, compromising our standards or needing to advertise our beer. Thanks to Inc. for recognizing our efforts; we look forward to making the list again next year.”

According to Inc., to be considered for the list, a company must:

• Have generated revenue by March 31, 2009
• Have generated at least $100,000 in revenue in 2009
• Have generated at least $2 million in revenue in 2012
• Be privately held, for profit, and based in the U.S. and independent (not a subsidiary or division of another company)

Stone anticipates beer production to increase to 210,000 barrels in 2013, a 20 percent increase over 2012. The company has already hired more than 185 employees this year alone and provided employment opportunities for more than 250 people at the newly opened Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station, as well as nearly 30 people at the recently opened Stone Brewing Co. in Terminal 2 of San Diego International Airport. Currently, Stone has 81 positions available in brewing, administration, restaurant employment, management, sales, transportation and warehousing in Southern California and the U.S.Interested applicants may visit www.stonebrewing.com/jobs/ for more information.

Significant milestones reached in 2013 thus far by the craft brewing company include:

• In May, Stone opened the 55,000-square-foot farm-to-table brewery restaurant, Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station, in San Diego’s Point Loma neighborhood.
• Stone Farms, the company’s organic-methods farm in Escondido, CA, opened to the public in May for beer, merchandise and produce sales.
• Stone Packaging Hall, located directly next to the brewery in Escondido, CA opened in early July. The new facility houses the bottling and kegging operations, as well as offices.
• Stone recently opened a dining venue in the revamped Terminal 2 section of the San Diego International Airport, serving its signature world-inspired creative cuisine and big, bold and hoppy beers.

SAN DIEGO—Stone Brewing Co. is giving San Diego International Airport passengers a reason to actually enjoy going through security. The San Diego craft brewing company is pleased to announce that its bar and restaurant in the newly revamped Terminal 2 is open and greeting passengers from all around the world with artfully created craft beers. Enjoying a locally brewed beer before departing the world-famous San Diego craft brewing region adds new depth and meaning to the old adage, “Parting is such sweet sorrow” or gives rise to the new, apropos phrase, “Parting is bitter awesomeness.”

“I applaud the San Diego International Airport for supporting local businesses, and appreciate the opportunity for Stone to be included in the new terminal,” said Stone Brewing Co. CEO and Co-founder Greg Koch. “We look forward to providing travelers the opportunity to experience what the San Diego craft beer scene has to offer.”

The 2,500-square-foot bistro and bar seats 120 guests, and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner every day from 6am to 10pm. Ten Stone beers, including year-round and special releases, as well as two guest taps, are served from the 12-tap bar. For those wishing to enjoy a bottle on location or take it with them to their final destination, six bottled San Diego craft beer options are available for purchase. Stone’s signature motif has been recreated to include a granite bar top, repurposed vintage wood and a rust-patinaed rebar railing on the venue’s perimeter.

Similar to the company’s two farm-to-table restaurants, Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Escondido and the near-to-the-airport Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station, Stone Brewing Co. in Terminal 2 offers a menu built around the company’s well-known ethos of focusing heavily on locally grown, organic produce from farms around Southern California, including the company’s own Escondido-based Stone Farms. Signature menu items (which pair well with a carefully selected craft beer any time of day) include Brioche French Toast, Stone Levitation Ale BBQ Duck Tacos, Bruschetta BLT Sandwich and Stone Farms Garden Salad. A few kid-friendly menu items are also available for order; after all, half-pints deserve the best the airport has to offer as well.

“Our new venue at the airport could not be more ideal; its prime location makes it the perfect spot to enjoy a delicious Stone beer,” said Stone Director of Hospitality Steve Robbins. “We are ecstatic about the opening and look forward to serving many hungry and thirsty travelers.”

Stone Brewing Co. CEO and co-founder Greg Koch.

On November 1, Stone Brewing Co. CEO & Co-founder Greg Koch will participate in Movember’s “Shave the Date” by completely shaving his long, scraggly beard down to bare skin at a live, orchestrated event in San Diego. Or will he? Koch’s personal goal is to raise $25,000 through the “SHAVE GREG” campaign, though an absolute rock-bottom amount of $15,000 is required to make it happen. “No dough, me no Mo Bro,” grunted Koch gruffly in a manner suiting his current, uh, “look.” Donations are now being accepted through Koch’s fundraising page.

Movember is a global men’s health charity encouraging men to grow and women to support the Mo (moustache) for 30 days in November. Through the power of the moustache, awareness and vital funds are raised in support of men’s health issues, specifically prostate and testicular cancer initiatives. Koch has been nominated as a Mo Bro spokesperson for the movement to help spread the gospel (as he’s known to do) about Movember and its campaign.

“Twice in my life, I’ve shaved a goatee leaving a moustache, and both times I removed it the same day because it freaked me out when I looked in the mirror. I can’t imagine having one for a month,” said Koch. “My current beard is stately and reminiscent of our founding fathers. Yet if I raise enough money, I’m trading that stately look for a moustache that’ll probably be reminiscent of a bad 70s album cover. Sometimes I amaze even myself at the lengths I’ll go to, or cut, for charitable causes. Now that’s self-sacrifice on behalf of others! So, I’m calling for your support. Donate not for me, but for the cause. I’m just your humble servant.”

Shave The Date: Movember 1 is a day to shave down and get excited about the hirsute month ahead. This year, to celebrate the coming of Movember, hundreds of San Diegans will gather together at Quality Social in the San Diego Gaslamp District for an event that will bare it all. With Koch’s shave-down taking center stage, San Diegans wishing to participate will have the opportunity to register and have their own faces shaved clean, courtesy of Floyd’s Barber Shop, who will be onsite to professionally shave attendees free of charge. The Shave the Date event is free to attend, and all ages are welcome.

WHEN:
Friday, November 1, 2013
5:30 to 7:30pm

WHERE:
Quality Social
789 6th Ave.
San Diego, CA 92101
www.qualitysocial.com

The newest release from Stone Brewing Co. is Stone Farking Wheaton wOOtstout, a collaboration between Stone's co-founder Greg Koch, actor Wil Wheaton and Fark.com creator Drew Curtis. Photo by Jon Page.

(Press Release)

ESCONDIDO, CA—What happens when a rabid beer geek and a passionate homebrewer get together to brew? Well, in 1996, Greg Koch and Steve Wagner started Stone Brewing Co., that’s what. Okay, here’s another one…what happens when, 17 years later, a brewing professional, a passionate homebrewer, and an all-around beer geek get together to brew? In the case of Stone Brewing Co. CEO and Co-founder Greg Koch; actor, craft beer lover and geek idol Wil Wheaton; and craft beer-loving (hey, aren’t we all?) Fark.com creator Drew Curtis…an extremely imaginative, dark, hoppy, massive beer. Drew Curtis/Wil Wheaton/ Greg Koch Stone Farking Wheaton wOOtstout is now available throughout the U.S. on tap and bottles featuring commemorative artwork.

The story of how these three men, and dare we say, “geeks,” met requires a complex explanation and jaunt back in time. In 2004, Wheaton called to ask if it would be okay for him to put the Arrogant Bastard Ale logo on his blog’s website, and Koch just so happened to answer the phone. Since Wheaton was so enthusiastic about the beer, Koch granted him approval, all the while thinking that this guy’s name sounded familiar. A year later, as crazy random happenstance would have it, Wheaton signed up for the Stone email newsletter and just so happened to be the 10,000th email newsletter subscriber. Astonished that THE Wil Wheaton was the lucky subscriber, Koch reached out to him to say thank you, and laid the foundation for what blossomed into a friendship based on a mutual appreciation of delicious craft beer. As Wil’s enthusiasm about beer grew throughout the years, he took up the noble art of homebrewing, blogging about his accomplishments along the way. Eventually, in spring 2012, Koch and Wheaton discussed the idea of brewing together, and in early 2013 the clouds parted, the sun beamed down, unicorns were seen dancing on rainbows, and finally, they found time in their busy schedules to meet for a session in the Stone brewhouse.

Next on the agenda was deciding who to include in their collaborative effort. Wheaton suggested Curtis, as they have been friends for more than 10 years. Additionally, Koch had met the Fark.com innovator a number of times at the annual TED conference in Long Beach, Calif. ln April, the trio convened at Stone’s brewing facility to craft what is now known as Drew Curtis/Wil Wheaton/Greg Koch Stone Farking Wheaton w00tstout.

“Wil does such a great job of communicating to other people the joy of homebrewing,” said Koch. “I like the way he unabashedly shares his love for it. Since we make collaboration beers in threes, we got to talking about a co-conspirator and Wil suggested Curtis. It was a lot of fun brewing with these guys and I have to say, I’m really farking impressed with the result!”

“Brewing at Stone was the culmination of many years of learning to love amazing craft beer, and then learning how to make it myself,” said Wheaton. “Having the opportunity to work with people I really like and respect and do it on a grand scale was great.”

“Don’t ask me why, but I had no idea when I agreed to this that I’d actually end up participating in making the beer,” said Curtis.  “I thought Greg and crew would have preferred to do it themselves, but apparently watching me and Wil fumble around with 50 pound bags of malted wheat and crushed pecans was plenty hilarious. I definitely had a blast doing it!”

In addition to beer’s traditional ingredients – water, hops, malted barley and yeast – Drew Curtis/Wil Wheaton/Greg Koch Stone Farking Wheaton w00tstout was brewed with wheat, rye and pecans, based on the collaborator’s unique backgrounds and preferences: Curtis’ rye and pecans (he’s a Kentucky Southerner), Wheaton’s wheat (I mean, comeon…his name is WHEATon), and Koch’s hops (he’s a confessed hop addict). After fermenting, a portion of the imperial stout was stored in bourbon whiskey barrels for two and a half months, and then blended with the rest of the beer to add complexity. The result is a beer bursting with a pleathora of smells and flavors including cocoa, coffee, licorice, oak, nuts, vanilla and, of course, bourbon. In what may be the highest alcohol beer ever brewed at Stone, it clocks in at 13 percent alcohol-by-volume (ABV) and 65 International Bitterness Units (IBUs). The beer is ready to enjoy now, or may be properly cellared for several months or years. Over time, it will develop deeper, rounder coffee, nut and bourbon flavors as the hop aroma and bitterness subside.

Stone decided to release three bottles with various artwork labels. Why? Why not! The first design is the “classic” Stone 2013 Collaboration bottle design featuring an intricate hop vine crest with hop cones. The second “hero” bottle features illustrations of Koch, Wheaton and Curtis as superheroes complete with capes, masks and a gargoyle emblem on the chest of Koch’s outfit. The final “comic” bottle includes artwork by popular internet comic artist Joel Watson of HijiNKS Ensue, in which each collaborator offers one of the key ingredients for the beer – Curtis’ pecans, Wheaton’s wheat and Koch’s hops. The hero and comic bottles are limited release (hint: collector’s items).

As if they needed another excuse to hang out, the collaborators will debut the beer en masse on Wednesday, July 17 at the newly opened Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station in San Diego during an event dubbed Hop-Con: The w00tstout Launch Festival. The festivities will commence at 5pm and include:

• A sermon by Greg Koch
• A performance by Wil Wheaton
• 10 minutes of Drew Curtis on stage doing, well…not sure exactly what
• A musical comedy performance by Paul and Storm
• A commemorative Hop-Con glass for guests to keep
• Eight four-ounce beer samples per guest
• Hors d’oeuvres
• One bottle of Drew Curtis/Wil Wheaton/Greg Koch Stone Farking Wheaton w00tstout to take home

A cask of Drew Curtis/Wil Wheaton/Greg Koch Stone Farking Wheaton w00tstout will be available in addition to other special release beers, including beers brewed at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station. The event is sold out.

Name: Drew Curtis/Wil Wheaton/Greg Koch Stone Farking Wheaton w00stout

Stats: 13% ABV, 65 IBUs

Availability: Limited 22-ounce bottles and draft, beginning July 15

Hops Bill: English Target

Distribution: AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MT, NC, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, VT, and WA

Tasting notes, provided by Brewmaster Mitch Steele

Appearance: A deep, opaque, brownish-black color with a creamy brown head.

Aroma: Intense cocoa and coffee with nutty coconut. Hints of licorice and loads of fruity fermentation esters. Bourbon, vanilla and oak follow.

Taste: Some cocoa, coffee and fruitiness up front. Mid-palate, the bourbon barrel-aged portion of the beer is apparent, so oak, vanilla, nut and bourbon flavors transition to a slight alcohol heat and hoppy bitter finish. As the beer warms, a nuttiness almost reminiscent of almonds starts coming through (but we used pecans!).

Palate: Thick and hearty. At 13% ABV, this beer is definitely a sipper. It is smooth and creamy, with a slightly warming and drying finish.

Overall: This beer is a monster, and it may be the highest ABV we’ve ever brewed. The flavors are a wonderful blend of everything that makes a great imperial stout, loaded with roasty notes and malty complexity. Brewing with rye and nuts always creates challenges for our brewing team, but they rose to the occasion with this one – it’s simply amazing.

Suggested food pairings, provided by “Dr.” Bill Sysak

Appetizers: Oysters on the half shell, mushroom Gruyère tarts, onion focaccia, devils on horseback

Soups: Butternut squash, French onion soup, Irish stew, New England clam chowder

Entrees: Coffee-rubbed porterhouse steak, blue cheese-stuffed portabella, fennel and leek risotto, lamb osso buco

Cheeses: Maytag blue, Valley Shepherd Creamery Crema de Blue, Farmstead Gouda, Gorgonzola Dolce

Desserts: Licorice ice cream, brownies, German chocolate cake, coconut macaroons

Cigars: La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero Chisel, Illusione MJ12 Maduro, Rocky Patel Fifty Robusto, Padrón 1964 Anniversary Series Exclusivo Maduro

ABOUT STONE BREWING CO.

Known for its bold, flavorful and largely hop-centric beers, Stone Brewing Co. has been brewing in North County San Diego since 1996. Founded by Greg Koch and Steve Wagner, Stone is the 10th largest craft brewer in the United States—a position it achieved without paid advertising, discounting or compromised standards. In addition to brewing, Stone owns two eclectic farm-to-table restaurants—Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Escondido and Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station—and Stone Farms, an organic farm located near the brewery which grows produce for the restaurants. Stone also operates an off-site events company, Stone Catering, as well as Stone Distributing Co., which distributes more than 30 craft beer brands throughout Southern California. For more information on Stone Brewing Co., please visit stonebrewing.com or the company’s social media sites: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, YouTube and The Stone Blog.

The restless people who kept moving west and further west had to stop here or step into the ocean: maybe all that restlessness got channeled into innovation?

Viewed from afar, West Coast-style brewing is a phenomenon: audacious, ground-breaking, and hop-heavy. There are communities “ out West” where craft beer outsells the Big Three, where it must be as daunting to open a new brewery as it is to open a new restaurant in New York.

The hard brewing facts support the sense that this is special territory: the four American states and one Canadian province that make up the West Coast of the United States and Canada contain over 30 million people, about 15% of the total. However, they are home to over 440 breweries, microbreweries and brewpubs: about 25% of the total.

The western states and British Columbia gave their countries their first brewpubs and they take home a disproportionate share of national brewing awards. In short, things are happening there.

For 15 years, Celebrator Beer News has been the voice of West Coast beer. We asked Tom Dalldorf, Celebrator’s publisher, to help us make sense of it all.

—AAB

A Stanford University graduate student in Japanese studies had only lunch and a cold beer on his mind that fateful afternoon in July 1965. But when Fritz Maytag ordered his usual Steam Beer, the server suggested that he savor it because the brewery was to be closed.

Fritz, the scion of the Maytag washing machine family, was by his nature positively Jeffersonian in his eclectic pursuit of quality and substance in everything he found worthy. He saw in that quirky beer brewed under primitive conditions something that was distinctly San Francisco and he had to learn more. Thus began an almost single-minded dedication to reviving lost traditions of brewing that is the hallmark of the Anchor Brewing Co.

Fritz dropped by the brewery and discovered that it was indeed to be closed after so many years, having survived even the devastating consequences of Prohibition. He wondered what he could do to help out. With a small investment and a lot of hard work, Fritz became the proud owner of a historic brewing property with rather poor prospects. Even with the San Francisco Chronicle’s Fearless Spectator Charles McCabe singing its praises, Anchor’s Steam Beer was a bastard child of the beer business and an unruly one at that. Fritz set to work cleaning up the brewery and stabilizing the beer.

Eventually, Maytag discovered the adage to be true in beer as it is in wine: the way to make a small fortune is to start with a really big one. This expensive avocation could not continue for long. A new location and some more modern equipment and quality control improved his product to the point where Maytag could actually sleep at night without worrying about the beer going bad.

Anchor produced fewer than 800 barrels of Steam the first year, but demand increased after the quality issues were addressed. Maytag’s research and travels to England and Europe convinced him that other styles might be equally attractive to a country notably devoid of beers of color or flavor. He introduced Liberty Ale in April 1975 to commemorate the midnight ride of Paul Revere, and the beer became so popular that he had to make it a year-round brand. Old Foghorn, a traditional English-style barley wine, was introduced that same year—another first. This was Anchor’s most extreme beer yet. Given its high alcohol and robust flavor profile, it must have been quite a radical move in a beer market awash in an ocean of light industrial adjunct lager.

America, writes Sifakis, was once truly gifted with nonconformists: hermits and itinerant preachers, flat-earth believers, nostrum peddlers and hoarders of string. Today, he claims, society is less likely to tolerate its eccentrics: “If you are poor and act bizarrely, you’re crazy and perhaps dangerous.”

Sifakis, if he had examined the craft brewing industry, might have changed his mind. The country is dotted with small brewers who entered the market without the benefit of a consumer survey. Their products defy stylistic guidelines. Their labels and packaging are over the top. Their marketing practices are unorthodox, to say the least.

Their numbers include a southern Californian entrepreneur who believes customers should earn the right to drink his beer; a stubborn German immigrant who established the East Coast’s first brewpub in a semidry town in Southern Baptist country; brewers who adhere to the Neinheitsgebot instead of the Reinheitsgebot, using nontraditional ingredients like saffron, rose petals, even garlic.

And they’re not only surviving, they’re thriving.

Magical Mystery Tour

Vermonters have an independent streak. Senator Jim Jeffords made that clear when he bolted the Republican Party, tipping the balance of power in the US Senate. To honor Jeffords, Alan Newman—president of the Magic Hat Brewing Co. in South Burlington, VT—released a commemorative brew, an English mild dubbed Jeezum Jim. (“Jeezum” is a mild epithet in the local dialect.) “They’re really getting a kick out of it,” he says of Jeffords’s staff.

Newman is quite the nonconformist himself. I met him for the first time in April 2000 at the National Beer Wholesalers/Brewers Joint Legislative Conference in Washington, DC. With his flowing beard and floral-print shirt, he stood out like a mast in a sea of business suits. Newman made one concession to decorum: he wore shoes. “I frequently go barefoot,” he said.

Before he founded Magic Hat with partner Bob Johnson in 1994, Newman already had six start-ups to his credit (“a serial entrepreneur” is what the Wall Street Journal called him). His previous venture was Seventh Generation, a mail-order firm supplying environmentally friendly products like recycled writing paper and water-saving shower heads. Alan’s hippie sensibilities are currently reflected in his beer labels, which lean toward surrealistic, occasionally vertigo-inducing designs.

Magic Hat’s best-selling beer is 9, a “not quite pale ale” with a spritz of apricot essence. The hops and fruit meld seamlessly. “I can look people straight in the eye and say, ‘You’ll never have another beer like this,’” he boasts.

Newman has an affinity for the number nine: he markets his beers in nine-packs as well as the usual increments of six. Ask him about 9, however, and he’ll tell you it’s named neither for the Beatles’ Revolution No. 9, nor for the rock ’n roll standard, “Love Potion No. 9.” Newman cautions against reading deep meanings into his beer monikers, which include Jinx (a peat-smoked ale), Blind Faith (an IPA) and Humble Patience (an Irish-style red ale). “If we ever get famous, we’re going to have to hire someone to write stories to go with the names.”

The Magic Hat website at www.magichat.com is a psychedelic experience in itself. In addition to the t-shirts and mugs for sale, you’ll see a very unusual collateral item: prophylactic devices. “Instead of going into a bar with jiggly women in skimpy t-shirts, I give away condoms,” says Newman, who works with the AIDS awareness group, Vermont Cares.

“Our goal is to keep our customers alive and healthy,” he explains.” If we support the community, the community will support us.”

Magic Hat paced New England breweries with 21 percent growth last year, boosting output to 26,000 barrels. “My goal is to be an international brand,” says Newman. “We’ve got a quirky niche and I think our brands will resonate with people in Athens, GA, as well as in Athens, Greece.”

The Brewer with the Midas Touch

When Dogfish Head Brewings and Eats opened in 1995 in the resort community of Rehoboth Beach, DE, it was probably the smallest brewery in America. Owner Sam Calagione brewed twice a day, six days a week, in 12-gallon batches. “When you brew that often, you get bored with the same recipes,” he recalls. So Calagione began to tweak the formulas with whatever was handy in the kitchen. That’s how he developed his penchant for oddball beers.

Calagione is basking in the limelight for Midas Touch, a spiced golden ale inspired by a beverage served at the funeral of the legendary King Midas some 2,700 years ago. Based on an analysis of the residue on ancient pottery shards, the recipe calls for Muscat grapes, honey and saffron. The beer—which tastes something like a pear cider, but with a drier finish—is available in clear-glass, corked champagne bottles throughout the Mid-Atlantic states and in a few more remote markets like Chicago and California.

“There’s no use in doing what’s been done before,” says Sam. His Chicory Stout includes a pinch of St. John’s wort, an herb said to have antidepressant properties. Raison d’Etre, which is vying with Dogfish Head’s Shelter Pale Ale for best-selling brand, is a Scotch-style ale brewed with beet sugar and green raisins. Immort-Ale is a barley wine-strength ale flavored with vanilla beans, maple syrup and juniper berries.