Part two of the Stone blitz is purely photos. Enjoy!
Stone Media Day – the photos
Stone Media Day – quick recap
The Stone Brewing that you know now will be so much bigger and cooler in 2013 than 2011. As you may have seen in the Twitter-sphere and on Facebook, Stone is expanding and in typical Stone fashion, boldly.
I was among the lucky people that got to experience the news in one day straight from the source, Greg Koch and Steve Wagner. We traveled from the Stone World Bistro in Escondido, to Liberty Station near the San Diego airport to a lovely little farm in North San Diego county. And it was jam packed with news. So here goes…..
1. A new Stone store will be opening in the South Park area of San Diego. Similar to the store at the World Bistro. You can get a growler fill, buy a bottle and get a shirt. It will be tremendous for those in San Diego who now don’t have to trek north to get their beer.
2. A new World Bistro will open at Liberty Station. In the old Navy mess hall! And you can play bocce! (OK, I have never played bocce, so I don’t know why I put the exclamation point there) And their will be a brewery on site that might make some interesting one-off beers.
3. And they bought a farm! Yes, a real working farm that supplies part of the food for the restaurant. It may end up hosting educational events that reinforces the Stone locavore ethos and might be the site for beer dinners. It already has an outdoor oven and a great little lake. Combine that with the great San Diego weather and you have a winner.
4. The headquarters is expanding and not by a little. This will be HUGE! A new production facility about the size of what they currently have right next door. An expanded kitchen, more parking, electric vehicle charging spots near the front door. Then across the parkway will be a 50 seat boutique hotel, a barrel aged and sour beer facility and another garden.
5. There will be a lottery for the Barrel aged Macadamia collaboration porter in the new fancy caged and corked bottles because they will not hit the regular distribution chain. Why? There are only 672 of them.
6. Today is the brew day for the charity Green Tea IPA collaboration. A big 9% beer with loads of tea and literally a world of hops in it.
7. The Belgo Anise Imperial Stout is excellent. Big anise and coffee aromas. Not heavy and viscous at all. It is lively and fun to drink. Unless you do not like black licorice. It will be available along with the regular Imperial Stout in a couple of weeks.
Oh and there is something about a brewery in Europe too.
In a couple days, I will talk about what I believe the future holds for these Stone ventures.
Home brew – Brooklyn style
While gaping slack-jawed at the beer choices at my Whole Foods in Glendale, I noticed to the side this….
Home brew kits, straight out of Brooklyn. So I investigated the boxes. Cool label. Ingredients can be bought in stores and online. Just need a kettle to cook the wort, everything else seemed to be in the box. I figured it would $60. Lo and behold it is $41. Great price for a gift or to try if I hadn’t spent my money on BrewDog beer.
Beer, book and God
If someone works at UC Davis and writes about beer. You might want to pay attention. I am certainly going to order this one to read with my next beer.
“Legendary beer expert Charlie Bamforth presents the most compelling social history of beer ever written: where it’s come from, and where it’s headed. From centuries-old cultural values to radical new approaches, craft brewing to globalization, it’s an amazing story. Bamforth tells it all–with humor, behind-the-scenes insight, and sheer joy!”
California Growler Challenge
The next step in the California Growler Challenge, thanks to David Stickel at Beer Geek LA, is the creation of the Facebook page.
So glide over to Facebook and Like Us. And please, share your opinions and/or suggestions.
Don’t put your tongue on it
Now that I have either intrigued you or disgusted you with that title. Here is worse news (especially for your palate).
Just read the website copy, “What is a Beer Froster? A beer froster is a specially-designed refrigerator (well, technically a freezer) that holds beer at 24 degrees… the absolute coldest temperature a beer can get without freezing! Not to be confused with any other appliance, the beer froster gets beer cold and holds it there at that exact, perfect magic temperature!
There are wine refrigerators for wine, and now beer frosters for beer. If you like chilled beer, and you like your beer at its coldest and most refreshing, a beer froster is your newest favorite appliance! For beer as it was meant to be!”
I like “perfect magic temperature” but the last line is the best “as it was meant to be”. Nope and nope. That line of copy is as brazenly wrong as the triple hopped whopper we’ve been served in too many commercials.
Just get a regular ‘fridge.
Innovate everywhere but on the product
The continuing attempts to improve the bottle while not fixing what is inside continues at Budweiser, home of the industrial water lager.
You can use a coin or a key or heck even your fingernail to write your name or something unfunny on a bottle.
Now if they would just combine all the wonderful technologies together in a vortex, wide mouth etchable bottle.
E-Bay
A truly fascinating study (with quite a few economic terms that I had to look up) was posted on RateBeer regarding auctioning of rare beer on E-bay.
What riled me up was right up front. E-bay policy or non-policy. Here is the summary according to the post:
1) The value of the item is the collectible container, not its contents.
2) The container has not been opened and any incidental contents are not intended for consumption.
3) The item is not available at any retail outlet, and the container has a value that substantially exceeds the current retail price of alcohol in the container.
4) The seller will take all appropriate steps to ensure that the buyer is of lawful age in the buyer’s and seller’s jurisdiction (generally 21 years of age).
5) Buyers and sellers both ensure that the sale complies with all applicable laws and shipping regulations.
All I can say is that E-bay might strain a muscle in their effort to look the other way. What a blatant way to say that we want the commission fee and none of the legal problems. I don’t know who wins the crass capitalism award more. E-bay or the sellers.
And all of this could be minimized with a simple national law that standardizes alcohol shipments between states. That way E-bay and other online sites, including the brewer could sell without worrying that they were “against the law”. The market would have an increase in sellers and that might push the prices below what makes it worthwhile for the rare beer seller who is it in for profit and not the taste of the beer.
Have any of you bought beer from E-bay? I would like to know what the experience was like.
Helping the Longshot
Here is your second dose of Sam Adams related news…..
“(Boston, MA) – Samuel Adams today announced that it is expanding its philanthropy initiative, Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream, to home brewers and small craft brewers nationwide. Focused on helping up-and-coming brewers turn their passion for beer into successful businesses, the program will target funding of at least $100,000 to the craft brewing industry in 2011.
The initiative is part of the company’s Samuel Adams Brewing the American Dream program, which supports small business owners in the food, beverage and hospitality industry by providing accessible financing, as well as business and financial literacy tools and assistance. Small brewers nationwide can apply for loans ranging from $500 to $25,000 to be used for a variety of business purposes including expansion, equipment, and marketing, with all loan payments recycled back into the fund.
Launched in June 2008 in partnership with ACCION USA, one of the country’s top not-for-profit micro-lenders, the broader initiative has already loaned $540,000 to over 60 businesses – largely in New England – with the goal of reaching $1,000,000 by the end of 2011.
“Our goal with the craft brewing component of Brewing the American Dream is to support small business owners in our niche of the industry who are facing the same hurdles around starting or expanding their nano or microbrewery that I faced when I started brewing Samuel Adams in my kitchen in 1984,” said Jim Koch, brewer and founder of Samuel Adams.”
It is actions like this that make me continue to write about and drink craft beer. What other industry helps out possible competitors like this? And they spent most of the fund money in their own backyard!