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Looks like the El Camino is back out of storage…..
El Camino (Un) Real, a three way collaboration with 21st Amendment, Firestone Walker and Stone Brewing will soon return for the first time since 2011.
The collaborative canned beer is a dark ale, brewed with fennel seeds, chia seeds, peppercorns and figs.
A second large departure from Stone Brewing will leave an ambassador sized hole as “Dr.” Bill Sysak has left to prepare a new brewery in San Marcos, California.
2017 will see the debut of the Wild Barrel Brewing Company The 15 barrel brewhouse “will be known for its “San Diego Weisse” sours implementing a variety of fruit additions, along with a constantly rotating selection of San Diego style IPA’s to satisfy the most extreme lupo-maniacs. Rounding out the core lineup is an American stout with coffee additions changing seasonally from local roasters, and a “crushable” Belgian Wit.”
A couple of points ring weird to me from that paragraph. One would think with the years at Stone that more marketing panache would have gone into the name and logo. Wild Barrel is a rather pedestrian name in my book. And the certainty in which they declare that they “will be known for” their San Diego Weisse and that their Wit will be “crushable” is a little cart ahead of the horse. Flagships aren’t declared. The people buying will make it so.
Time will tell how Wild Barrel fares in a tough San Diego market.
If the valley isn’t your thing over the Labor Day weekend, then the South Bay has two events for you.
Sunday, August 28th – Hudson House hosts Maui Brewing and an End of Summer Luau
Sunday, September 4th – Playa Provisions hosts Stone Brewing for a Labor Day Block Party and a beer garden.
It is a landmark to reach the 20 year mark and Stone Brewing has ridden the IPA wave all the way to this plateau. Ostensibly, this year will be focused on their Citracado DIPA which honors the parkway that they live on as well as the Citra hop and (avo)cado honey ingredients used in the new anniversary brew.
But they have added a wrinkle and are re-brewing some the milestone Stone Anniversary Ales from the past — 5th Anniversary IPA, 10th Anniversary IPA and the rogue 15th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA which will make up a variety pack.
Hopefully no one was cellaring those beers for a mega-anniversary tasting. The 20th should be available shortly and the 4-pack will arrive in mid-September.
Many moons ago, or 2011, I embarked upon a media tour with Stone Brewing in Escondido. Stone Farms was part of the trip, as was Liberty Station but the big news was that there were plans to build a destination hotel across from the World Bistro and main brewery.
Liberty Station is now up and running with a pilot brewery and airplanes landing at the airport nearby. Stone Farms has been spun off. Not one but two breweries have been built on the East Coast and in Germany. Even Wine Country had plans for a small Stone outpost and nary a peep on the hotel front.
That has changed. Stone Brewing and San Diego-based hospitality collective, Untitled Hospitality are partnering to build the Stone Hotel.
Here is the spiel from the PR folks at Stone: “Guests to Stone Hotel will delight in a craft beer experience complete from the moment of arrival. An inlay on the hotel’s driveway artistically displays beer flowing from a tap at the top of the driveway down to Citracado Parkway. Alongside rare historical Stone memorabilia, the watchful eye of the gargoyle will be discretely on guard throughout the hotel, and Stone beers will be available upon a moment’s notice. In addition to the normally incredibly wide array of Stone beers that will be on tap, archive special release beers and unique casks will be periodically tapped at the three on-site bars. Hotel amenities will be equally beer centric, epitomized by the availability of a complimentary Stone beer immediately upon check-in and in-room growler delivery service. Stone Hotel will mirror the philosophy of all Stone projects, exhibiting a high level of creativity and wow factor, ultimately creating a memorable, true craft beer experience.”
Not only is the hotelier San Diego based but the designer is as well. More from the press release, “The design of Stone Hotel will be far from ordinary, offering a wide variety of unique guest experiences ranging from a bar-style lobby check-in to oversized guestrooms, all in excess of 375 square-feet. Underscoring Stone’s environmental sustainability efforts, each of the 99 rooms, including 6 suites, will utilize state-of-the-art energy efficiency and water saving features. Rooms will incorporate signature BASILE Studio details such as custom designed furniture and floor-to-ceiling window systems, which flip open to an expansive balcony, providing an open-air in-room experience. Stone Hotel’s event facilities will comprise of an 8,000 square-foot ballroom, a 10,000 square-foot rooftop garden located adjacent to the pool deck, as well as nearly an acre of outdoor event space.”
Don’t pack your bags just yet, this will obviously take a while and is expected to be running in 2018.
Running the gamut of styles this month as we head into the back half of 2016. Going from cherries to Wussies and then Imperialists for those with a political bent.
~LIGHT
Bell’s/ Poolside 5.0% ABV
“A refreshing Belgian-inspired Wheat Ale, Poolside is fermented with Montmorency cherry juice made from cherries grown near Traverse City in northern Michigan. It adds a subtle tartness and bright counterpoint to clove and other fruit aromas that result from the Belgian specialty yeast strain used to ferment this beer”
~MEDIUM
Stone/ Who You Callin’ Wussie Pilsner 5.8% ABV
“For far too long the tyrannical industrialized beer overlords have disgraced and cheapened the noble heritage of the pilsner with their relentless multi-generational downward drive to commercialized homogenization. Over decades, this once vaulted style has been slowly and methodically gutted, bringing forth a soulless and anemic result, all the while spending billions in advertising to convince the unwitting public that their fizzy yellow end result was beer. Well, I will not have it. We are striking back for true craft by stealing the pilsner back from their evil clutches, and restoring it to its almighty glory. They do it cheaply. We do it right. Choose vapidity, or choose righteousness…but whatever you do, choose wisely.”
~DARK
Eagle Rock/ Imperialist 10.0% ABV
“For many years American Light Lager dominated the global beer market, and the industrial brewers who made it worked hard to ensure a long reign of their beer king. Well, times have changed and the old king is dead. No more imperious agendas limiting your choices. You, my friend are the absolute ruler of this new, diverse landscape. Long live the new King!”
It is not as far away as Berlin, but Stone Brewing is expanding into wine country with a new restaurant, store and small brewery in downtown Napa.
Going under the Stone Brewing Tap Room – Napa moniker will have a 10-barrel pilot brewing system plans on using “indigenous ingredients from the local geography” in an actual stone building that was originally built in 1877 that will have seating facing the Napa River (when/if California has more water).
Berlin and Richmond, Virginia come online this summer and Napa will follow sometime in 2017.
I wonder why Napa got the nod and if that is as far north as they will go or if they have plans for other states.
I must say, that I get more excited by Stone releases that are missing hops. It is out of their wheelhouse and the chances of something exciting happening are heightened. Like seeing an actor in a comedy that usually does drama. (Crowe in The Nice Guys, see it.) So I was anticipating cracking open the media bottle that I received from Stone of the junior high school named Scru Wit.
This Stone Spotlight is imperial for sure. And very well spiced. It is primarily Wit to me followed by Sahti and Gruit. I like the creativity of it. I would like to see it in a lighter ABV version as well where some of the spices could pop even more because this is a little too cheek warming. Balance is there but this is still a heavy beer. The spice really sticks with you and the malt bill is heavy. Sense a trend? Heavy.
Thanks to the PR department at Stone Brewing Co., I was able to taste the 2016 version of the Russian Imperial Stout. And they must have known that I was partial to the non-dressed up base version.
This RIS has milk chocolate in the aroma. It is also quite luxurious in mouthfeel, almost like satin and there is a little bit of ABV heat at the back. This is not a super complex beer though there is a trace of some coffee bitterness, light though. Underneath is a bit of pineapple fruit on the tongue which might age away if you kept it around.
While watching the new Marvel/Netflix show Jessica Jones, because it deals with bastards both good and evil, it was appropriate to have a Stone Bastards tasting too.
First up was the original Bastard. This one defies style categorization to me. It is a big heavy beer with a ton of hoppy bitterness. It is the type of beer that is too muddled for my taste. It just packs a wallop without subtlety. As my palate has changed, this ale has become one dimensional to me.
And that is proven by the variants tasted next. Bastard on Rye is Templeton barrel-ed and it shows. The beer has an added richness of caramel and coconut. The hops have been pushed into a minor player role and the beer becomes tastier. Same with Southern Charred which takes 2nd place in this tasting. There is a wood note and chocolate tones that are subtle compared to the Rye but all the combo works. I would pair these with shortbread to add a certain buttery note that would contrast against these big beers.
(To take the Stone tasting a step further, the next night I watched a couple more episodes of Jessica and Kilgrave and cracked open and Enjoy AFTER 10/31/15 Brett IPA to see if it was worth the price. And if you are a fan of brett beers and that serious farmhouse-barnyard thing, then it is. If you are looking for hops, well, after over a year. Gone. Gone Girl.)