Your intrepid liquor reporter has long been a fan of the Californian craft brewery known as Stone Brewing.
Stone Brewing has been pumping out delicious suds since 1996, but only started distributing in Alberta about six months ago.
Stone Brewing has a rabidly loyal following among the beer cognoscenti, and has been voted as the #1 All Time Top Brewery On Planet Earth by the type of people who vote for that sort of thing.
Your humble narrator is particularly delighted, as I have had to make trips south of the 49th parallel to get my fix of Stone beer, or perform furtive trades with other beer nerds who have imported large batches for “personal” consumption.
Located near San Diego, Stone Brewing has undergone a few expansions in their two decades of operation, and it was another expansion around 18 months ago that finally gave them sufficient capacity to serve the Canadian market.
In a historic first, Stone Brewing is also building a brewery in Germany, which will make them the first American craft brewer to operate a brewery in Europe. I predict many thirsty Germans will be lining up when the brewery opens its doors in Berlin later this year.
These expansions make Stone Brewing the 10th largest craft brewer in North America, so the beer nerds of Alberta are rejoicing that they will be able to find bottles of Stone’s hoppy goodness at local booze merchants.
The first brew to be kegged back in 1996 was the Stone Pale Ale, made in the hop-forward style of an American west-coast Pale Ale, with special hops imported from Germany. The Mandarina Bavaria hops impart a citrusy grapefruit flavour, which is nicely balanced by the pale malts. This is still a top seller today, and is an easy-drinking beer that is accessible to macrobrew drinkers.
Surprisingly, the most popular beer from Stone Brewing is the Arrogant Bastard Ale, which claims right on the bottle that you probably won’t like it. Weighing in at 7.2% ABV, this is a fierce beer for advanced boozers only. The heavy malting produces flavours of dried fruit, caramelized malts, and a bitter finish that is an acquired taste. While it’s not for everyone, the beer geeks that love it, love it a lot.
Your intrepid liquor reporter’s favourite from Stone Brewing has always been the Ruination IPA, so named for its ruinous effect on your palate, by searing your taste buds with bitterness. With 100 IBUs (International Bittering Units), the Stone Ruination IPA is near the upper threshold of bitterness that can be discerned by human taste buds. In other words, this beer is pretty much as bitter as your tongue can perceive. This beer is made in the style of an Imperial IPA, so if you don’t enjoy bitter beers, this is not the brew for you.
Those that like just a wee bit of bitterness would be better off sampling the Stone Go-to IPA, which is their spin on a sessionable IPA that can be chugged all night. Dry hopping and late hop additions to the boil are used to produce a brew with plenty of hop aromas, but only very mild hop bitterness. The bitterness is nicely balanced by the malt structure, so novice boozers will not be overwhelmed by the hop bitterness in the Go-to IPA.
You can even find the Stone Go-to IPA on tap at Beer Revolution in Calgary and Edmonton, which has become a mecca for the Alberta beer nerds like your humble narrator.
For the dark beer fans in the audience, the Stone Smoked Porter has aromas of dried plums, with smoky undertones from drying the barley over an open fire. Plenty of flavours of burnt chocolate, coffee, and toasted grains are in the mouthfeel, following by a balanced hop bitterness in the finish. If you enjoy stouts and porters, this is a beer you will come back to again and again.
In addition to their half-dozen flagship ales that are available year-round, you will usually find anywhere between one and a dozen or so limited releases on the market at any given time. I was lucky enough to find a sampler pack with 12 different beer styles at my local booze merchant, so there is plenty of variety to be had. Look for them at your friendly neighbourhood booze merchant!
