Why no Love for Stone?

Need to get sublimely self riteous back in the fold. Damn do I miss that beer.

 

Short and sweet answer to the OPs question (however rhetorical it may be ) - Stone and other huge nationally distributed brewers typically fall beneath the hype radar. Their ubiquity is their downfall in that regard.

Truth is, a whoooole lot of people dig Stone (including me), or else they wouldn't be as big as they are. They make some damn fine beers: a lot of hits, some misses, but they always seem to strive to stay relevant and imaginative. It's hard to ask for much more than that out of any brewery.

PS - just finished up a sixer of Ripper... really solid APA (or IPA arguably, if you wanna open up that can of worms with someone ).

 

Malt liquor? Ew!
I'd almost rather drink Stone

 

Ripper is their best

 

I still drink a good amount of Stone. Don't really buy the one-off bombers any more, but dig the seasonal stuff. Plus they (er, Arrogant Brewing) make a pils in a 16oz can, which the beer world is otherwise lacking, imo. I've had stuff from them I wouldn't have again, but none of it has been bad.

 

Agree with this, love Xocoveza and others. Their IPAs are good but man the dark side of stone is awesome. I aged some of the coffee and Xocoveza and it was so good out in the pool, cannot wait for the new release of their winter lineup so I can hoard some for next summer.

 

I feel like they've downgraded their portfolio over the years. It's been downhill since they retired Sublimely Self Righteous. Most of the new additions/replacements have been disappointing - Pale Ale/Ruination 2.0, Saison, Coffee Milk Stout, Ripper, Citrusy Wit, etc.I only get excited for Woot Stout and the occasional Enjoy By at this point.

 

Well the took a great beer pick one, Runiation, IPA, Pale Ale, Levetation, and they dropped them or ruined them with terrible replacements.
It has been one horrible new beer after another with their core. Now Enjoy By is great and the hammer was pretty good too. Still I feel hurt.

 

Way to welcome the new guy into the fold.

 

They've just won is all I can see. When I first waded into craft beer in maybe 2008 or 2009 Stone was one of the few breweries and definitely the biggest pushing the hoppy envelope, that was their bread and butter and it was the lynchpin of their marketing "you can't handle these hoppy flavors, this beer is unlike anything else". Fast forward 10ish years and the super hoppy west coast style IPA is passe, just about every single craft brewery has at least one, many specialize in the style, there are new popular takes on it (NEIPA) and just generally it is a staple of craft beer these days. They are no longer interesting or envelope pushing. They are easily available and very often introductory good beer for new beer drinkers. These boards seem to focus on new, unusual, and exciting breweries and beer and Stone is established, standard craft beer. I still love em and regularly get their darker stuff, occasionally grab mixed 12s, enjoy bys, etc.. but honestly to me they are priced a little higher than they are worth and if I'm gonna pay that I want to try something new or interesting. I do really want to visit one of their tasting rooms though and I do hope that they get more into experimental brews. The Vertical Epic Series was just that, epic. All in all though, they get no love because they won, and we generally prefer an underdog.

 

They certainly aren't pushing the same boundaries that they once were, but 20, even 10 years ago, this is what the majority of craft beer lovers wanted. Great, fresh beer available everywhere. That's what Stone represents.

An epic success from a marketing standpoint, sure, but an epic fail from a conceptual standpoint. Sure, everyone bought at least two of each vintage, but very few of the beers were meant for long term aging and some of the recipes were bordering on ridiculous. Kudos to Stone for the concept (and for posting the homebrew recipes), but they could have done better with the concept. WAY better.

 

I used to love Stone and would pick up their flagship IPA in 24 packs at Costco regularly. But, they are pretty low tier when other breweries have breached into the So Cal space. I've replaced their IPAs with Lagunitas Maximus and some of the Port IPAs we get around here like Mongo and Swamis are definitely better all around. I find nothing appealing about their non-BA stouts. Fyodor's Classic was the last great beer I had from them. I have a hard time giving them a chance now when they are churning out new gimmicky beers every other week and all of them feel like they were a first draft beer.

 

Here's a perfect example, bringing back Dayman... in a $39.99 1.5L. Unless they sell this month for 'shock value' they are going to be taking up the entire top shelf at my little neighborhood market, indefinitely. Stone is more and more like Rogue every day... of course they have some awesome classic brews, but the pricepoints are bad and 99% of the new stuff is gimmick garbage.

Now that I think about it, I passed on w00t primarily because I was thinking how annoying it's going to be looking at these bottles every time I pick up beer here, since I know they won't sell. There's not a chance in the world 3 bottles of 4 kinds sell in a reasonable time period. It's pure stupidity.

 

You know what, I dont live in calif or the east coast. But if I want a fresh, tasty beer, I go with stone! You can put some of their beers down if you want, but I could go all year long on ruination, enjoy by, pataskala,ghost hammer, xocoveza,mocha IPA, arrogant bastard, wussie, not to mention the hiatusized ris,old guardian,dayman,and others I can't think of. But for my money, stone still has it going on!

 

love stone. it's like the backlash nirvana felt when their diehards felt like they were selling out. love nirvana.

but good news is that there's a lot of other great brews out there, enjoy!

 

Stone is a go-to for any hop-loving beer drinker who seeks quality San Diego style over trendiness and fetishization of the new and obscure. And as for new stuff I loved Ghosthammer both in the can and on tap at Stone Richmond.

 

This thread is 2+ months old w /258 relies. Love for Stone confirmed...

 

I love stone beer, always will. When I go to the beer distributor in western New York and want a good IPA or DoubleIPA all of their beers have bottle dates and their products are well represented. I don't have to wait in a line or trade someone my kidney for one. I get in my car turn on some good music and drive to get a sure thing. Bravo for what Stone means to independent craft beer and fresh ingredients. Ruination is fucking tasty too, bummer it's not hazy and doesn't rhyme with trillium but it's a solid brewery for those who don't really care about hype. Plus I think stone ruined my palate before all these other fools had a chance. Cheers!

 

Hahaha good point bro. I think we all know Stone is the real deal.