Stone 2018 Release Calendar

You're definitely in the minority if you don't buy IPAs over 45 days old. Maybe not among a BA subset, but almost certainly among Stone customers. (fwiw, my personal rule of thumb is that I want to consume IPAs within 60-75 days of packaging)

I find Stone to be pretty good at keeping the beer on the shelf fresh, with the exception of a few stores that seem to be repeat offenders. They certainly beat the pants off of Sierra Nevada, where nothing younger than 60 days seems to hit the shelf.

 

Stouts and IPAs combined make up maybe 1/3 of my consumption, and it amazes me that as much more variety there is in available brands today than when I got into craft ~five years ago, there is less variety in styles. I find myself having to stock up when I'm somewhere with good variety and ignoring my local stores except when I know something is being released. I sorely miss Old Guardian, because barleywines are flat out difficult to come by. And of course Double Bastard, because there really is no other beer quite like it. I think Stone will find that 6 pack IRS will be very successful, and I hope they follow suit with OG and DB next year.

 

What happened to the Stone rep that use to visit here. It's nice hearing straight from someone in a company.

 

I'm glad they're not bothering with past mediocre offerings like the coffee stout and citrusy wit. Overall I would be perfectly fine with this schedule if Old Guardian was on there somewhere.

That being said, Stone has definitely lost it's way with me a bit. I no longer get excited for their new offerings like I would in the "old" days.

 

w00tstout in 6-pack! Cannot wait.

 

Really just interested in Ruination 3.0, the return of RIS and Xocoveza. If they ever ax Xocoveza I might cry. Almost did hearing Founders isn't doing their imperial stout this year. Also..wootstout, keep making that please

 

Here I was thinking maybe, just maybe, some major regional brewery was brave enough to brew with scorpion peppers and distribute it.

 

People like what they know, and IPA and Stouts are two popular terms in the beer world. It's easy for the average consumer to say "I want an IPA" at the bar, and get something good. Since these styles are requested so often, they are well stocked by business savvy breweries and bars. After all, why fill a line with a barleywine or two if you could move 2 or 3 times that if you filled it up with a couple popular IPAs.

Consumers driving the market place is good and bad, unfortunately, some don't see beer as the diversity that is, and rather as just beer. Unfortunately, I think it's going to get worse before it gets better, especially if interest in craft beer starts to wane and breweries have to rely more heavily on bang for their buck batches.

Personal note, I'd like to see more barleywines as well. It's a style that is truly a treat to sip on in the fall and winter months. My most prized bottles downstairs aren't limited stouts or quads, but the few barleywines I've saved for a later date.

 

As to the diversity issue, it's looking more and more to me that the percentage of the more 'enthusiast' type beer drinker out of the overall total is remaining constant. It may seem like there are more of us due to the huge amount of 'craft' beer being sold, but the truth is that the majority are still crossover drinkers who just aren't into it the same way.

So, yeah, it's a double edged sword when it comes to certain brewers streamlining their lineups, but I bet you will see smaller brewers picking up the slack.

 

No Coffee Milk Stout or Americano Stout?
I loved Americano! I also wish they would bring back Citrusy Wit! I absolutely loved that beer.

 

Seems like less releases? In 2017 they had Punk in Drublic and Vengeful Spirit....I enjoyed both.

 

Agreed. Regional breweries are fighting with local breweries for sales more and more. It just makes sense, business wise, to try and produce styles that won't sit on shelves until the next release. (Un)fortunately, that seems to be done by producing more and more IPAs, at least in the case of Stone.

Fortunately, there are still plenty of good, local breweries around here producing a wide variety of beer styles.

 

Not liking Arrogant being separate from Stone for branding, since now it's more of just wait and see with fingers crossed that Double Bastard comes back and hopefully another Bastard Box.

As far as the actual release schedule; good to see Tangerine Express is 6 packs, Ruination 3.0 has my interest, hop worship sounds interesting, and I see myself getting multiple 12 packs with the Ripper and Tangerine Express (though Ghost Hammer would be great in those packs as well).

 

At least go to is still in 16 oz cans. I pay $8.99 a six and it's always fresh when I see it. It's a buy 3-4 times a year for me as well as AB in 16 oz cans as well for $9.99

Other than that Stone is not on my radar. Too expensive and nothing that great.

Enjoy

 

That wit was good.

Enjoy

 

Imperial Russian Stout is the best decision/thing on this calendar. Especially in 6-pack format.

 

Stone was never one of my favorites but I appreciated their product. I'm quickly growing tired of IPAs and like some others have said there are more beers nowadays but less diversity, oddly enough.

I have mixed feelings about this being what consumers want too and the trend may be winding down, I see lots of well regarded IPAs collecting dust.

 

Stone's new IPA's were hit and miss last year.

Ghost was meh
Vengeful Spirit was really good

Give me Unfiltered Enjoy By any day of the week. One of my favorite IPA's to this day.

 

But ironically the beer style that is most sensitive to age are IPAs. Considering the number of IPA brands on shelves this competition leads to plenty of old IPAs on my local beer store shelves.

Cheers!

 

I can anecdotally report there are plenty of non-IPA beers available from my local breweries - both for on premise and off premise consumption.

Cheers!