Stone Sosumi

Boom! Get this man an IPA!

 

Brilliant, the bottle even looks good.

 

Not at all my point.

I swear the last 8 releases I've seen from them have been IPAs with the exception of one, that "Enjoy After"

It's kind of sad that Stone is only capable of brewing one style of beer -- really well, but still sad.

WITH the exception of their Imperial Stout.

20 good IPAs, one good stout. I'd consider that a "one trick pony."

 

That's not what this thread is about. But to reply to your post, yes they brew a lot of IPAs but I would hardly consider them a one trick pony. Let's look at some of their beers released recently

xocoveza
Coffee milk stout
Saison
Smoked porter with orange peel and chocolate also the vanilla bean variation
Master of disguise
W00t stout 2.0
Southern charred
Barrel aged arrogant bastard

I am sure there is more under the stone stochasticity beers but I haven't drank many of those so I don't remember them.

Wow you are right they do only brew IPAs.

 

From what I've had? Their non-IPAs haven't been very good for the most part.

Xocoveza was very good but as far as I know, not really a Stone beer, and thought it weird that it seemed as if they thought it was a style of beer that hadn't been done before.
Coffee milk stout was absolutely dreadful.
Saison was alright, I forgot about it. Same with the vanilla porter, which I actually really liked. Chipotle porter was eh.

Master of Disguise is in my fridge, but has a lot of "love it or hate it" scores.

So yeah, I am right, for the most part, they're mostly good for IPAs with a few exceptions. To me, the truly World Class breweries are exceptional all-around, not in one general area. Sorry to offend you.

 

Not offended in anyway. I just find it interesting people say stone only brews IPAs when they brew so many other beers. If you want to say they only brew IPAs good then that's your opninon. Which I may have missed that point as I thought you were simply saying they only brew IPAs.

 

No, I was saying I only enjoyed their IPAs ... and that they seem to be releasing a lot of them recently.

Then I remembered a few non-IPAs/hoppy beers I've had from them in the past. Like @WckdVbz said though, it does seem like they prefer staying in their safe zone.

 

I'm no legal expert but I'm pretty sure you don't just get to trademark a one word brewing company and then have the right to sue people carte blanche for the inclusion of said word in any part of their name.

Should
4 Hands sue Tired Hands?
Flying Dog sue Thirsty Dog?
Bluepoint sue Sixpoint?
Lost Coast sue Left Coast?
Community Beer Company sue Community Beer Works?
Would Rogue be justified in suing Voodoo over their name because Rogue had a series of beers by the same name?

 

No one was confusing Kettle and Stone with Stone. The labeling was completely different, wasn't even screen printed, and K&S distribution was only Boulder County (at least at the time, think it still is). Stone had nothing to worry about, the C&S was unneeded, blab on about trademarks all you want. All that being said, I don't think anyone here cared, can't speak for K&S/Vindication though, just made Stone look bad.

You make good points with your hypothetical names, besides the first one, but there was just no actual reason for it. Only furthers the view that craft breweries, at least the larger breweries, are moving more towards big business and all that comes with that, including excessive litigation. I don't think anyone wants craft beer to turn, purely, into business. It seems like that would go against brewer's original goals of "screw the sales, I want something that tastes great." Maybe I'm wrong, but I got the impression that craft beer's innovators didn't get into/create this industry with money being the only thing on their mind. It's not just about the quality of beer, craft beer is meant to coincide with good times, good people, good vibes, excessive lawsuits don't bring any of that to the table. Sue because someone is hurting you or intentionally attacking you, not because you can. It's all about the message you send and the direction you want for your brewery/the industry.

Should 4 Hands sue Left Hands and then sue Idle Hands while fighting off a lawsuit from Left Hand? Should Blue Moon sue Harvest Moon? Should Fate sue FATE? I'm sure everyone could try here, but the real question is, "do breweries think their customers are stupid?" No one is confusing one brewery for the other, everyone can read words and process their differences. These breweries aren't trying to increase sales by copying others. We can all live together in this beer soaked industry. There's 3,000 breweries already, let's leave the common names out of the lawsuits, I don't want to have to ask my friends if they want to go to "Phrontistery Brewing"

 

I understand your point of view @MarkyMOD, but respectively disagree. I know jokes were made about various names, but I don't think putting "[WORD] and [Existing Company Name]" as a name for a product in the same industry is a good idea - regardless of intent. I can't make a new computer/portables company called "Interwebz and Apple" and hope to keep the name. I just don't think the naming was very smart.

 

I the label made you confused and you meant to say Lagunitas.

 

Stone Saison 12 ounce beer in six packs
Matt's Burning Rosids
Stone Stochasticity Project Master of Disguise
the 2014 imperial stout collab
Some other stochasticity beers.

all not IPAs.

 

I agree they probably should have seen that coming. It's just my opinion there was no malicious intent and no need for Stone to send that letter, K&S was never going to cut into their sales, or confuse people in my opinion. I think it'll be too bad if craft beer ever gets "too big" where litigation now seems tame and things are much more cut-throat, but maybe that's inevitable. Even if that happens though, I'd imagine there will always be a lot of good people in craft beer, like now, along with small breweries that aren't concerned with all the BS, just making great beer and sharing good times/experiences. So it's nothing to cry over, just disappointing to me, personally. I want to love Stone and have for awhile, this just seems to go against the hippie/care-free and "enlightened" vibe Greg Koch gives off (no idea if he was for this or against, just assumed he had say in the matter) and the no BS, "we're all about the beer" vibe Stone's labels and other marketing gives off.

 

When Lagunitas makes Enjoy By, that weird blonde coffee stout thing that was tasty, an Imp stout worth drinking, and a year round DIPA in packs better than Ruination, ill agree

 

Fair enough, however that "weird blonde coffee stout thing" is exactly what stone was going for. If it was dark it wouldn't get a second thought. Make it blonde and people talk.

Also, perhaps it's just me, but Lagunitas Born Yesterday is flat out better than anything I've ever had from Stone

 

It's the fact that it's hypocrisy regardless of what the dispute was over. Your name or your branding, both Stone and Lagunitas are guilty of the fact and they were both defending their business, regardless of how ridiculous you think the subject matter is there is no difference. Defending a trademark is defending a trademark.

 

Stone's "weird blonde coffee stout" (Master of Disguise) was horrendous. Nothing stout-like about it, if I wanted to drink a blonde ale, I'd buy a f**cking blonde ale.

 

yea stone PA is as weak as weak can be. Lagunitas owns the pale front, but Stone destroys the IPA categories by a mile in terms of quantity and quality.

 

* priceless

 

Another thing, aside from Stone IRS, their best beers are collabs and/or homebrew contest winners. Arrogance doesn't really matter when your own beer is mediocre and you have to take recipes from home brewers to sell your product.