What the hell happened to Stone?

My own opinion is this: I think the things we (generally speaking) on the BA forum like from Stone are not the same things that would keep Stone in business going forward. The emergence of hazy IPA's and seltzers really seem to have nuked their initial business model (fizzy yellow beer is for wussies, drink WCIPA, etc. etc.).

In order to ensure their survival some of the "lesser", as in less-desirable to the masses styles (looking at you, Old Guardian/Vertical Epic/Pale Ale/Ruination 1.0, SSR, Levitation), had to go to make way for the seltzers and hazies that allow them to keep their doors open. I so badly wish for a day I can walk in there and grab Pataskala Red IPA, Mocha IPA, Go To, RuinTen w/ orange peel and vanilla, SSR, Citracado, Smoked Porter, or the IRS, but those are all styles by and large that I personally believe would rot on shelves while the hazies and seltzers have their day in the sun.

 

The 'Coolest kids in the room' schtick wore out its welcome. The way they presented themselves became so tiresome, that a lot of us just started tuning them out. And this was before the murkbombs and seltzers were even things. Combine that with an approach much like Lagunitas', of releasing a bunch of very similar beers with different names, and it became easy to not only pass them by, but just tune them out, and not even look at them on the shelf.

 

It's similar to what a lot of larger regional-sized breweries are struggling with. They entered the world of craft beer with a particular strategy that worked wonderfully and made them successful. Yet that was in an era where there weren't 500 similar beers on the shelf and a brewery on every corner. Most haven't been good at shifting to a Plan B or Plan C and it's almost funny to watch them trying to copy one another.

With Stone, their biggest strength was always big, bold, bright, and bitter with huge PNW C-hops shining through a full-bodied beer. When tastes changed, I don't think they've pivoted particularly well. Most everything feels like one foot in the present and one in the past. Hence the changes to some of their classics. No matter how much might lament the old stuff dying, it's tough to sell IBU-laden dank bombs these days. It's also tough to pivot compared to the places that make 3 "new" beers every week.

They aren't alone, though. Change a few words and I could be talking about a dozen different craft breweries that ruled the 00's. Stone's M.O. of being unapologetically opinionated makes their current efforts stand out more, though. With some luck, maybe staying the course will make palates come full-circle, though. Right now the hottest craft beer flavors are the stuff people scoffed at 15 years ago.

 

I was wondering this myself when I drank their 25th anniversary 3x IPA. Dull, muted and boozy, it was easily the most disappointing beer I've had from them - and this from someone who loved the otherwise loathed 14th anniversary IPA. In any case, I hope they make it through, I'd love to be able to drink their IPA, Ruination, IRS and more again. If they have to sell seltzer to make it, so be it, because I firmly believe that they who run away live to fight another day.

 

Mitch left

 

I guess that explains a lot

 

When you have such a strong stance to start with, you either have to stick to that and continually deliver, or you have to adjust. Their strategy is awful for how big they eventually got because by catering to current market forces to continue to be successful, they run entirely counter to their original "strategy." It comes off now like they're having an identity crisis and/or that "strategy" didn't matter to begin with, neither of which are good. They went from having no hazy IPAs to now several, it screams "Let's throw a bunch of things at the wall and see what sticks." And their hazies aren't even selling well... There's talk of bringing back SSR in cans on the regular instead of just the one-off resurrection of it a while back. These two completely opposing plans seem to be the result of a creative and/or power struggle going on at Stone.

They also have not adjusted any of their pricing relative to the market or their particular product(s). Enjoy By and their limited releases are still $17 - 18, which is a very premium price for a brand/product that people don't seem to see as premium anymore. Price is a common complaint I hear about those releases from customers. Maybe they're clinging onto that premium in the hope people don't undervalue their brand (which is a concern if you drop your price significantly) but I'm not sure it's helping them either. Local competition has contributed to that too. When there are so many good options locally, why would you bother paying a premium for a beer that's not any better (and arguably worse) than what you can get from someone down the street for cheaper?

 

My guess is they have tried to follow the trends in "craft beer". And mostly failed

 

I somewhat agree but if the beer was still good, no one would care about the shtick. They used to have the IPA market pretty cornered and now there are way more breweries that just make better beer. That’s all it is.

 

Naw, like I said, a lot of folks were over their bullshit long ago. The whole Berlin nonsense for example. Before the turbid things were even in existence, folks were dropping Stone. bars weren't buying kegs, and stores didn't see the need to stock every one of the dozens of identical beers. They beat themselves.

 

If they were putting out Monkish quality IPA’s, I bet hardly anyone cares is all I’m saying. I for one could not care less about Stone’s supposed bullshit. Give me good beer.

 

Liquid Poem Double IPA was actually quite good and a reminder of the good ol' days.

 

I've no idea as to Monkish's quality, only having had a couple of their beers. But, quality of beer is a thing I've never heard of being an issue with Stone. I've never had a bad one. some I didn't like, but I didn't find flaws in them. Stone was making quality beers before Monkish was ever conceived.

And, for the record, I've had two beers from Monkish, both about a year ago, and found them to be averag-ish at best. But, again, 2 beers is a very small sample size.

 

Cool? I think you’re missing my point. I was simply using Monkish as an example, not here to debate whether you like them or not. Simply put, Stone hasn’t been putting out high quality, sought after beers for a while now. Are they drinkable? Yes. Am I going out of my way to find them? No. Point is, there is more competition and other breweries are making better beer.

 

Unfortunately for them I think their brand has already lost some value in the eyes of many consumers. I'm not economist, but I don't know of very many brands that are able to simultaneously achieve ubiquity in the market and maintain the air of premium quality. If I can buy a loose pint can at the gas station am I likely to consider you a premium product?

Seems like the same contradictory approach that dog fish tried to take, and just like dog fish it seems that all that happened was they lost their identity and have to rely on essentially fooling under informed consumers into believing that their late efforts at trend chasing represent something special.

I'm in the camp that expects they will sell to a larger beverage entity at some point

 

Please point out to me where Stone has put out a single non-quality beer. For all my personal issues with them, the quality of the product is not one of them. I cannot point to a single beer, that I've had, that I thought was poorly made, or had technical flaws.

Stone, for all their pomposity and ego, produce quality beer. I've never questioned that. They put out a lot of beers I didn't like, but they weren't 'bad' beers.

As to "sought after", well, hype is hype and not an indication of quality.

 

There have been a number of quality issues with enjoy by for years, I haven't tried many of their new beers but the ris they brought out (totalitarian) was pretty poor quality, I think that a definite failure to maintain their quality level consistently as they scaled combined with dropping unique offerings in favor of samey "innovative" hoppy beers has done way more damage to their reputation than their tiresome shtick

 

OK, fair enough. And, as one who had mostly given up on them a while ago, maybe that's a blind spot for me.