What the hell happened to Stone?

There could potentially be different groups behind the taprooms and the production facility. I feel like the post about their apathetic presence at the Untappd festival says a lot.

 

Frontier Brewing in Casper has a tap takeover for Stone tomorrow.

The Hazy IPA, 25th Anniversary Triple IPA and Dayfall Belgian White. I reckon that I will give them a shot, short pours, for reviewing.

 

Beer vacation maybe?

I don't mean to say to drop everything and go now.

All i mean is that the Stone that's missed still exists,but only for us Californians all jokes aside their Beer is still great ( not all of it, but Wootstout is a damned good beer with adjuncts)and they always have Experimental batches ( hit or miss) . Arrogant Bastard is still here which i think is a staple.
Yes, og ruination is now 2.0 ,pale ale is gone, IRS is now trash Totalitarian and doesn't desrve that name etc etc
I dont visit the taproom as often because of obvious reasons But i still love them abd with the amount of othet breweries distributing great shit at least we aren't suffering without it.

Pretty much ..now the folks at Stone are the ones who aren't worthy

Cheers guys!!!

 

Aren't you NorCal? They have a taproom in Napa.

https://www.stonebrewing.com/visit/outposts/napa

 

yeah, living in PDX, Stone has always been a bit of an afterthought. Good beer in a pinch, but nothing i ever went out of my way for. my impression is that their attraction to many fans was their ability to deliver over the top ABV hop-bombs to markets that never really got that style. again, in Portland this type of beer was never hard to find. Their stouts were also good, but definitely not in the same league as Fremont/Deschutes etc.

all that said, i agree with the OP that Stone is almost irrelevant now. there isnt even any hype on BA anymore. i havent seen a Stone keg on tap in the wild in 3+ years, and i havent heard of or seen an interesting beer from them in over 5 years. #sad

 

Huh I had no idea. That could come in handy if ever I'm cutting across the north bay to i5. I have actually heard nothing but great things about visiting stone locations.

it is worth remembering that stone's attraction for many fans, at least historically, was that they made beer that was genuinely exceptional. As has been noted the competition has certainly caught up and surpassed them but I have no doubt that if stone was still a smallish brewery in greater SD producing a slightly updated version of their classic line up (hazy ipas didn't really exist in the market in their heyday) to the same quality they used to bring they would be very well regarded.

I think a ton of the disappointment is because of how far they fell. You'll note there's never any threads talking about "what the hell happened to 21st amendment?". If stone had always been a brewery putting out good enough beer that happened to execute the business side of things well and expand that way no one on here would really care. We really did lose a gem (in distribution at least) as stone went downhill

 

This thread got me reminiscing to the glory days of Stone so I picked up a can of Arrogant Bastard. Canned 8/10/21. It’s as good as I remember it being when it caught my attention back in 2006 and sent me on my craft beer journey. It makes me wish Stone would ditch the trends and go back to focusing on their old staples. I’d be happy to see AB, Pale Ale, IPA, Levitation, SSR, Ruination, IRS and Smoked Porter on a regular basis rather than the endless stream of mediocrity they put on the shelves nowadays. Especially with the onslaught of mediocre brewery’s flooding the shelves anymore, I’m more inclined than ever to reach for old familiar classics.

 

I had the bourbon barrel (Wild Turkey) Oatmeal Stout here in Salem last week .Really enjoyed it. It's low alcohol for modern BA stouts..but I found it lovely. And a very good price for a pint

 

Stone has been distributed in almost every state for many years. Sending adventurous beers to places where few or none existed was one reason Stone got so big. 99.9% of us can't visit the tap rooms at all, much less just go down on a specific day when they have a classic beer on tap. And as you point out, most of these are old kegs of classic beers. They've stopped brewing them, which is precisely why we're bashing them.

 

I still love Stone.

 

If you like the older Stone beers than check out Grapefruit Slam.

 

I tried the 25th Anniversary Triple IPA on draught. I didn't care for it much.

 

W00tstout is the only one I seek out anymore.

 

Unfortunately it's not the beer it was a few years ago with a gradual decline in 2017-2019. There was a noticeable thinning of the body and malty flavors, and barrel flavors that were bold when I first had this beer in 2015 were barely detectable in the fresh 2019 version. I cellared a bunch, and compared 2017-19 a couple years ago, and the aged 2017 had noticeable more body and flavor than the fresh 2019.

 

My sentiments exactly, except the living in SD part. Stone beers are still common in this vicinity but not at the levels from years ago when Stone first began brewing on the East Coast. Cheers.

 

Same. I only fuck with pre 2016 versions.

 

Do they do any special brews out of Richmond that only see the east coast?

 

Not that I have seen but I haven't been looking very hard. Cheers.