New Stone Company Store Coming to Oceanside

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Stone Brewing Co. Oceanside, Stone Company Store, Stone Company Store Oceanside, Stone Oceanside

The reader tips just keep on coming… After this morning’s post about Poor House Brewing Co. applying for a Type 23 license at a location on 30th St, a reader that would like to remain anonymous tipped me off that Stone Brewing Co. has set it’s sight on Oceanside.

Earlier this week Stone Brewing Co. applied for a Type 01 Beer Manufacturer license (the same type they have at the Stone Company Store South Park) for 310 N Tremont St in Oceanside. I’m not too familiar with Oceanside, but this location is just off the North Coast Highway near Mission Ave not far from museums, a movie theater and the Oceanside Pier. If I remember right from the last time I was up there the area has a lot of shops and restaurants and sees quite a bit of foot traffic, especially in the summer.

It’s unclear at this time if Stone will be brewing beer at this location or if it will operate like the South Park location with merchandise, bottle sales, growler fills and tasters. Based on the name on the license and the license type being the same as the South Park store I would bet the latter to be the case. At this point the details might not be set in Stone yet (pun intended) as it’s so early in the license application process that things could change at any moment.

If the license is approved and Stone opens this Stone Company Store in Oceanside it would be their third or fourth beer related location depending upon timing (they also operate Stone Farms). Escondido is home to the brewery, Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens restaurant, the original Stone Company Store and a hotel is in the works. Stone Company Store South Park opened on 30th St in June, 2011. Stone is currently working to open a second Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens in Liberty Station, which is planned to include a restaurant, 10 barrel brewhouse and Stone Company Store selling merchandise, growlers and beer.

I’ve emailed Stone for comment and will update this post if I get any more info.

Update: I heard back from Randy Clemens, Stone’s media guy, he confirmed that they are planning another Stone Company Store in Oceanside and are hoping for an early summer opening. It will be similar to the Stone Company Store South Park in that they won’t be brewing on site, but Clemens promises it won’t be cookie-cutter copy. He says they’re still in the early planning stages but hope to share some more details about what will differentiate the store in Oceanside in the coming weeks.

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Beer Books: The Craft of Stone Brewing Co.- Liquid Lore, Epic Recipes, and Unabashed Arrogance

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2010 Old Guardian Barley Wine Aged in Bourbon Barrels, 2010 Old Guardian BELGO Barley Wine Aged in Bourbon Barrels, 2010 Old Guardian BELGO Barley Wine Aged in Wine Barrels, Arrogant Bastard Ale Onion Rings, Dogfish Head / Victory / Stone Saison Du BUFF, dr bill, dr bill sysak, Garlic Cheddar and Ruination IPA Soup, greg koch, Heat Seeking Wheat, Jolly Pumpkin / Nogne-O / Stone Special Holiday Ale, Lee's Mild, Quingenti Millilitre, randy clemens, steve wagner, Stone 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout, Stone Ruination IPA, The Craft of Stone Brewing Co.- Liquid Lore Epic Recipes and Unabashed Arrogance

After fifteen years in the beer business the founders of Stone Brewing Co. have written a book. Greg Koch and Steve Wagner teamed up with published author and Stone Brewing Co. PR Coordinator Randy Clemens to co-author The Craft of Stone Brewing Co.- Liquid Lore, Epic Recipes, and Unabashed Arrogance.

The Craft of Stone Brewing Co. comes out September 27th and retails for $25. If you pre-order a copy through La Jolla’s Warwick’s bookstore before September 9th you’ll be able to purchase one of the beers in the next Quingenti Millilitre series release, 2010 Old Guardian Barley Wine Aged in Bourbon Barrels, 2010 Old Guardian BELGO Barley Wine Aged in Bourbon Barrels or 2010 Old Guardian BELGO Barley Wine Aged in Wine Barrels. This offer will also be available at The Great American Beer Festival later this month in Denver, and at the book release event on Sept 27th at Stone Brewing Co. See Stone’s blog for more details.

The two-hundred page book is broken down into three parts: Part 1 explains the basics of beer and gives a brief history of beer in addition to telling the story of Stone Brewing Co. Part 2 is a comprehensive list of most of the beers Stone has ever released with facts about each beer and often the stories behind the beer. Part 3 includes scaled down homebrew recipes for 18 different Stone beers, recipes food recipes from Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens (with pairing recommendations) and a few short “Beer How-Tos” from “Dr” Bill Sysak.

Before I received my review copy of the book I knew it would include a history of Stone as well as food and homebrew recipes, but I wasn’t sure if one section would dominate. They’ve done a good job of balancing things so the book doesn’t feel one sided towards any one of the parts. There’s enough content in each section to satisfy anyone that cooks, homebrews or is just a Stone fan that wants to know more about their history.

I’ve only been drinking Stone’s beer for about half of the fifteen years they’ve been around, so much of their early history was news to me. Well written and entertaining, it and kept me turning page after page, reading it in one sitting. There were one or two preachy moments when I briefly felt like I was reading a Stone brochure (a $25 brochure at that) but those times are very few and far between. There was even once when I nearly spit out the beer in my mouth because I started to laugh (I won’t spoil it for you, just be sure to look for Wagner’s story of a friend transporting some yeast for them).

There were a couple beers from Stone’s past that they no longer brew that I had never heard of, anyone out there get to try Heat Seeking Wheat? While the beer is very un-Stone, the label art was what really shocked me. Look for it on page 40, it reminds me of Stone’s gargoyle meets the Toxic Avenger, something I can’t imagine the brand conscious Stone Brewing Co. even thinking about releasing now.

I haven’t tried any of the homebrew or food recipes yet there are a couple I’m anxiously awaiting testing out. Some of my favorite Stone beers got the homebrew recipe treatment here including Stone 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout, Jolly Pumpkin / Nogne-O / Stone Special Holiday Ale, and Dogfish Head / Victory / Stone Saison Du BUFF as well as others that I never got to try including Lee’s Mild and some of the earlier Anniversary Beers. Other favorite’s are notably missing, including Stone Ruination IPA. I’m hoping some of the IPA recipes that aren’t here will make an appearance in the forthcoming IPA book being written by Wagner and Stone’s Brewmaster Mitch Steele.

The food recipes are equally tantalizing. I was pretty excited to find the recipe for my favorite Bistro item, the Garlic, Cheddar, and Stone Ruination IPA Soup included. There are plenty of other great looking recipes including the popular BBQ Duck Tacos and those infamous Arrogant Bastard Ale Onion Rings.

The sections on the basics of beer, the general history of beer and “Dr” Bill’s Beer How-Tos might be repetitive to those that really know their beer. But for those that don’t obsess about beer like some of us, they have the potential to be hugely educational.

Overall The Craft of Stone Brewing Co.- Liquid Lore, Epic Recipes, and Unabashed Arrogance is a pretty interesting read that can come in handy in the kitchen or the brewhouse instead of just being relegated to the bookshelf or coffee table when you’re done with it. Scoring the next Quingenti Millilitre series release if you pre-order just sweetens the deal.

Note: Ten Speed Press provided me with a pre-release copy of The Craft of Stone Brewing Co. for review purposes.

San Diego Beer Events June 16th– June 22nd

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blind IPA challenge, blue bridge coffee stout, frogs breath ipa, Green Flash Imperial IPA, palate wrecker, Tanzanian Devil

If you know of anything that isn’t on the events calendar, please email events@sandiegobeerblog.com to get it added.  Not all of the beer events happening in a given week make it on the list below, I pick one or two per day to avoid information overload. Make sure to check out the Events page or the calendar below this post for all the week’s events. As always, events are subject to change, check with the venue putting on the event before hand for more details.

The National Homebrewer’s Conference is in town this weekend, so in addition to the events listed on the calendar a lot of bars have some extra special beers on tap and in bottles.

Thursday June 16th:

Pizza Port Ocean Beach will be featuring Coronado Brewing Company for a Keep the Glass night with plenty of pint specials. They’ll have Blue Bridge Coffee Stout, Frogs Breath IPA and more.

Friday June 17th:

Friday’s seem to be the day most bars serve cask beer so they can ensure it all gets drank before oxidizing. As always Hamilton’s Tavern will have their Frikin Friday, this week with Green Flash Brewing Co.’s Imperial IPA.

Over at Blind Lady Ale House their Progressive Cask (they put it on at 11:30 for $2 a glass and the price goes up by a dollar each hour after 2pm until it runs out) will be Automatic Brewing Co.’s Tanzanian Devil. It’s a dark English mild with Tanzanian Peaberry coffee. It’s only about 3.8% but it’s mighty tasty.

Saturday June 18th:

Mission Brewery’s Grand Opening is officially sold out. So head on over to Bottlecraft’s Grand Opening in Little Italy. I’m not sure exactly what they’ll be doing but it will be a good time to check out the new bottle shop if you haven’t been. Bottlecraft is both a retail store and tasting room. Look for more on them in next month’s West Coaster.

Sunday June 19th:

Test your beer tasting and identifying skills at Blind Lady’s Blind IPA Challenge. They’ll give you a flight of IPAs and you have to identify which is which. It’s hard. Very hard. But even if you can’t pinpoint what’s what, you still get to drink some great beer.

Monday June 20th:

CityBeat Beer Club’s 3 Year Anniversary is happening at Blind Lady, read more about it here.

And as always Toronado has $3 local beers because it’s Monday.

Tuesday June 21st:

Wreck You Palate with Green Flash at Small Bar. $5 pints and $3.50 refills. Plenty of great hoppy beers from Green Flash including Palate Wrecker and more.

Wednesday June 22nd:

Stone Brewing Co.’s South Park Store officially opened last Wednesday, but they’re having a grand opening party which includes events at many local bars and liquor stores this evening. Mayor Jerry Sanders will be in attendance as well. Check out what’s going on here.

More Info On Stone Brewing Co.’s South Park Company Store Grand Opening

Tags

2010 Double Bastard Ale with Chipotle Peppers, AleSmith / Mikkeller / Stone Belgian Style Triple Ale, Stone 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout, stone south park grand opening, stone south park soft opening

As I blogged last week, Stone Company Store South Park is set to have their soft opening next Wednesday, June 15th followed by a grand opening celebration a week later. I just got some more info on what to expect at the soft opening as well as the grand opening on Wednesday June 22nd.

For the soft opening on the 15th they’ll have a keep the glass special, four 4oz tasters for $5 in addition to the regular growler, bottle and merch sales.

For the Grand Opening Stone will be putting a couple special treats on tap in South Park, as always things could change, but here’s what is scheduled to be on tap:

 

• Stone Pale Ale
• Stone IPA
• Stone Levitation Ale
• Stone Smoked Porter
• Stone Cali-Belgique IPA
• Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale
• Stone Ruination IPA
• Arrogant Bastard Ale
• OAKED Arrogant Bastard Ale
• Stone Imperial Russian Stout
• Stone BELGO Anise Imperial Russian Stout
• Stone 14th Anniversary Emperial IPA
• Green Flash / Pizza Port Carlsbad / Stone Highway 78 Scotch Ale
• Stone Ruination IPA Double Dry Hopped with Simcoe, Nelson, Centennial, Boadicea, and Citra

But the grand opening celebration isn’t limited to just Stone’s store in South Park. They’ve sent some vintage beers out to neighboring bars, restaurants and liquor stores so they can get in on the action for the night as well.

The following beers will be scattered around at the places below, some on draft for on-premise consumption and some in bottles to take home:

• 2008 Stone Imperial Russian Stout
• 2006 Double Bastard Ale
• Stone 14th Anniversary Emperial IPA
• 2008 Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine
• 2009 Stone Imperial Russian Stout
• 21st Amendment / Firestone Walker / Stone El Camino (Un)Real Black Ale
• AleSmith / Mikkeller / Stone Belgian Style Triple Ale
• Green Flash / Pizza Port Carlsbad / Stone Highway 78 Scotch Ale
• Stone 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout
• 2010 Double Bastard Ale with Chipotle Peppers

Whistle Stop Bar, Station Tavern & Burgers, The Rose Wine Pub, Vagabond, Mazara Pizza & Italian Deli, California Liquor, Big Save, Grant’s Marketplace, and Ray’s Liquor Center.

I’m told Station, Vagabond and The Rose will have some sort of beer and food special, while Whistle Stop will be doing a keep-the-glass night.

Photo of growlers: Creative Commons – Flickr user dr000

UPDATE 6/22/2011: See below (or read more from the main page) for a full list of events at each location, including where the different beers will be available.

Stone Company Store South Park Soft Opening June 15th

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stone growlers south park, stone south park

The wait is (almost) over. In just under two weeks, on June 15th the Stone Company Store South Park, located at 2215 30th Street #3, will open their doors to the public. It’ll be a soft opening but the beer will be flowing. A grand opening celebration is being planned for shortly thereafter but the details of which are still be worked out (I’ll post those as soon as I have them).

So get those growlers ready, no longer will folks in central San Diego need to drive up to Escondido to get their Stone growlers filled. The Stone Company Store South Park will also sell merchandise and  bottled beer. The anticipated operating hours are:

Wed-Thu: 4-9pm
Fri-Sat 11am-9pm
Sun 12-6pm
Mon- Tue: Closed

Stone first announced their plans in September of last year to open the store in South Park with news slowly trickling out over the next couple of months. At one point they had planned to brew pilot batches on site, but a couple of weeks ago announced that they wouldn’t be brewing in South Park after all, opting for a much larger pilot system at their recently announced Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens Liberty Station.

Image courtesy of Stone Brewing Co.

Stone Brewing Co.’s Big Expansion Plans

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la milpa organica, stone announcement, stone brewer point loma, stone brewery expansion, stone brewery liberty station, stone brewing co. expansion, stone brewing co. liberty station, stone brewing co. point loma, stone brewing co. pt loma, stone expansion, stone farms, stone liberty station, stone point loma, stone south park

Stone Brewing Co. is holding a press event today which I and many other beer writers and bloggers will be attending. Stone is expected to make some big announcements but exact details are still mostly under wraps.

The Union-Tribune’s beer writer Peter Rowe has a story outlining some of Stone’s plans, according to Rowe:

• Stone will open a 400-seat restaurant at Point Loma’s Liberty Station, complete with bocce courts, and outdoor movie area and beer garden and a small brewery onsite.
• Stone will expand their current space in Escondido allowing them to produce up to 500,000 barrels a year (Stone’s estimated capacity this year is 150,000 barrels).
• Stone has acquired an 18.7 acre farm (formerly La Milpa Organica) to provide organic produce to their restaurants.
• And of course, as we all know, Stone is opening a retail store with bottle, growler and keg sales in South Park

Let’s hope Stone left out at least few details from the above story and there are some surprises in store for us still.

Myself and many other are sure to be posting details and pictures to Twitter and Facebook as the day goes on. You can follow me on Twitter @SDbeer or Facebook SdBeerBlog or follow the Twitter hash tag #StoneDay for a feed of various people at the event.

 

Stone Company Store South Park Delayed

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greg koch, greg koch south park, stone brewing co. south park delay, stone south park, stone tasting room south park

It’s been known that Stone Brewing Co. is hoping to open a store in South Park for a while now. If they get the liquor license they are applying for this location will not only be a tasting room with to-go growler and bottle sales but also a mini-brewery.

Stone held a couple neighborhood meetings to chat with the community last month of which I attended the second. A handful of people were there to listen to CEO Greg Koch talk about their plans for the store, what it will and what it will not be. Most people in attendance seemed to be beer lovers and there wasn’t much (if any) resistance voiced. Koch did mention there had been concerns voiced by at least one community member and urged those that would like to see Stone come to South Park write letters of support to the ABC. Not much new info came out of the meetings, just Koch reassuring people that this wouldn’t be a bar with late hours and drunk patrons. Amy T. Granite and WestCoaster each posted summaries of the meeting with a bit more info.

It’s been a few weeks now it seems as if things don’t look good for Stone in South Park. This past weekend, about two weeks after the second neighborhood meeting, Koch tweeted:

Hey San Diego, it looks like the @StoneStore in #SouthPark may take a while. Quite a while. Months. That’s an “if” not a “when.” Sorry.

And he went on to say it was a problem with the liquor license, a slow and uncertain process due to protests. Not much else is known at this point. Koch tweeted again today that he was interviewed by San Diego 6 for the 10pm news about the problems they are having with the planned South Park store. So hopefully we’ll get more info soon. According to Koch the public comment period is over, so there isn’t much beer drinkers that want to see Stone Brewing Co. in South Park can do at this point.

I have an email into Stone and will update this post with more info if/when I hear back from them.

Stone Company Store South Park Neighborhood Meetings

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30th street beer, 30th street brewery, south park brewery, south park san diego, stone brewing co. south park

As I’m sure you know by now, Stone Brewing Co. is hoping to open a company store (which will technically be a brewery) at 2215 30th Street in South Park. They are still in the process of obtaining their alcohol permits and are holding two meetings for people to come out and get more info. The first meeting was yesterday which we missed and the next meeting will be Sunday, November 28th at 1pm at the proposed location.

Here’s the text from the sign posted in the window. If you’re interested in seeing Stone Brewing Co. open their new store in South Park or have questions about it, show up and find out more info.

Stone Brewing Co. is proud to announce intent to open a “Stone Company Store.” We believe that South Park is the perfect location due to its pedestrian/bike friendly streets, commitment to local businesses, and strong sense of community.

The Stone Company Store | South Park wil bring Stone Brewing Co. merchandise and growler fills to the city of San Diego for the first time. It will allow fans of Stone’s fresh, locally-brewed beer to fill reusable glass jugs known as “growlers” with a variety of Stone beers. Growlers, which are endlessly reusable, are the most environmentally sustainable way to enjoy Stone beers at home.

Stone Co-Founder & CEO Greg Koch said, “South Park is such a wonderful community with a fantastic and growing craft beer scene. We are excited to contribute to the continued strengthening and development of this unique, tight-knit neighborhood.”

If you would like more information,, please join Greg and other Stone representatives here for one or both of our informal information exchange sessions. Or as we’ll call it, a Talkabout.

Big News Brewing About the Stone Company Store South Park

Tags

stone 30th st, stone brewing co. pilot system, stone brewing co. south park, stone new brewery, stone pilot system, stone south park brewery

Remember the Stone Company Store South Park we told you about? A few days ago we revealed the location when a friend spotted the notice of a permit to sell alcohol, and one detail of that brought up some interesting questions. The type of permit Stone Brewing Co. is applying for at their upcoming South Park location is a “Type 23 – Small Beer Manufacturer”. As you might imagine that suggests they’ll be making beer on premises in South Park. We confirmed with Stone that they will indeed have a small pilot brewing system on site. They’ll be brewing in South Park. Yes, if all goes according to plan 30th Street will be getting a (small) brewery.

This raises some interesting possibilities, that we by no means have any insight into, just speculation and hope.

One possible reason for this could have to do with California liquor laws, this could be a clever way to be able to fill growlers. We won’t get into all of the details, but the way we understand it is that in California, only breweries are allowed to fill growlers. Stone says the focus of the Stone Company Store South Park will be to provide the local community with fresh beer to go, so obviously growler fills will play a big part in this. Having a brewery on site will allow them to fill growlers, not only with beer brewed on site, but also with beer brewed at the main brewery in Escondido. If the Stone Company Store South Park weren’t a brewery they wouldn’t be able to fill growlers at all.

Another, more interesting possibility is that they could produce some beers in the South Park location that they otherwise don’t normally make. Breweries use small pilot systems to test new ideas, brewing on a small scale means that if a beer turns out terribly the financial loss is lessened. We could see some new beers, experimental beers and otherwise not normally produced beers from Stone coming out of the South Park location. Again, this is all (hopeful) speculation, but there could be some interesting small batch, draft only beers coming out of their South Park location in the future.

Another bit of news we confirmed with Stone is that they’re seeking the ability to sell on premises tasters and pints, but again, their focus is on beer to go. They emphasize that the Stone Company Store South Park isn’t a pub.

One thing to remember is that this is all subject to change. Stone is still in the process of applying for their permit to sell alcohol. The guys from West Coaster ran into Greg Koch, CEO of Stone just last night and chatted about the upcoming South Park location. He suggested that if you want to see the Stone Company Store South Park get the proper permits they need to open you write letters to the ABC showing support.

Stone Brewing Co’s South Park Company Store Location Revealed

Tags

hober, stone brewery south park, stone brewing co. south park, stone south park

A few months ago we blogged about Stone Brewing Co.’s plans to open a store, complete with growler fills, in South Park. There was much speculation about where it would be located, but Stone declined to state the exact location at the time.

I followed up with them a few weeks ago and they still weren’t revealing the location, but did say that due to permitting delays the opening of the store would probably be delayed until early next year.

Stone Brewing Co.’s alcohol permit application notice has been spotted, at 2215 30th Street where many people expected it to be. We’re anxiously awaiting the opening and will keep you posted when we hear more news.

Image: Edward O’Connor, better known as @hober (Creative Commons SA 2.0)