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.

News and Photos from the National Homebrewers Conference

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cheesesmith, Doug Constantiner, greg koch, julian brewpub, mitch steele, national homebrewers conference 2011 photos, nhc 2011 photos, peter zien, stone Cherry Chocolate Stout, Stone Japanese Green Tea IPA, tom nickel, travis smith, vince marsaglia

Photos by Chris Hammett
Last weekend’s National Homebrewers Conference brought nearly 2000 homebrewers, professional brewers and other beer lovers to San Diego. The conference included a Pro Brewer’s Night where around forty professional breweries were pouring their beers, Club Night where homebrew clubs from all around the country brought some of their best brews as well as plenty of seminars and panels with subjects ranging from homebrew techniques to topics on going pro and everything in between.

During those seminars a few bits of San Diego beer related news and info were announced.

Peter Zien of AleSmith spoke about cheese making and other food related hobbies. Zien is in the process of opening an artisianal cheese making company to be called CheeseSmith.

A bit more beer related news from Zien was that AleSmith is working on getting label approval for bottles of single origin coffee versions of Speedway Stout. Zien didn’t mention what single origin coffee’s they had in mind, or if this would include bottling the much loved, and previously very-limited draft only Kopi Luwak Speedway Stout, but one can hope.

Doug Constantiner, who is working with Travis Smith (both of whom formerly brewed at The Bruery) to start Societe Brewing Company here in San Diego revealed to NBC San Diego that Societe would be located in Kearney Mesa. No word on the exact location but it will be a nice stop between downtown and some of the breweries farther north. They hope to be open in early to mid 2012.

Tom Nickel of O’Brien’s Pub announced that he is working with Vince Marsaglia of Pizza Port to open a brewpub with BBQ food in Julian, CA. According to Taphunter the land in Julian has already been acquired and General’s American Pub, which Nickel was hoping to open in Scripps Ranch is no longer going to happen.

During his talk on collaborations, Greg Koch of Stone Brewing Co. mentioned a few things about their two upcoming collaborations that are in the fermenters now. He said that they’re currently working on getting fermentation restarted on Stone Cherry Chocolate Stout, this year’s AHA Rally Winner brewed at Stone by Mitch Steele, John Togner of Tröegs Brewing Co. and winning homebrewers Jason Fields and Kevin Sheppard. The yeast apparently didn’t like the addition of the cherries. No release date has been planned but Koch said it will be out “at somepoint in the not too distance future”.

He also mentioned that Stone Japanese Green Tea IPA, a collaboration between Stone’s Mitch Steele, Bryan Baird of founder of Numazu, Japan’s Baird Brewing and Toshi Ishii—former Stone brewer and now founder of Guam’s Ishii Brewing Company should be out in early-mid July.

Beer-Con, coming to San Diego August 27th

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Anat Baron, beer con, beer con discount code, beer con promo code, dr bill sysak, Drew Beechum, greg koch, patrick rue, san diego beer convention, san diego beer-con

A few weeks ago Beer-Con, a beer convention being held August 27th at the Handlery Hotel in Mission Valley was quietly announced with a few tweets and links to the website. The one day convention appears to be aimed at both the regular craft beer drinker that wants to learn more about beer as well as industry folks hoping to learn from those that have successfully proved themselves in the beer world.

The full agenda hasn’t been posted yet but speakers will include Stone Brewing Co. Co-Founder and CEO Greg Koch, “Dr.” Bill Sysak, Beverage Supervisor at Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens, Patrick Rue Founder of The Bruery and more.

This will be the first Beer-Con but the organizers have a strong track record in the San Diego beer community. Those involved in putting on Beer-Con include Tap Hunter and Awesome Beer Drinkers.

August is still a few months away but the earlier you register the less you pay. Prices range between $175 and $299 depending upon when you register. Using the discount code “sdbeerblog” will save you an additional $50 at checkout. Click here for registration.

 

 

Updated 5/26/2011 to note that the discount code above is an affiliate code which if enough people register using it I will be offered a discount or free pass to the convention.

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.