The Stone Blog

As a kid, you never had to tell me twice to eat my vegetables. My Mom loves to tell the story of how I once begged her in the market to buy fresh brussels sprouts when they weren’t on sale. Another Mother immediately intervened and told her, “if your kid wants to eat brussels sprouts, you give him brussels sprouts.” From childhood through my teens I kept a garden in the back part of our yard and would come home after school to tend to it and eat fruits and veggies raw that I rinsed off with the hose. Nothing beats that taste of sweet white corn right off the stalk, the spice of a radish you just pulled or a tomato that you plucked off the vine.

Over the past year I started obsessing about the old days and really wanted to start a garden. The problem is that my wife Nancy and I live in a condo. Naturally, the Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens was the closest source I could imagine for local organic produce and I talked to GK (aka our CEO Greg Koch) about what was possible. He suggested to check out a CSA. Huh? Get thee to a wiki!

Community-supported agriculture is a socio-economic model of agriculture and food distribution. A CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farm operation so that the farmland becomes the community’s farm, with the growers and consumers providing mutual support and sharing the risks and benefits of food production. CSA’s focus is usually on a system of weekly delivery or pick-up of vegetables and fruit, sometimes dairy products and meat.

Thank you Wikipedia. With a little additional help from Google, I quickly found a really helpful site: localharvest.org. On there I found several local CSAs and found one that had a weekly pickup point near us. It went by the name of Garden of Eden Organics and the only form of validation I had was that it was well regarded on yelp. So I signed up for a 4 week trial to see how it was.

Each week Nancy and I get a box of random local, organic and in-season produce. This appeals to me because I love to cook and always welcome the surprise of having to work with something unexpected. So each week there’s something new. Since October here’s a sampling of the interesting things we’ve had enter our kitchen: kohlrabi, curly kale, purple radish, rainbow chard, purple cosmic carrots, and more that you can check out on their weekly blog where they chronicle what has been in boxes. There’s common staples each week too, like spinach, apples, oranges, avocados, etc. But these “common” items have so much flavor that you seem to experience it for the first time. I remember the first apple, so flowery, so crisp, so sweet…so AMAZING! Then there’s the fun perks they find like olives, olive oil and honey.

So any-who, why am I going on and on about this on the Stone Blog? Well, because GK & I both wanted Stone be a pickup point, and as luck would have it Garden of Eden Organics was looking for a location in Escondido! So starting July 17th you’ll be able to pickup a CSA box from the brewery on Fridays from 4-5:30pm. That’s right, come over after work on a Friday, fill up your growler with beer fresh off the tap and pickup your week’s worth of organic local produce in the same stop. Could you ask for a better start to your weekend?

How to sign up:

1. Go on to goeorganics.com
2. Click on the Pledge Form link
3. Check the Rancho Bernardo button, and put Stone Brewing in the notes text field.
4. See you on Fridays!

As a fanatical beer geek, it’s easy to forget that when some non beer-drinkers hear the words “beer” and “dessert” in the same sentence they experience a wave of skepticism. When Pastry Chef Devin McKenna told his mother he was going to pair some of his decadent creations with some the finest beers around, her reaction was “Eeew.” Not “I’m so proud of you,” or “I can’t wait to try it,” but “Eeew.” Part of the problem is that most people have a sadly limited view of beer, but not us. We’re avid students of craft beer and gustatory delights, and it’s time to show the world that beer—good beer—is the ultimate libation to pair with gourmet food…dammit.

Dark Chocolate-malted Panna Cotta with Barley-Malt Anglaise, paired with Stone 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout

Thankfully, we have two secret weapons: Dr. Bill and Pastry Chef McKenna. Their one-two punch is enough to reduce the most seasoned food critics to giddy little schoolgirls. Don’t believe me? Check out the pictures of Chef McKenna’s ridiculously decadent creations and imagine enjoying them with Dr. Bill’s expertly paired beers and try—just try not to giggle uncontrollably.

Strawberry and African Blue Basil Stack with Black Sticky Rice, paired with Dupont Saison

So just how did McKenna come up with such blissful desserts as “Honey and Lemon Thyme Grilled Apricots with Sweet Cheese Donuts?” No, God didn’t speak to him in a dream. He said the idea actually came from a picture he saw in a bookstore. “I saw a picture of some donuts covered in melted goat cheese, and then I thought what if we reverse that and pair it with what’s in season. One of the first things I saw in the grocery store were apricots, so it started coming together.” Such a complex dessert called for an equally complex beer. That’s where Dr. Bill’s pairing expertise came in: “The Moortgat Maredsous 10 Triple is fairly high in alcohol and has a clean profile without being overly bitter. It’s nice and sweet but still bright, and it went very well with the fruit and the cheeses.”

Honey and Lemon Thyme-grilled Apricots with Sweet Cheese Donuts, paired with Moortgat Maredsous 10 Triple. Hey, are you reading the blog or just looking at the pictures?

I had the poor misfortune of getting paid to attend Beer & Desserts, and amid my moping and self-pity, I heard ample oohs and ahs from other guests throughout the pairing. People were getting it—good beer goes with good food.

Click for more glorious pictures of Beer & Desserts

Beer & Desserts wasn’t the first time we convinced people that beer is the ultimate pairing. We’ve already proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that beer is the clear champion of cheese and chocolate, but it’s time to expand beer’s dominion over the culinary world. With the help of our incredibly talented crew, we’re poised to open minds and expand palates. “We definitely wanted to show off McKenna’s talents with Beer & Desserts,” said Dr. Bill, “but next we want to show off our Chef De Cuisine Brian LaBonte’s talents with our upcoming Beer & Sushi pairing.” That’s right, you heard the man: Beer & Sushi. We announced Beer & Sushi at the end of the night, and by the next morning we had already sold nearly ¼ of the tickets. People are getting it.

- Matt Steele

With all the latest beer gossip just a click away, it’s near impossible to keep a secret these days. Many of you may have heard rumors about Stone 13th Anniversary Ale, but it’s time we set the record straight. Here’s the official word:

Take your idea of a hoppy Stone beer and throw it out the window, because Stone 13th Anniversary Ale is the hoppiest beer we’ve ever brewed. Just how much hops is in this year’s batch? You may want to sit down for this…4.5 lbs. PER BARREL! To lend you a bit of perspective, Stone 10th Anniversary IPA, revered by many as the quintessential hopped-up Stone Anniversary Ale, had about 2.5 lbs. per barrel.

Brewers Mitch Steele, John Egan, and Tom Garcia showing off our latest creation

Stone 13th Anniversary Ale has officially trumped our collaboration brew, BrewDog / Cambridge / Stone Juxtaposition Black Pilsner, as our hoppiest beer. Of course, all those hops would be worthless if the beer wasn’t balanced. That’s where brewers Mitch Steele, Tom Garcia, and John Egan came in.

When Steve and Greg gave the green light, Mitch, Tom, and John took the reins of the recipe. The beer went through three iterations before they dialed it in, finally deciding on Chinook hops for bittering and a 50/50 blend of Centennial and Simcoe hops for dry hopping. The careful blend of hops, combined with pale malt, various crystal malts, amber malts, and just a touch of chocolate malt, resulted in a rather tasty 7% abv red ale—but it just wasn’t quite worthy of a Stone Anniversary Ale yet. “It had a nice hop character,” said Mitch, “but it didn’t have that extra something that I thought the beer needed.” After tasting it, Greg even asked Mitch “It’s going to be bigger, right?” To which Mitch replied “Yeah, it’s going to be bigger.” The solution was to bump up the hopping and alcohol a bit, and the result was a very big, very Stone 9.5% abv Ale. As if that wasn’t enough, the brew crew decided to dry-hop it again just prior to filtering and packaging.

Click above to check out the Stone 13th Anniversary Ale web page

When asked to describe Stone 13th Anniversary Ale in one word, guess which word Mitch chose? You guessed it–“Hoppy.” Sure, it’s a monstrously hopped, extremely bitter beer, but it also has a bold malty character that balances out the bitterness. “It’s really bitter, but it’s also malty,” said Mitch. “It’s pretty well balanced; not as dry as you’d think.” Dr. Bill agreed with Mitch when he tasted it. “It’s really well balanced for as hoppy as it is,” said Dr. Bill. “And it has a nice malt complexity with hops throughout.”

Mitch knows that hop-heads who missed hops in last year’s Stone Anniversary Ale will rejoice, not only because Stone 13th Anniversary Ale is a hop monster, but because it’s damn good. “I think it’s going to be right up there with some of the older Anniversary IPA’s,” he said, “and if all goes well, right up there with the Tenth.” We’ll let you decide when Stone 13th Anniversary Ale is released on June 29th.

-Matt Steele

Thanks to passionate craft beer lovers everywhere, I Am A Craft Brewer took on more of a life online than it did at the CBC. To borrow a trite social media buzzword, it went “viral.” Within four hours of being posted on Vimeo it was viewed 1,500 times, and it sailed past 20,000 views just five days later. The video is currently hovering around a respectable 33,700 views.

While the video stands alone as a testament to the camaraderie and integrity of the craft brewing industry, it was actually shown as the introduction to Greg’s keynote speech at the 2009 Craft Brewers Conference in Boston, titled “Be Remarkable: Collaboration Ethics Camaraderie Passion.” Famed beer writer Harry Schuhmacher said “It was the best speech I have ever seen,” and while it isn’t perfect, Greg’s inspirational keynote successfully illuminates the many strengths of the craft brewing industry and demonstrates that “if we don’t screw it up,” craft brewing stands poised to thrive for many years to come.

Click above to check out Greg's Keynote Address at IAmACraftBrewer.com

You can see Greg’s keynote speech, complete with an impromptu musical performance with craft beer compatriots (perhaps they should stick to beer), at IAmACraftBrewer.com. Pour yourself a tall glass and settle into a comfy chair because Greg had a lot on his mind (the speech clocks in at 46 minutes). You can also find two different versions of I Am A Craft Brewer on IAmACraftBrewer.com, as well as a bevy of quotes from bloggers and media types raving about the video and Greg’s keynote, and a short guide on how to share the video with as many people as possible to keep the movement rolling. Remember, we’re all craft beer crusaders, and it’s our job to spread the word about the spirit and integrity of the industry. Onward craft beer enthusiasts!

-Matt Steele