Name: Stone Brewing Company

Location: Escondido, CA
Type: Production
Available in DC Market: Yes

What you need to know: If you’re looking for West Coast trendsetters, you could do a heck of a lot worse than Greg Koch and Steve Wagner, whose Stone Brewing exploits have been redefining California style since 1996.  From their intense American IPAs to their vertical series and from Self-Righteous to the celebrated Arrogant Bastard, Stone has shaped Americans’ taste in beer like few others.

Beer #1: Highway 78 Scotch Ale aged in Scotch Barrels (Scotch Ale/WeeHeavy / 8.8%)
Notes: Stone took an interesting approach to SAVOR with this one – Highway 78 is a marked departure from Stone’s typical purview of hop-forward brews, plus it was brewed in collaboration with Pizza Port and Green Flash, two other killer San Diego breweries.  It’s a reddish-brown Scotch Ale with all of the peaty, smoky aromas and dark fruit and molasses flavors you’d expect from the style.  In an added twist, this batch was aged in scotch barrels, which never, ever hurts.

Beer Advocate: 85 (320 reviews)
Rate Beer: 94 overall, 87 style (369 reviews)

Sponsorship

Beer #2: “Soon-To-Be-Named” IPA (IPA / 7.0%)
Notes: In my cursory internet searches, I couldn’t turn up a bleeding thing about this one.  If you, DC Beer’s well-informed commentariat, turn up anything about this beer, feel free to leave a message on this post.  For now, I’ll simply say that Stone sure knows its way around hops (ahem, Stone IPA, cough cough, Ruination).  All iso-alphanatics would do well to make their way to the Stone table.

Beer Advocate: N/A
Rate Beer: N/A

Summary: Don’t overlook Stone simply because they’re a (relatively) big brewery with national distribution; they’re across the board solid (98 overall score on Beer Advocate, anyone?) and their SAVOR beers go well beyond seasonals.

This profile is a part of the DCBEER.COM SAVOR Brewery Profile series. For more information, follow the link to see profiles of all 2012 SAVOR participants.

Beer Review Disclaimer: The beer reviews found on Beer Advocate and Rate Beer do not represent the opinions of this site. We provide these in the hope that they will serve as a resource showing what some craft beer fans have thought of the beers. These reviews can be a helpful guideline, but are not the be-all end-all about a beer’s strengths or weaknesses.