Stone Brewing

Stone Brewing Launches Brewery Exclusives with the Release of Stone Lifeblurred Imperial Brown Ale

January 8, 2025 by Spencer Mapes

ESCONDIDO, CA – Stone Brewing announces the launch of Brewery Exclusives – long-retired classics, cult favorites and amazing innovations available only at Stone locations. The lineup of monthly-release beers kicks off with the award-winning Stone Lifeblurred Imperial Brown Ale.

Stone’s brewers have curated a list of 12 beers spanning decades of innovation and fandom. Not available at retail stores, these beers are for only the most die-hard fans to purchase fresh from Stone locations.

Stone Lifeblurred Imperial Brown Ale earned a coveted gold medal at the 2024 US Beer Open and bronze medal at the Great American Beer Festival. It is the stronger version of Stone Brewing Liberty Station favorite Lifeblood. Lifeblood won a bronze medal at the 2023 World Beer Cup and back-to-back gold medals at the 2022 and 2023 San Diego International Beer Competition. The anticipated release of Lifeblurred lands just as Kris Ketcham, head brewer at Stone Brewing Liberty Station, celebrates his 20th anniversary with Stone.

“Our fans continue to crave those beers that put us – and San Diego beer – on the map and our Brewery Exclusives offer another way to deliver on that,” said Kris Ketcham, Sr. Manager of Brewing & Innovation – Liberty Station. “I’m excited to kick it off with Lifeblurred. Brown ales have always been among my favorite styles and my passion for enjoying big, rich, and flavorful beers is precisely why I joined Stone Brewing 20 years ago.”

Limited quantities will be produced and when they’re gone, they’re gone. Be the first to know about each new release by following on Instagram @StoneBrewing or sign up for emails at StoneBrewing.com.

QUICK FACTS
Name: Stone Lifeblurred Imperial Brown Ale
Web: StoneBrewing.com/Lifeblurred
Stats: 11% ABV; 35 IBUs
Availability: Stone locations only, limited time
Packaging: 16oz four-pack cans

TASTING NOTES
Appearance: Dark brown, then coffee head, light lacing.
Aroma: Chocolate, coffee, toast, brown sugar, and caramel.
Taste: Chocolate, coffee, caramel, toast, brown sugar, molasses, and toffee.
Palate: Medium body, medium sweetness, rich and some bitterness.

ABOUT STONE BREWING
Founded in 1996, Stone Brewing pioneered the West Coast Style IPA, helping to fuel the modern craft beer revolution and inspire generations of hop fanatics. Today Stone operates breweries in Escondido, CA and Richmond, VA plus six tap room and bistro locations. Stone offers a wide range of craft beers including its most popular Stone IPA, Stone Delicious IPA and Stone Buenaveza Salt & Lime Lager. The company’s long list of environmental efforts includes a LEED Silver Certification, world-class water reclamation and creative uses of spent grain. Stone has been called the “All-time Top Brewery on Planet Earth” by BeerAdvocate magazine twice. To find Stone beers, visit find.stonebrewing.com.

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Stone Brewing Celebrates the Release of Stone 27th Anniversary Lemon Shark Double IPA

August 30, 2023 by Spencer Mapes

ESCONDIDO, California— For 27 years Stone Brewing has been trailblazing the craft beer industry and astounding fans with its big, bold anniversary ales. This year the nation’s 7th largest craft brewery announces the release of Stone 27th Anniversary Lemon Shark Double IPA featuring a unique blend of New Zealand ingredients.

Stone’s brewers travel across the globe seeking new hop varieties and ingredients in their ongoing beer exploration. A series of innovative beers combining Southern Hemisphere and US hops led to this year’s anniversary beer, which combines Riwaka, Magnum, Mosaic and the newly available Peacharine hops. It is also brewed with Phantasm, a dried grape skin extract from New Zealand that transforms over the course of fermentation to add intense tropical and white grape flavors to the beer. The resulting beer has sweet aromas of peach pulp, Bartlett pear, lemon peel, white wine and herbs. The hops mingle beautifully for flavors of ripe peach and pineapple, mango, orange, lemon and passion fruit. Herbal and sweet orange flavors linger alongside a pleasant bitterness.

“New Zealand hops are incredible for citrusy and topical beers. Many of these hop varieties are less commonly used, so we get some really unique flavor combinations that we love playing around with,” explained Steve Gonzalez, Stone Brewing Small Batch Sr. Manager of Brewing & Innovation. “I made a whole series of beers using different combinations of Southern Hemisphere hops and just knew that this one had what it takes to stand out as our coveted anniversary beer.”

The Lemon Shark is an apex predator that is uniquely social. It works well with the rest of the Lemon Shark school. A scuba diver himself, Gonzalez was inspired by his diving hobby to name a series of exploratory beers after sharks. This one earned its name for the way in which the flavors work especially well together, just like a hungry school of Lemon Sharks.

Stone Brewing welcomes fans to celebrate at the Stone 27th Anniversary Celebration on September 23, 2023. The invitational beer festival features tasters from more than 40 breweries at Stone’s flagship brewery in Escondido, CA. Tickets for the main festival and coveted Rare Beer access tickets are on sale now and expected to sell out.

QUICK FACTS

Name: Stone 27th Anniversary Lemon Shark Double IPA

ABV: 9.6% – in a nod to Stone’s founding year, 1996!

IBUs: 43

Hops: Riwaka, Magnum, Mosaic, Peacharine

Availability: Nationwide beginning the week of August 21, 2023

Packaging: 12oz six-pack cans, 22oz bottles (SoCal only) & draft

Find the Beer: Find.StoneBrewing.com

TASTING NOTES

Appearance: Deep gold with hazy white hue and tight white foam.

Aroma: Peach pulp, white wine, Bartlett pear, lemon peel, and herbs.

Taste: Ripe peach, mango, ripe pineapple, orange, lemon & passion fruit. Herbal & sweet orange components on the aftertaste. A mild dankness throughout.

Palate: Dry finish with lingering pleasant bitterness.

About Stone Brewing

Founded in 1996, Stone pioneered the West Coast Style IPA, helping to fuel the modern craft beer revolution and inspire generations of hop fanatics. Today Stone operates breweries in Escondido, CA and Richmond, VA plus seven tap room and bistro locations. Stone offers a wide range of craft beers including its most popular Stone IPA, Stone Delicious IPA and Stone Buenaveza Salt & Lime Lager. The company’s long list of environmental efforts includes a LEED Silver Certification, world-class water reclamation and creative uses of spent grain. Stone has been called the “All-time Top Brewery on Planet Earth” by BeerAdvocate magazine twice.

For Brewing fun facts, trivia, movies and more, Click Here.

Stone Brewing Creates First-Ever Official Beer for USC Athletics

August 14, 2023 by Spencer Mapes

ESCONDIDO, California— The University of Southern California (USC) Athletics, announces the debut of its first-ever official craft beer, Stone Fight On! Pale Ale. The beer is brewed by Stone Brewing, the Southern California-based brewery that has been trailblazing the craft beer category with a fierce commitment to quality and freshness for 27 years. The official USC Athletics beer will be available for purchase the week of August 14, 2023.

Stone Fight On! Pale Ale will be distributed throughout Southern California at stores, bars, and restaurants and onsite at the Los Angeles Colosseum and the Galen Center, home of the USC Trojans. Its 16oz cans feature classic USC iconography and colors. Inside, the beer is a quintessential SoCal Pale Ale – a balanced blend of tropical and citrusy hop flavors, light-body and endlessly drinkable at 5.5% ABV. Stone’s brewers developed the beer to offer that hoppiness Southern Californians crave in a style that suits tailgates, beach days, and cheering from the stands or at home.

“USC Athletics has been seeking the perfect beer partner – a regional brand that would be meaningful to our fans and add to the gameday experience, ” explained Drew DeHart, Vice President/General Manager, USC Sports Properties and Playfly Sports. “Stone really nailed a Pale Ale that’s representative of the SoCal craft beer scene, and easy drinking too. We’re honored to see our USC colors, marks and Trojan alongside the Stone Gargoyle.”

“Stone beers are popular nationwide and across the globe, but SoCal is where we started and is home to our biggest population of fans,” explained Erin Smith, Stone Brewing SVP of Marketing. “We’re thrilled at the opportunity to create a beer that instills local pride in that cross-section of craft beer drinkers and USC fans and alumni. It’s our hope that this beer is enjoyed year-round for its incredible flavor, and that it truly adds to the gameday experience across all USC sports.”

Find the beer online via Stone’s Beer Finder, Find.StoneBrewing.com or order it online for delivery in California and select states via Shop.StoneBrewing.com.

About Stone Brewing

About USC Sports Properties

USC Sports Properties is the locally-based, exclusive multimedia rightsholder for USC Athletics. As a part of the Playfly Sports Properties portfolio of nearly 40 collegiate and high school state association properties, the USC Sports Properties team connects brands to USC’s passionate and deeply-rooted fanbase. Through broadcast, in-arena, experiential, and technology-based marketing and media solutions, Playfly Sports Properties’ fully scalable platform provides marketers unparalleled access to the most highly engaged audiences on a local and national level. Playfly Sports Properties is a division of Playfly Sports.

About Playfly Sports

Playfly Sports is a sports media, marketing and technology business centered around the team, league, brand, and network. Believing in ‘Fandom as a Service’ and focusing on a consultative, data driven approach to REACH, ENGAGE, MONETIZE AND MEASURE FANDOM gives the company’s partners and brands a competitive advantage. Playfly connects more than 2,000 brand partners with approximately 83% of all U.S. sports fans. Through the proprietary platform the business delivers scalable, data-oriented marketing, technology, and media solutions with capabilities including exclusive MMR management, sponsorship sales and activation, streaming, consulting, ticket/premium sales, all along with new revenue-driving platforms and technologies. Founded in September of 2020, Playfly Sports is now home to approximately 1,000 team members located across 43 U.S. states dedicated to maximizing the impact of highly passionate local sports fans.

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Stone Brewing Partners with Ukraine’s MOVA Brewing Co.

April 19, 2023 by Spencer Mapes

ESCONDIDO, California— Stone Brewing is collaborating with MOVA brewing co. (MOVA) in Dnipro, Ukraine. In a statement of solidarity, and in support of Stone’s distribution partners in Kiev, proceeds of the beer will support those affected by the war on Ukraine. The collaboration brew will be available on draft at Stone Brewing locations in the United States and at locations throughout the world.

When the war on Ukraine broke out in 2022, Stone Brewing’s International Sales Team rallied their personal and professional networks to help Ukrainian refugees. They delivered food and critical supplies to the Ukrainian border and found homes for refugees, who they had bussed back to Berlin with them. During these efforts, the team learned that its partners at Wine Bureau in Kiev were among the countless businesses destroyed by bombings, and they connected with MOVA.

As a brewery located on the frontlines, MOVA has experienced challenges but was fortunately spared destruction. Through it all, the MOVA team’s resilience and actions have made the team stronger and closer than ever. Stone is honored to have worked with brewers at MOVA to collaborate on a 6% IPA brewed at Stone Brewing – Escondido. Using a combination of classic IPA hops and newer varieties, Mova / Stone Side By Side IPA has flavors of papaya, orange, strawberry and stone fruit with some dankness and sturdy bitterness. It’s smooth and easy to drink.

Mova / Stone Side By Side IPA tap handle art is designed by Ukrainian artist Dartsya Zironka, whose team is now active members of the Ukrainian army. Zironka’s artwork inspired the name. A close look shows soldiers side-by-side with one having a slightly ghosted appearance – representative of the support offered in spirit from across the world.

“Stone Brewing is proud to serve MOVA/ Stone Side By Side IPA across the world in a show of solidarity and to raise funds to help our friends at Wine Bureau rebuild,” stated Sascha Brand, Director of International Markets. “Even though divided thousands of miles apart, Stone stands with the people of Ukraine in spirit – side by side.”

QUICK FACTS

Name: Mova / Stone Side By Side IPA

ABV: 6%

Availability: Limited Time, worldwide

Packaging: Draft only

About Stone Brewing

About MOVA Brewing Co.

MOVA is a Team of people who see beer as not only a drink but a mandatory element of any meeting or party. Thanks to beer, the MOVA Team has learned to bring people together from all over the world and has become the most sociable brewery in Dnipro, Ukraine. Every day, MOVA brews dozens of recognizable styles and creates connections between hundreds of people. MOVA has been producing beer under its brand since 2018 when it was a small craft contract brewery. In 2021, the brewery launched its own manufacturing, and to this day is winning the hearts of beer lovers throughout Ukraine and beyond, bringing them closer every day. In 2022, MOVA met a new reality, being near the border of defense. The team has doubled down to support the economy of Ukraine and help those in need including internally displaced persons, Armed Forces of Ukraine, and volunteers.

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