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

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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.

SweetWater Brewing Introduces New West Coast Style IPA

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ATLANTA, Georgia – SweetWater Brewing Company, Atlanta’s craft beer trailblazer and the 10th largest craft brewer in the U.S., announces the launch of Gone Trippin’, a West Coast Style India Pale Ale (IPA) that pays tribute to the bold, hoppy beers SweetWater brought to the South more than 25 years ago. Gone Trippin’ is now available nationally year-round on draft and in 6-packs and 12-packs of 12-ounce cans.

Gone Trippin’ (7% alcohol by volume (ABV)) is assertively hopped with Cascade, Centennial, Crystal, Chinook and Citra varieties. This array of quintessential West Coast hops delivers bitter notes accompanied by pine, citrus and floral aromas that are well balanced by a malty backbone and refreshingly dry finish.

“We crafted this beer as a celebration of the long trip that’s taken us from the West Coast to the Southeast and back again — with many stops in Colorado. We’ve Gone Fishin’ and Gone Phishin’ for years, and now we’re Gone Trippin’. We’re getting back to our roots and absolutely stoked to release this hoppy love letter to Cali, wrapped in a funky tie dyed can,” said Nick Nock, SweetWater’s head brewer. “Gone Trippin’ is a big, yet easy drinking beer that’s incredibly balanced. It’s perfectly bitter, it’s hoppy, but it’s also rounded out with a malty sweetness.”

Gone Trippin’ is now flowing at SweetWater’s flagship taprooms in Atlanta and Fort Collins, Colorado. It’s also available in cans across Colorado, Georgia, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia at select retailers, including Total Wine & More, Kroger, Harris Teeter, Ingles, Publix, and Lowes Food. Distribution will expand to additional states later this year.

About SweetWater Brewing

One of Atlanta’s original craft breweries, founded 26 years ago, SweetWater Brewing is now the 10th largest craft brewery in the U.S. With two flagship breweries in Atlanta, Georgia, and Fort Collins, Colorado, SweetWater’s award-winning craft beers and ready-to-drink cocktails are available coast to coast and in more states than ever before. Inspired by the outdoors, SweetWater is a passionate advocate for healthy waterways and conservation initiatives. Through its annual Save Our Water campaign, SweetWater continues to raise funds to support nonprofit organizations fighting for clean water and habitat conservation, including the Waterkeeper Alliance, Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, and Trout Unlimited.?

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Stone Brewing Ruination IPA Returns

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ESCONDIDO, California – At long last, ‘the liquid poem to the glory of the hop’ returns. Stone Brewing Ruination IPA is now available as the first in Stone’s 2023 series of Fan Favorite Returns. This is the original recipe with its most ruinous qualities, just as intended when it first wrecked palates in 2002.

For most, Stone Ruination IPA is the quintessential representation of a West Coast Double IPA. The aroma is piney and resinous thanks to a barrage of hops. The first sip is a vibrant blast of citrusy bitterness with a light malt balance.

This particular beer has a notable history that plays an important role in Stone’s reputation today. It’s the BIG brother of Stone IPA, which was Stone’s 1st Anniversary IPA. The team had been steadily bumping up the hop levels of its anniversary releases every year, but after the massively hoppy Stone 5th Anniversary IPA, adding any more hops would have been, well, ruinous. So, the team brought out a year-round release that would pay homage to the indelicate hop glory of Stone’s first 5 years. In 2002, Stone Ruination IPA became the first full time brewed and bottled West Coast style Double IPA on the planet. In effect, it quickly became the most widely available example of the style. At the time it was an attack on the palate, quite literally off the bitterness charts.

“The original Stone Ruination IPA was in our year-round lineup for 13 years,” explained Jeremy Moynier, Stone Brewing Senior Manager of Brewing & Supply Chain. “It’s seen a couple different recipe iterations, but this is the first time since 2015 that we’ve brewed the OG. I love the intense bitterness and the flavor and aroma. That’s a classic trio of hops: Magnum, Chinook, and Centennial. This beer defined the West Coast Double IPA style for me, and now with so many expressions of Double IPAs out there, it’s amazing to revisit such a classic beer.”

Stone Ruination IPA is the first release in Stone’s 2023 Fan Favorite Returns. The series is a lineup of limited release beers that have become signatures of the brewery’s prolific 26-year history. This year’s favorites include:

• Stone Ruination IPA
• Stone Downunderstruck IPA – May 2023 – First released for Stone’s 19th Anniversary in 2015. Originally called Stone Thunderstruck IPA, it’s coming back with an updated name, but the same beer brewed with all Australian hops.
• Stone Imperial Notorious P.O.G. – June 2023 – An amped-up version of Stone’s legendary Berliner Weisse. Inspired by Hawaiian POG juice and brewed with passion fruit, orange and guava.
• Stone Xocoveza – October 2023 – Stone’s epic imperial stout inspired by Mexican hot chocolate. Brewed with chocolate, coffee, cinnamon, nutmeg and pasilla peppers.

Stone Ruination IPA is now available in all its bitter hop glory nationwide in 12oz six-pack cans, 22oz bottles and draft. Visit Shop.StoneBrewing.com for shipping direct to addresses in CA, OH, VA and Washington D.C. or locate the beer by zip code at Find.StoneBrewing.com.

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.