From Stone:
ESCONDIDO, CA (July 19, 2014) – The 10th largest craft brewer in the United States, Stone Brewing Co., today announced plans to open a production brewery and expansive destination restaurant in Berlin, Germany. With an anticipated opening in late 2015 or early 2016, Stone is making an initial investment of more than $25 million to renovate a historic gasworks complex in Marienpark Berlin, turning the more than two acres (9,290 square meters) of indoor and outdoor space into a world-class operation that will welcome beer enthusiasts from around the globe. Stone will be the first American craft brewer to independently own and operate a brewery in Europe. Stone Brewing Co. – Berlin will encompass three components: a brewery and packaging hall, a Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens restaurant and a Stone Company Store. 
“This is a historic moment for Stone. I’ve wanted to say these next words for many years now: We’re coming to Europe. We’re coming to Germany. We are coming to Berlin!” said Stone CEO and Co-founder Greg Koch. “It has been a long time coming and I couldn’t be more proud to say that we are finally on our way to being the first American craft brewer to own and operate our own brewery in Europe. Once open, we will bring Germany and the rest of Europe a taste of our craft beer vision, and look forward to sharing the unique beers that we have spent the last 18 years brewing.” 
“Stone’s future European home will serve as the company’s international hub; a central location promoting goodwill and quality craft beer spanning the globe,” said Stone President and Co-founder Steve Wagner. “With this expansion comes our commitment to brewing bold, aggressive, hop-forward beers in a country with a long history rooted in the art of brewing.”
The company will transform the setting into a one-of-a-kind destination that includes:
- A spectacular, historic, red brick main hall built in 1901 measuring 43,000-plus square feet (3,994 square meters), featuring a vaulted ceiling that will house a custom-built, stainless steel brewhouse, an eclectic farm-to-table restaurant, and retail store featuring specialty Stone beers and merchandise.
- A second 20,775-square-foot (1,930 square meters) building that will be utilized for brewing operations and house fermenters, bright tanks, and packaging equipment and materials. Ultimately, the company’s signature ales will be packaged and distributed throughout Europe from the facility.
- A third 1,300-square-foot (120 square meters) building, situated in what will be the expansive gardens, to be utilized as event space.
Additionally, the company launched an Indiegogo crowd-participation campaign today, so fans can participate in the venture by purchasing special collaboration beers to be brewed with award-winning, renowned craft brewers from around the world at Stone Brewing Co. – Berlin once the facility is operational.
By now, even if you wandered here by accident or beautiful happenstance (there’s a good chance you arrived through a stochastic series of events), you’ve realized you are on an Indiegogo page. This is a crowdfunding website, but we are not angling for handouts. We’re collaborative types, and we prefer to call this endeavor a crowd-participation campaign. What we’re offering is the opportunity to be a part of something groundbreaking. If you’ve gotten to know Stone, you know it’s far more than a brewery. It’s a destination. It’s the air we breathe and the environments we create. We design spaces that bring craft beer fans from all over the world to enjoy the breadth and scope of our community. It’s our Bistros, it’s our gardens, it’s our beer lists and the epic pipeline of taps we pour from. Most importantly, it’s the people that inhabit those spaces and those who make pilgrimages to them.
Why are we doing this
crowd-participation campaign?
Funding a Cross-Planetary Brewing Revolution is no easy feat. It’s taking everything we have plus a rather decent bit of borrowing to build breweries in the eastern U.S. and Germany. Could we have fetched more money by selling stakes of Stone to some rich suits? Sure, but then our grand vision of remaining fiercely independent would collapse. And for what? A Stone Corn-Based Lager w/Rice decal on a race car? Hell no! By throwing your financial weight around, specifically in our direction, you enable us to add a crucial component of the Stone Experience—our Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens—to each brewery much sooner than we otherwise could. You can also take heart that your contributions will ensure that this global campaign remains under the influence of Stone and only Stone.
Sounds super, but what do you get out of this?
We know that like ours, your vision for a better world extends beyond your own tangible enjoyment and particular ZIP code. Still, you may be thinking, “I have no plans to visit Berlin or the yet-to-be-determined location east of the Mississippi. What compels me to contribute?” A reasonable query. Putting some of your own skin into this grand game will net you some rather tasty rewards. Thanks to some of our craft-brewing compatriots, who are generously lending their collective might to this project, the rewards include not only a communal sense of espirit de corps, but also…beer! And not just the regular, awesome collection of beers we're already known for around the world.
During the course of the campaign, we'll reveal new Stone Groundbreaking Collaborations. (Pretty cool name, right?) These beers will be brewed with the finest craft brewers across the globe. Some of our best friends, actually. Together in Berlin, we’ll be creating beers designed to outdo anything any of us have ever done before. We’re talking no-holds-barred, spare-no-expense, special brews. All you need to do is buy the ones you want, and we'll send you a certificate of redemption. When the beer is brewed, you can pick it up at your designated Stone Brewing Co. location. Then you drink it, taking comfort in the fact that you’ve revolted against the insult of industrial beer and helped make the world better with a bottle of outstanding craft beer.
Every bottle will come with some kind of bonus reward. Successful revolutions, however, are not for those slow to act. There will always be three beers available at any one time, but once they’re gone, they’re gone. Every time one sells out, we’ll announce a new beer, but it’s up to all of you to make sure we hit the threshold necessary to brew up a batch of a particular beer. We can’t emphasize enough that should this campaign conclude without your involvement, you’re going to be pis…um…vexed that you didn’t participate. These Stone Groundbreaking Collaborations are going to be that good.
Of course, the beer can’t be brewed until these new facilities are built and fully functional. But this isn’t all about one big payoff down the road. We want to involve our Cross-Planetary Brewing Revolutionaries throughout the construction process by providing everyone who purchases one of our Stone Groundbreaking Collaborations with updates on these two monumental projects. We want you to be a real part of this and have informational bragging rights over those who, quite frankly, don’t get it the way you do. Stand up and take a bow, beer intelligentsia. We understand and appreciate you, and relish the fact that the sentiment is mutual.
But wait…there’s more!
Of course, it’s not ALL about the beer. As much as we’ll be making deep-hued, high-character ales in the nation of lagers, we’ll also be making a statement—and so will you. If that statement is delivered in such a collectively voluminous tone that we hit the million-dollar mark, we’ll affix a really purty plaque to a fermenter tank in the Berlin brewery that honors our Cross-Planetary Brewing Revolutionaries.
But why stop at the $1M mark? We’ve never had a problem thinking big, so why start now? If we hit the $2.5 million mark, we’ll unlock a special beer. Our super-this-can’t-actually-happen-but-please-let’s-try-anyway goal is $5 million. If we surpass this herculean milestone, we’ll bring back a selection of the most popular past collaborations.
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