OK I'll start by apologizing up front that this may turn from a beer report to an architecture report. Stone Brewery is amazing! What an incredible building and gardens...but I digress....the beer...Stone features not only their own beers on draft, but about 25 other beers AND a mile-long bottled beer list. Check out the photo and begin to drool....these are ALL Stone beers on tap, lined up for a photo...but more importantly a tasting. You'll also note in the background the 36-tap handles they have at the bar.
We tipped everything from their mild-malty Levitation Ale to their killer Old Guardian Barleywine and the very yummy 7-7-07 Vertical, which I've never had on draft. Of course Vertical 7 on draft was even better than the bottles I've had previously. As far as Stone beers on draft, they had Pale Ale, Smoked Porter, IPA, Arrogant Bastard, Oaked Arrogant Bastard, Ruination, Levitation. Russian Imperial Stout, Vertical 7, Old Guardian and Smoked Porter w/Chipolte Peppers. As far as guest beers on tap they had some great ones like Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere, Allagash Black, Port Shark Attack, Russian River Blind Pig (unfortunately my nickname on the trip), and even Saison Dupont....and YES I saved the beer menu.
Surprisingly (or maybe not) Stone Brewing (as well as much of SoCal) had a lot of Victory Brewing beers including Hop Wallop. As far as bottles the list was huge. East coast, west coast, Belgium and everything in between. Some highlights here (beyond how cool the bottle display in the building was)...Allagash Dubbel Reserve, AleSmith Decadence, Blaugies La Moneuse Saison, Cantillon Classic Gueze, De Prof Flemish Primitive, Glazen Toren Saison dErpe Mere, Wandering Aengus Ciinderworks, Jolly Pumpkin Bam Noir...I could go on forever. The other cool bottle we "noted" (code word for drank) was Stone 2007 Old Guardian Barleywine. All good stuff....and have I mentioned how cool the building was?
NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great report, and I AM jealous!! Gotta get me there sometime.
ReplyDeleteThank you. If I lived close to Escondido, I'd be spending a lot of time there. They had a stone outdoor bar where you can buy a pint, then walk out into the gardens and sit on huge wooden Adirondack chairs in the sun....very cool.
ReplyDeleteNice, thanks for the report. The reason for the Victory sightings in SoCal is due to the fact that Stone is the CA distributor for Victory.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Jason (ClockworkOrange)
Thanks Jason...we saw quite a bit of Victory @ Stone and several other places we visited in CA. Other than the handpump festival, we didn't drink the Victory...we can get it fresher on the right-coast and I wanted to save tummy-space for the beers we don't get @ home.
ReplyDeleteGreat photo....makes me want to go.
ReplyDeleteRonT
Thanks....it was fun to line all 11 up and take some photos....those are the beer menus for that day on the bar in front of the beers (yes they update a printed beer list on heavy stock paper every day with a date printed on it and YES I have one at home if anyone wants to see it).
ReplyDelete