This is an entry entirely about beer.
Though I’ve always been a stout drinking kind of guy, over the last year or so I’ve gradually moved toward hoppy pale ales and IPAs for my beer drinking enjoyment.
I’ve discovered that Stone Brewing Company, out of North San Diego County, makes my favorite hoppy beers: The Stone Pale Ale, The Arrogant Bastard Ale, and the Stone IPA.
I like their beer so much, I decided yesterday that I’d call their marketing department and see if it was cool for me to link to them. I got the phone number from their website, and while I was there, I decided to sign up for their newsletter, so I could find out if they were coming to any microbrew fests near Pasadena, and stuff like that. (That’s important, and it pays off in a second, so stay with me here.)
I called them up, and talked to a guy in marketing. I basically said, “I’ve got this website that a few people read. I really like your beer, and if it’s cool with you, I’d like to link to your website, and give you some free advertising, as my way of saying ‘thank you’ for killing off so many of my slower brain cells.”
He told me that Stone doesn’t really do advertising, but if I wanted to link to them, that would be cool. I told him that I’d e-mail him the address of my site, so he could see what my blog is all about, and that was that.
This afternoon, I got an e-mail back from him. Guess what? When I signed up for the newsletter, I was subscriber number ten thousand! I don’t think I win anything, but I thought it was random, and funny, and cool.
I’m totally putting “Number 10,000” on my resume. Take that, 1950s society!
Discover more from WIL WHEATON dot NET
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
If you like Stone’s Arrogant Bastard, Wil, you’ll probably enjoy a couple of brews from a local company that I used to work at:
Midnight Sun (http://www.wildales.com)
The Sockeye Red (Hey, life _starts_ at 70 IBU’s)
is probably one of the best IPA’s in the world, and it’s was also the Gold Medal winner at the 2000 Alpha King Challenge.
Best thing, is that you don’t have to fly up to anchorage to get it (although it’s best fresh!)
because you can get it here:
http://www.liquidsolutions.ws/product/707408000075.htm
Of course, if you need a little more Hoppyness in your life, then what you really want is the Imperial IPA: CoHoHo!
It packs a wholloping 85 IBU’s, but the malt is increased to balance it out. It’s best when fresh, of course. And unfortunately, only available in the fall — although you may be able to find a stock here:
http://www.liquidsolutions.ws/product/707408002017.htm
Of course, feel free to pop on up, and a free tour of the brewery (with samples!) is yours.
Wil-
A great friend of mine treated me to a 3-Liter bottle of Arrogant Bastard. Check out http://www.stonebrew.com/distribution/dba/laoc.php for more.
-Brett Walker, your Pasadena neighbor
The Mouse wholeheartedly agrees with Melissa in regards to the Fat Tire brew. I have not found anything that resembles that sweet, sweet nectar in the years since I moved from Denver.
Mmmm… Fat Tire, now THAT’S always a squeaky good decision…
~~(__)8>
If I’m not mistaken, Wil’s character in Deep Core was drinking Arrogant Bastard Ale. I don’t have access to the movie at the moment, can anyone confirm the beer he is drinking in the film?
Lucky Baldwin’s in Pasadena, what a great place for beer!!!
David
I never really liked beer in the past, but lately I’ve been developing a taste for it. I’m still kind of figuring out what kinds I like. I still haven’t found one I LOVE yet, but looking over your post and everyone’s comments has given me some great suggestions! :o)
Wil, Stone Brewing has some of the best beers ever. I’ve written a couple reviews of their stuff on People’s Regime, which is a cool site anyway, you should check it out.
The Imperial Russian Stout is so amazingly good… If you can find someone who has stored some away and is willing to share, otherwise you’ll have to wait until they make some more.
Definitely try to find some Double Bastard… I bought about 5 of them and put them away but have been unable to resist them and I am down to 3.
Anyway, thanks for giving props to the Arrogant Bastard. 🙂
Oh man, Wil’s recommendation got me quite the buzz…
A couple of hours after reading of the wonders of Stone IPA, I saw them staring at me from the Petaluma Market fridge. “Take all 6 of us home!”. Now!
So I did.
Wow, it’s a hoppy one. The first one was a delight.
Just to be sure, I drank a second. I didn’t want to leave it to chance that the first bottle was unusually good. The second glass didn’t make a progress report, so I sent a third down to see how things were going. The first three reported back in unison “hey! this is great stuff, make it an even four!”.
So I did!
Excellent recommendation, Wil. Stop it, before my belly completely beers!
(with apologies to Douglas Adams 🙂
Wish I’d read this before Thursday evening! I’m a former brewer and home brewer who has fallen into a Sierra Nevada Pale rut. When I was at the local alternative market Thursday afternoon (which was inexplicably out of SN six paks), rather than heeding the excellent recommendations of Phil, I burrowed around until I found some 24 oz bottles of my green “precious”. Had I read this, I probably would have taken a chance on another brand.
New feelings brewing in Duffman, what would Jesus do?
Duffman is thrusting in the direction of the problem!
“I thought Duffman was dead?”
“Duffman cannot be killed. Only the characters who play him.”
“But Duffman, you said if I sleep with you, I don’t have to participate in the stupid
contests!”
“Duffman says a lot of things, OH YEAH!”
Thanks for that link! We (well, the one who still drinks – I can’t because of the baby) are stout drinkers here. I suspect the Big Guy will enjoy their IPA too.
My husband also brews beer. Up until now he’s made stouts and ales – but now that we have our own house with a basement, he wants to try making lagers. It’s not terribly difficult – if you can cook at all, you can make beer. The toughest part is keeping everything scrupulously clean.
Thanks for the recommendations, good pale ales are hard to find!
Also, your trackback URL for The Brew Site appears to have had an extra / sneak in to bust the link. 🙂
Wearsch (and whoever else happens to be in Arkansas), you might want to try the Flying Saucer in downtown Little Rock. Lots of microbreweries + world beers. I don’t recall if the SD beer is there, but still worth a visit.
I got a TypeKey account just so I can comment on this post, and I read your blog often. I never comment, I just lurk and read. Eventually I’ll have to buy the books that sound so good. I’ll have to make sure that I’ve got plenty of Stone products around while I read them, because I LOVE the Stone stuff (ok, the Double Bastard left me feeling slightly let down, but overall they’re great). The only problem is only one distributor in Indiana carries it, so it can be expensive when they decide to jerk the liquor stores around, and it’s illegal to import into the state without a distributor’s license.
Enough rambling. Glad to know you’ve found another great bunch of beers. 🙂
BEER GOOD!!!
I have a feeling that HTML won’t work here, but you will be jealous when you look at this:
http://home.cwru.edu/~bwm3/ars/benchmade-beer.jpg
Stone’s logo is on the other side. I got this from a local beer establishment (Winking Lizard in Cleveland OH)…
I’m surprised noones mentioned two of the other great CA breweries, Alesmith (www.alesmith.com) and Pizza Port (www.pizzaport.com). I love, and can get, lots of Stone stuff where I live (VA, I just bought a bottle of 2005 Old Guardian the other day), but Alesmith and Pizzaport are difficult to come by ’round these parts.
I’ll second the ratebeer.com recommendation. Three Floyds (www.threefloyds.com) also makes an excellent Pale Ale, the Alpha King.
And if you want REALLY hoppy, try 120 minute IPA from Dogfish Head (www.dogfish.com) in Delaware.
Another great beer I’ve had great pleasure of tasting is Fat Tire Amber Ale from the fine folks at New Belgium Brewing Company of Colorado: http://www.newbelgium.com/beers_ft.php
For an amber ale its amazingly smooth and nearly completely devoid of bitter afters. It was highly recommended to me by a Colorado native friend of mine and while on a recent trip to Denver, I was pleased to discover the hotel bar carried it. It was everything my friend said it was. It used to only be available in Colorado, but now you can get it in Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Missouri, Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Nebraska and Texas. I heard scuttlebutt that it is creeping into CA, but I have no evidence of this. If you can’t find it, it’s worth hunting down if you happen to travel to known areas of distribution. Another great one is Chimay, http://www.chimay.com/www/chimay/site8/en/a_abbaye/a0_frameset.htm
which is a true Belgian Ale, made by the Trappist monks of the Chimay region of Belgium. Just make sure you use a round bottom glass like a snifter to get the full aroma and flavor. Git it a try and enjoy!
Regards-
Wil,
The Bristol Farms market in Thousand Oaks has a whole selection of Stone Brews. Most them are real nice and hoppy. I believe there is a Bristol Farms market in South Pasadena, they might have Stone in their cold case, too. The Ruination IPA is my favorite.