Stone Brewing Celebrates 25 Years; Launches Fan Vote For 2022 Release

Stone Brewing is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year by getting nostalgic. May 10, the Escondido-headquartered craft brewery will be launching its “comeback” anniversary campaign, asking fans to vote for their favorite past Stone brews to come back in 2022.

“After 25 years of brewing fantastic beers that people love, it seems timely and appropriate to let our fans help guide our future releases,” Stone said in a statement. “To celebrate our fans and our dynamic portfolio, we’re asking for their help in determining our 2022 special releases.”

Drinkers can go to stonebrewing.com/fanvote and vote for up to three of a listed 16 Stone beers to return. The options include past anniversary beers (12th anniversary Oatmeal Stout, 15th anniversary Escondidian Black IPA, and 19th anniversary Thunderstruck IPA), previous collaboration beers (the Baird/Ishii/Stone Green Tea IPA and the Beavertown/Garage Project/Stone Fruitalica) and past special releases (the Stone Stochasticity Project Master of Disguise and the Loral & Dr. Rudi’s Inevitable Adventure IPA).

Other options listed include: RuinTen Triple IPA, Sublimely Self-Righteous Black IPA, Double Bastard, Imperial Russian Stout, Grapefruit Slam IPA, Notorious P.O.G. Berliner Weisse, Peak Conditions Double Hazy IPA, Viking Space Probe Hazy Double IPA, and Xocoveza. If fans don’t see their favorite listed, they can write-in their choice as well. The top six beers will be chosen for rerelease.

“The nostalgia of our 25th anniversary has had us all reminiscing about favorite beers of Stone’s past, and we thought our fans would want to get in on that too,” Maria Stipp, Stone’s CEO, said in a statement. “We nominated these beers from our most vocal social followers, from actual sales data, and with a lot of enthusiastic input from our own Team Stone. I can’t wait to see which beers make next year’s calendar.”

The anniversary poll closes May 14 at noon PT. Stone told Brewbound it has not yet decided when winners will be announced.

Co-founders Greg Koch and Steve Wagner opened Stone Brewing in San Diego County in 1996. The company’s beer is now sold in all 50 states and over 40 countries worldwide. Stone is the ninth-largest, Brewers Association-defined craft brewer by volume in the U.S. Stone operates production facilities in Escondido, California, and Richmond, Virginia, as well as several taprooms and restaurants in California.

While this campaign seeks to honor Stone’s history, the brewery has undergone leadership changes over the last year. Last September, Stone hired Stipp — formerly CEO of Lagunitas — to replace former CEO Dominic Engels. The company has since reorganized its sales and marketing teams, hiring Tom McReavy as senior vice president of sales and Erin Smith as vice president of marketing.

Last month, Stone announced the release of a hard seltzer line, despite Koch’s vocal disdain of the growing hard seltzer market.