Stone Brewery’s 16th Anniversary Celebration & Invitational Beer Festival

Happy 16th Stone!

My wife got us involved in this last year through a friend of hers who’s been doing it for quite some time. As volunteers, at least what we’ve experienced, we pour beers for the guests who are there to taste craft beers made by Stone Brewery and associate brewers of Stone. Some of the “guest brewers” were Oskar Blues ( where we worked), Ska Brewing, AleSmith,Manzanita, Ballast Point, Hess Brewing, San DiegoBrewing, Green Flash Brewing, Black Market Brewing, Avery, Victory Brewing, Julian Hard Cider, Iron Fist, SierraNevada, Pizza Port, Lost Abbey and about 31 others!

It’s a great event for a number of reasons:

1.   Drinking GREAT beers
2.   Meeting people
3.  Learning home brewing and the sciences of it
4.  Drinking GREAT beers
5.   Eating DAMN GOOD food
6.   Meeting interesting people
7.  Having fun overall
8.  Drinking GREAT beers
9.  It’s for charities
10.  Seeing people letting themselves go

This event is what got me to homebrew. Meeting people who take beers seriously is GREAT! Knowing that ANYONE can do this from home is what piqued my interest. Being in a place (California) where this is a big deal helps. Most brewers just want to get California on the map as far as Craft Beers go, so, they WILL help you to learn!

 At the booth I worked, I learned A LOT about the company and its products. There were people who came to the booth and told me about products we didn’t have in stock. My wife and I went right to BevMo after the event and picked up a four pack of Oskar Blues Deviant Dale’s India Pale Ale!

My mouth watered ALL DAY for beer. It was a hot day and to see these people cooling themselves off with a tasty beer didn’t help me enjoy my water (we weren’t allowed to drink the beers...there’s an appreciation dinner later in October where we will, though)!

This is one event I love to volunteer for. This year, though, has me struggling with next year’s decision. Should I volunteer, be a patron or a guest brewer? 

Time will tell.