Stone Brewing Company
So I wake up one morning, bored again. A friend suggest going up to the brewery. I’m not much of a beer guy, in fact I never have been. To me they all tasted the same, like goat vomit. Before I came to California, I had never heard of Arrogant Bastard. Or any other beer produced by Stone Brewing Company. (yes I know Stone Brewing Company probably wouldn’t call it beer, but i’m not very educated on the subject)
However, I am a huge fan of the dark lord. So when I saw his image on a beer I couldn’t resist buying it. The evil looking beer stayed in my refrigerator for weeks. It was a joy to open the door and see Satan next my avocados.
One night after work I didn’t feel like cooking and ordered from Papa Johns. When the pizza arrived I happily put it on the living room floor, and made sure Big Trouble in Little China was playing on TV. I went to the refrigerator to get a Cherry Coke Zero. That’s when a terrible tragedy happened. I was out of Cherry Coke Zero! Fuck! Now what am I supposed to drink with this delicious pizza?
In utter sadness I lowered my head and mentally readied myself to drink water. That’s when it happened. Right before the door shut I happened to glance at the Avocados. That’s when I saw the beer, and the Dark Lord winked at me from the bottle. A voice from beyond whispered in my ear…”drink me”. Um…ok strange disembodied voice, I’ll drink it, just simmer down! I’m gonna try and end this short. I sat down with the pizza, opened the beer, and it was pretty bad ass. No, it will never replace wine, but it sure as shit beats Budweiser!
Flashback over. Back to the story. Turns out the Stone Brewing Company is right up the road from where I live in San Diego. We get in the car and about 20 minutes later we arrive at the destination.
Now we arrived pretty early, and all the morning tours had sold out. Luckily we got one that was after lunch. We had about an hour and a half to kill before the tour. So to pass the time we got a table at the onsite restaurant. I’m glad we did because the service was amazing, and the food was even better! Finally we were called in to take the tour.
The tour guide had some amazing patience, and was somehow able to answer a 1,000 questions all the while passing out samples of the hops, barley and other things they use to make their delicious brew.
The latter part of the tour included a viewing of the large vats used in production. These guys at Stone Brewing Company run a tight ship, and the place was super clean for a warehouse. How do they do it? Hell if I know, most likely they use those house elves from Harry Potter.
After the tour we were introduced to Greg Koch, (pictures above). Don’t know who he is? Well he is the CEO of Stone Brewing Company, and probably richer than a damn Egyptian Pharaoh. When I met him I asked a very important question. “Greg, who’s better, Slayer or Metallica?” Greg stroked his beard and contemplated for quite awhile before answering. Finally, he answered, “well i’m more of a Metallica guy, but I love the guys from Slayer”, and went on to tell me a story about how he had met Kerry King. I thanked him for his time and he wondered off, probably thinking of another wonderful beer recipe to grace us with. Kinda a cool guy if you ask me.
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