Steve Gonzalez from Stone Brewing in Napa is our guest on Brew Ha Ha with Steve Jaxon, Mark Carpenter and Herlinda Heras. Check out the Stone Brewing blog too, here.

Stone Brewing is based at Stone Brewing World Gardens & Bistro, a big facility located in Escondido, near San Diego. They also have a brewery in Richmond, Virginia and Shanghai, China. They opened their Napa location in May. It is in an 1877 stone building. It has been a warehouse and a dance hall at different times. There is a restaurant there that gets rave reviews. They have an outdoor smoker for brisket and ribs. They also have a lot of vegetarian choices on the menu.

Their co-founders, Steve Wagner and and Greg Cook, met each other in Los Angeles in the music business and then they met again in a brewing class at UC Davis. They recognized each other and became friends.

They are drinking a Hoppy Lager, 5.8% alcohol, that used three hops, including one that Mark had not heard about. It's Stone Tropic Thunder Lager (second from the left in the picture above). It's called Cashmere.

They opened a brewery in Europe to supply their export market. Now they have sold the Berlin brewery to Brew Dogs which has had their UK distribution already for a long time. The Stone IPA is about half of their volume. Arrogant Bastard is one of their most famous brew brands too.  They also have a location in Shanghai, China. Mark notes that there are many beer brands that have opened locations like that as a way of asserting their brand. They are tasting Hoppy Beans IPA and comparing it to some Belgian chocolate that Herlinda brought in. There is coffee in this beer. The coffee comes from a local roaster who has very innovative coffee techniques, which they describe.