Beer Releases: CA: Coming Soon (Limited) ... Stone Brewing's Ken Schmidt / Maui / Stone Kona Coffee, Macadamia, Coconut Porter
Escondido, CA – It has been announced on Stone Brewing’s ‘blog’ that a limited edition release is coming to the brewery.
Despite being known for their Arrogant Bastard Ale (technically a Strong Ale), Levitation Ale, and of course Ruination India Pale Ale (viva IPA Day!); they do have their fair share of local-only releases. From their often found Vanilla-bean infused Smoked Porter to their Bourbon barrel-aged Imperial Russian Stout; Stone knows how to experiment.
So it pains us to further frustrate you regarding acquisition of only 500 bottles of their first Qungenti Millitre release.
What is Quingenti Millitre? Funny you ask because we are going to tell you.
“They are the great white buffaloes of Stone’s line-up. Like a cross between a unicorn and a siren, they appear enticingly for the briefest instance, only to disappear in a flurry of whispers.
They are Stone’s barrel-aged beers and special treatments. Stone Imperial Russian Stout Aged in Bourbon Barrels. Double Dry-Hopped Stone Ruination IPA. Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine Aged in Red Wine Barrels. And many more.
Now, we are utterly thrilled to be announcing that some of these sudsy jackalopes will be available in quite debonair (if-we-do-say-so-ourselves) 500ml corked-and-caged bottles.”
And what is the first beer released in these cork finished beauties? It’s none other than Kona Coffee, Macadamia Coconut Porter aka the Ken Schmidt / Maui / Stone collaboration.
But before you get on the phone to hitch a ride or fill the gas tank before a trip to the bistro there are some rules regarding acquisition. So rather than wax poetic while boring you with legalese, we will let the brewery do it for us.
We’re going to sell the bottles at the Stone Company Store—Escondido. But not to just anyone. Just to winners. Of a drawing. That you can enter.
The drawing will work like this:
A HUGE thanks to Brown Paper Tickets for waiving their usual ticket fee for this. It means a lot more money will go to these great charities.
Tickets go on sale right now, ticket sales stop on August 16th at 11:59pm, and the winners will be selected on Thursday, August 18th and notified via email (so check your spam folder.) They’ll then get until September 18th to come to the Stone Company Store—Escondido to purchase the beer for its full retail price: $25 plus tax & CRV.
There’s more to it than that, however, so be 100% certain to read and reread all of the rules:
These are virtual tickets; you will not receive physical tickets for your purchase. We will retain records in order to select winners and contact you if your name is chosen, but will not use your personal information for ANY other reason. Ever.
I want to speak directly to rule 19 for a moment because I made it a bit of a personal crusade to include it.
This beer took a tremendous amount of effort to brew (to this day, you can make Mitch Steele hunch over with stress if you ask him about the brew day). Barrel-aging it was a wise decision and took years of careful patience. Now, we want as many Stone fans as possible to try it, ideally while sharing it with their beer loving friends & family.
And if we’re being honest, while $25 is a lot to spend on a single bottle of beer, it is below what the market would bear. The price reflects the cost of making the beer, but we haven’t priced it to reflect the enormous demand, as is more typical in the wine world. We’ve done this because we want it to be reasonably accessible to our fans, and we’re willing to leave some money on the table to do it.
So it would make us very sad (read: ticked) if a few people ended up with a large number of bottles, purely with the intention of reselling them for a much higher price on eBay. That is also part of why we are holding a drawing to select the buyers. Our good friend Jean Van Roy of Belgium’s famed lambic brewery Cantillon has the same motivation for releasing his 2011 Zwanze Ale on draft only.
And while we’re very excited that the Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens will be one of the few places that will get to serve Zwanze this year (shameless plug, it’s on September 17th), it’s unfortunate that brewers have to go to such ends to avoid seeing their beer auctioned off online for exorbitant prices. While I don’t imagine this explanation will have any effect on the people who game the system in this fashion, I do hope it will help our true fans understand our thinking and, if they’re lucky, enjoy this beer in the same spirit of collaboration, ethics, camaraderie, and passion with which it was made.
Ok. Now you know the facts and whether you like it or not, this is probably one of the very few times we discuss a brewery release, that won’t be making its way to the Northwest. That is unless someone is lucky and dubious enough to make the trip down to So’Cal.
And just in case you still need coaxing the brewery has released their list of upcoming Limited Edition bottlings subsequent to this one.
- 21st Amendment / Firestone Walker / Stone El Camino (Un)Real Black Ale Aged in American Oak Barrels
- Dogfish Head / Victory / Stone Saison du BUFF Aged in Red Wine Barrels
- 2010 Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine Aged in Bourbon Barrels, the release of which will be tied to the forthcoming book, The Craft of Stone Brewing Co.: Liquid Lore, Epic Recipes, and Unabashed Arrogance (Ten Speed Press, 10/2011)
- Green Flash / Pizza Port Carlsbad / Stone Highway 78 Scotch Ale Aged in Scotch Barrels
Cheers (and good luck)
