Why Stone came late to the sour beer party

Stone Goes Sour — Finally

Sours are nothing new to local breweries — I was introduced to Ballast Point’s Sour Wench around 2009. For years, though, the county’s largest craft brewery had zero sours in its portfolio.

Until now. Last week, Stone took orders for the first in its Mission Warehouse series of sours.

What took so long?

“Traditional wood-aged sours have been in the works for a long time,” said Steve Gonzalez, Stone’s senior manager of brewing and innovation — small batch. “We were even looking at off-site locations for dedicated sour production for a number of years before launching the Stone Mission Warehouse Sour beers.

“We now have the right resources in place to brew traditional sours the way we would like to brew them, and the beer was finally ready for blending. We also decided to launch a sour beer, Stone White Ghost Berliner Weisse in Berlin, as it is a traditional sour style produced in Berlin, so the timing of the two work together.”

Sour beers, Gonzalez noted, take time to produce. True, but it’s odd to see Stone arriving so late to this party. After all, there’s been an annual local festival of sour beers since 2007. The host? Stone.

The Earth Moves

Whenever Mother Earth shuts one door, it opens another.

On March 10, the brewery will close the tasting room at its production brewery, 2055 Thibodo St., Vista. At the same time, it’s hosting a party at Mother’s Provisions, the company’s new downtown Vista restaurant with an unexpected focus.

“It’s a full restaurant and wine bar,” said Kevin Hopkins, Mother Earth’s vice president, “with food and guest beers.”

Why does a brewery-owned restaurant pour 1,100 wines and a mere 17 beers, only two of which are from Mother Earth?

“The restaurant is right next door to our Main Street tasting room,” Hopkins said. “There’s no reason to compete against ourselves.”

Yet friendly competition exists between Mother Earth’s original brewery, which produced about 30,000 barrels of beer last year, and its satellite operation in Yampa, Idaho. The latter rolled out 7,500 barrels in 2017, is on track to almost triple that figure in 2018 — and surpass Vista by 2020.

On the IIIPA Frontier

My colleague, Daniel Wheaton, reported in from last Sunday’s blind tasting of triple IPAs at Hamilton’s:

“More than 50 strong-livered beer lovers compared 18 different triple IPAs in a three-hour blind tasting. My top three: Power Plant by El Segundo, Hops of Fury by Beachwood and Riggity Wrecked by Pizza Port Carlsbad.

“My biggest takeaway was the similarity of most entries. Roughly half had distinct ripe cantaloupe notes and a moderate hop bite. I skewed toward beers with stronger malt bill, mitigating the booziness (most of these beers exceeded 10 percent alcohol by volume).

“While the hype surrounding Russian River’s Pliny the Younger means you have to stand in long lines for a sample, it only ranked fifth in this taste-test. The other four:

“1.) Truster, Pizza Port Carlsbad.

“2.) Blinky, Pizza Port Bressi Ranch.

“3.) Riggity Wrecked, Pizza Port Solana Beach

“4.) Simtra, Knee Deep.”

Kings of Beer

Chimay Grande Réserve (9 percent alcohol by volume) is a grand dame among beers. Made by the monks at Belgium’s Abbey Notre Dame de Scourmont, this Trappist ale with the royal blue label is the most familiar — and least appreciated — of top line Belgians.

Because I’d seen this corked and caged bottle in supermarkets for decades, long before the Better Beer movement, I had assumed that this abbey ale was either stodgy or dumbed-down. Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. I was so, so wrong.

A deep brown with a thick tan head, Grande Réserve has a sweet yeasty aroma. The dark fruit flavors here lean more toward plums than raisins, with dashes of pepper and nutmeg. The finish is dry, bready and bubbly.

This week’s King, Grande Réserve is a special occasion ale, unlike last week’s selection, Session EZ IPA (4.8 percent) from Oregon’s Full Sail. EZ lives up to its name. This pleasant, any-time IPA offers ample citrus flavor and aroma without a wallop.

The Week in Beer

Friday: Stone’s IPA Madness begins 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. with a full-court press of hop-forward beers like Buzzer Beater Double IPA and Scorpion Bowl IPA. The month-long event is at all Stone locations, including the original World Bistro & Gardens, 1999 Citracado Parkway, Escondido.

Saturday: Santee’s Pacific Islander Beer Co., 8665 Argent St., has a sweet deal from 1 to 7 p.m.: four Girl Scout cookies and four beer tasters for $5.

The pairings: Nui Pia Stout and Thin Mint; Islander Hop Scotch Ale and Peanut Butter Sandwich; Rye Porter and Caramel De’lites; Li’ke Li’ke Honey Blonde and Thanks a Lot.

Wednesday: Pacific Wonderland Lager, meet Wonderland Ocean Pub. The lager and four other Deschutes beers will star at a 6:30 p.m. four-course dinner at Ocean Beach’s Wonderland, 5083 Santa Monica Ave. The tab is $50. To peruse the menu and buy tickets, go to https://bit.ly/2HQsEyX.

Words to Drink By

“I’m getting rather hoarse, I fear

“After so much reciting:

“So, if you don’t object, my dear,

“We’ll try a glass of bitter beer –

“I think it looks inviting.” — from Canto II of “Phantasmagoria” by Lewis Carroll, 1869.

Twitter: @peterroweut

peter.rowe@sduniontribune.com