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30 years ago, Stone Brewing changed craft beer forever. Why not get the band back together? · Best of: Features

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  Thirty years ago, Stone Brewing, changed craft beers forever. Why not get
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  the band back together? This article is being
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  read by an automated voice generated by Everlet. In a time when
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  the craft beer industry is continuing to shrink, the founders of Stone
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  Brewing, known for their brazen beers that date back thirty years, are
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  starting over with something completely new, and they're landing right back where
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  it all began in Southern California. Greg Koch and co founder Steve
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  Wagner have recently revealed plans to return to the helm of the
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  building that in part made them famous, an airy garden restaurant, brewery,
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  and event facility in Escondido that was long seen as Stone Brewing's
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  flagship space. But Cock and Wagner don't own stone anymore, so expect
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  a new name out front by the end of the year. Founded
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  in 1996, stone brewing was for decades synonymous with the rise of
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  modern California craft beer, and, for a time at least, San Diego's
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  place at the center of it all. While Northern California has since
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  the 1980s touted famous and genre-defining breweries and brew pubs, it's inarguable
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  that San Diego was the orbit point for the craft beer universe
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  from at least 2006 to 2016. Occasionally edgy and always hoppy, Stone's
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  signature brews, particularly its arrogant bastard ale, which debuted in nineteen ninety
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  seven, became a road map for countless other breweries across the nation.
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  It's no small exaggeration to say that Stone is at least partially
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  responsible for the influx of double IPAs and other punchy beer that
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  dominated the early two thousand and ten S craft scene, and helped
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  to propel a market wave that saw breweries like San Diego's Ballast
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  Point sell for an eye watering one billion dollars in twenty fifteen.
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  For a time, Koch even operated a standalone stone brewing in Berlin
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  that was meant to be an American foothold into the notoriously rigid
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  German beer market. But by twenty nineteen, the company's plan of global
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  domination had turned sour, and Koch penned a farewell letter to the
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  brew pub he had built half a world away. My heart is
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  broken, the letter opened. By 2022, with the craft beer ecosystem having
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  significantly contracted, Stone Brewing sold to Sapporo, one of the world's biggest
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  beverage conglomerates. Far from ballast 1 billion price tag, the company fetched
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  165 million, despite being one of the top ten craft beer breweries
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  in America in 2021. Four years later, Sapporo sold the brand once
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  more, this time to Central Coast Craft beer house Firestone Walker. Earlier
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  this year, Sapporo USA, which continued to operate the Escondido site in
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  a licensing deal with Firestone Walker, announced plans to shutter its northern
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  San Diego County headquarters. Most of Stone's production under Firestone Walker has
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  since moved to Paso Robles and out of state. Now Pal's Koch
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  and Wagner are stepping back in with a second act of their
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  own. The duo has publicly confirmed plans to open a new endeavor
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  called Quarry, a garden destination restaurant, per its fledgling website, inside what
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  is still today Stone Brewing World Bistro and Gardens, the thirteen thousand
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  five hundred square foot restaurant next door to Stone's giant brewing facility.
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  Per Axios, which broke many details of the arrangement, Wagner and Cock
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  were able to retain ownership of the San Diego property through those
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  multiple sales, acting as landlords for the company they once ran. So
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  when Stone closes its doors on november thirteenth as part of its
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  planned contraction to Paso Robles, Quarry is slated to come on line
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  right after. With luck, the pair hope to open Quarry before the
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  end of the year. The quarry team declined to comment to SF
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  Gate on the coming opening. After publication, spokesperson Sean Weir of Firestone
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  Walker reached out to confirm that Sapporo USA, not Firestone Walker, owned
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  and operated the Escondido facilities, and had decided to wind down that
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  site in November. Under Firestone Walker ownership, Stone Brewing plans to continue
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  to operate its Stone brewing World Bistro and Gardens in the Liberty
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  Station area, as well as taprooms in Oceanside, Pasadena and San Diego.
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  There's still a lot of excavation to do about the whole thing,
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  and many questions remain. For starters, which beers will be sold at
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  the forthcoming quarry when it reopens? Will it be local San Diego
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  labels, broader stuff from around the country, or something new that Koch
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  and Wagner are quietly brewing up themselves? And relatedly, what what's to
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  come of the giant and newly mothballed brewing site next door? There
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  are also questions about the food menu, and just how successful Koch
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  and Wagner think a beer centric bistro can be in twenty twenty
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  six. But for now the famous founders of Stone Brewing are coming
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  back, thirty years on from their debut, to give San Diego a
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  beer story to root for again. This story has been updated with
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  additional information from a spokesperson for Firestone Walker.