Enjoying a Few Flights of Beer at the Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens
A gorgeous tasting room at Stone World Gardens and Bistro in Escondido features a fountain in the middle
Last month, along with a couple of other guys, we visited breweries in San Diego County over the course of just two days. One place that everyone told us to visit was Stone Brewing. Of course, we were familiar with it and knew that we had to go. So, we went to the Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens in Escondido, which has a great facility, with a gorgeous tasting room of stones, wood, glass, and metal (no drywall), that also had a pleasant fountain in the midst of it. While we were unable to get onto one of the tours, we still had a good time drinking beer there. We got three flights of beer, which was amusingly brought out to us all in one line and we drank them one by one.
I loved the It’s Pizza Time saison
We started off with the Stochasticity Project HiFi & LoFi Mixtape (8.8% ABV), an American strong ale, that was really solid; it had a nice roastyness and a good body. Next up, we had the 30,000 Bowl Pyramid (6.8% ABV), specialty grain, which was nice, some Belgian yeastyness, and it’s got a nice roundness to it. Then we had It’s Pizza Time (5.9% ABV), a saison. Wow! There was so much oregano!!!! And it’s so delicious!!!! Yes, it must be pizza time!!!! Yay!!! I must say, however, that no one else in our group felt this way about this beer: they were kind of disgusted by it. That was fine for me: I drank up most of the taster glass on it and it was like no other beer I had ever had – it was so flavorfully delicious!
I tried to calm myself down from having drunken such a very special beer, my first ever herbal saison, and prepare to move on in our tasting. We then had Klaatu Barada Nikto (9.0% ABV), an imperial black IPA, which was nice and one could really get a sense of the grainyness of it. We then had the Smoked Porter (5.9% ABV), a porter, which had a nice toastyness, and it was interestingly bright for a porter, with a very small finish. We then had Cali-Belgique IPA (6.9% ABV), an IPA, which was floral, herbal, and a nice rounded character, which was more pleasant on-tap than in the bottle. Next up was the Ruination Double IPA 2.0 (8.5% ABV), an Imperial IPA, which was very yummy, somewhat dank, yummy, and piney.
Three flights of beer at Stone
We then moved on to drinking bigger beers, starting off with the Double Bastard Ale (11.2% ABV), an American strong ale, that was a little raisiny, boozy, malty, and maybe oak-aged. We then continued with the RuinTen IPA (10.8% ABV), an Imperial IPA, that was very delicious, richly bodied, definitely amarillo hops, and danky. Next up was Old Guardian (2014) (11.6% ABV), a barleywine, that was malty and raisiny, which was delicious and malty and slightly boozy; it was good.
We greatly enjoyed the Stone beers
Our final two beers were two I had had a couple of weeks back, but I was very excited about them. We had the Double Dry-hopped Ruination Double IPA 2.0 (8.5% ABV), a double IPA, which was so deliciously smooth!!!! Yes, there are amarillo hops more so than the regular ruination, but it’s smooth and nicely amarillo and danky, but it’s calmer and smoother, and definitely better 🙂 Finally, we ended with the Drew Curtis/Wil Wheaton/Greg Koch Stone Farking Wheaton w00tstout (2015) (13.0% ABV), an Imperial Stout, which was so incredibly lovely, yes, some raisins, maybe molasses, some espresso, malty, boozy, and very, very delicious. This beer is a deliciously smooth brew and anybody’s who has had it can tell you it’s a very special and full-bodied beer.
Although I’m quite familiar with Stone Brewing’s beers, it was great to experience a dozen of them in one sitting, not only being able to drink ones with which I was familiar, but also trying new beers, especially my first ever herbal saison! Of course, we also enjoyed all of the big beers, capping off with the incredibly delicious w00tstout (2015). Stone is brewing great beers!
