Stone-taking it too far?

[Kealia]

Great timing...on my way home a friend sent me a pic of a bottle of this and said he is bringing one by in the next couple of days. I'll let you know what I think.

[FedoraDave]

I get the sense that Stone has latched onto it's "schtick."

With so many craft breweries getting larger, and getting more distribution, the competition has gotten to the point where some breweries feel the need for some kind of market identifier. Dogfish Head has these special edition artisinal beers; either some obscure style, or something using pine needles, or getting a brewing historian to help them re-create an ancient Egyptian style of beer. There's a brewery located in New Jersey that probably doesn't have a wide distribution, but they created a series of beers focusing on a specific ingredient indigenous to certain areas of the state, wryly using exits on the Turnpike to identify them, so they have Exit 7 Pale Ale, or some such. Sam Adams has their seasonals, which they dangle like a carrot in front of our noses, pushing us to get them now, because they won't be available all year.

These breweries are still going to crank out the beer that got them to this point, such as Stone's Arrogant Bastard, or Dogfish Head's 60-Minute IPA. But those aren't enough, it seems. You gotta parade out the bells and whistles to stand out a little.

Anyway, that's how I see it.

[Kealia]

As of last night, I now have this in hand...

[Beer-lord]

I look forward to your review.