Greg Koch is the face behind quite possibly the most well-known and respected craft beer company in the country, San Diego’s Stone Brewing Co. Over the last 15 years, he has been on a mission to save the world from what he calls the “fizzy yellow nonsense” that has been force-fed to the public for years. Thanks to some brilliant marketing and hop-heavy beers, Stone has created a recipe for success.
Koch’s first brush with the craft-brew world came in 1987, when he had a swig of the Bay Area’s legendary Anchor Steam beer. However, his path to creating his own brewery came nearly a decade later. Koch admits that it was a progression of moments over many years that spawned his journey to tackle a brewery of his own. “Over time, I just got more and more enamored with the craft movement,” he said.
Then in October 1995, Koch and his business partner and Stone co-founder Steve Wagner secured $500,000 in angel financing and purchased a 30-barrel brewing system to fuel their attempt to change the world, one beer at a time.
“At first I thought I wanted to do it, then I was pretty sure I wanted to do it and then eventually I realized I had to do it,” Koch said. And in 1996 everything came to fruition — though things didn’t go as smooth as Koch and Wagner had hoped from the start.
Their timing to begin brewing couldn’t have been any worse, as the beer bubble had just burst and many asked whether they should trust these little microbreweries popping up across the nation. While craft brewing sales growth expanded from 23 to 45 percent during the late 1980s to 1995, the numbers plummeted to seven percent in 1996 and a frightening two percent a year later.
“In the early days it was rough. We had no acceptance in the community,” Koch said. “People were ambivalent and negative towards craft beer at the time.”
Stone Brewing was bleeding money and something had to be done. The board of directors at the company heard Koch describe his latest idea — Arrogant Bastard Ale, loved the name and believed this could be just the beer to keep the fledgling brewery afloat. And indeed it had. Though Koch initially worried that people were drinking the beer simply for its notorious name, beer advocates really began to find a love for Stone’s aggressively bitter beers.
Over the years, Stone Brewing made a stand and, slowly but surely, a name for themselves. While Stone Pale Ale was their first official brew and would be their flagship for many years, Arrogant Bastard Ale and Stone IPA put them on the map.
Five years ago, Koch welcomed Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens, a 300-plus seat restaurant with an impressive outdoor patio and an acre full of gardens. Two years later, the crew covered the roof with solar panels, cutting their energy costs nearly in half.
Koch and company has continued to expand their brand with new developments. Earlier this year, Stone announced plans to expand its Escondido brewery to make room for an insane 500,000 barrel-per-year capacity along with a 18.7-acre organic farm to supply produce to its current and future restaurants.
This past August saw the release of the book “The Craft of Stone Brewing Co.: Liquid Lore, Epic Recipes and Unabashed Arrogance,” an exploration of beer and the history behind the brewery and also a way for them to share their recipes.
“The response has been fantastic. It came about because this year is our 15th anniversary, so it makes sense,” Koch said. “People wanted to hear the Stone story and this was our opportunity.”
