Stone Brewing Beer University

by Steve LaRue
(Ogden, Utah)

Stone Brewing runs its own Beer University courses

I have been beer traveling for almost twenty years now. Wherever I go I plan each trip around the local brewpub scene. At first I would buy and taste beers mostly for the novelty and a lot of them ended up in the sink. As I have aged my tastes have changed and grown so much that there is no beer that is not excellent in some way. Even the fruity German style wheats and Belgian beers that I used to dislike so much have become some of my favorites.

A couple of weeks ago I was able to attend the Beer University at Stone Brewing in Escondido, California. The subject for the evening was Belgian Style Sour Beers. In fact, I flew from Salt Lake to San Diego especially for this class and to visit the new Stone Brewery Gardens. I had been to the Stone Wall Dedication Party last year but this was my first visit to the recently completed restaurant.

The brewery itself is amazing but the restaurant and brewery gardens are absolutely incredible. The bar area is very large and has a great view of both the brewhouse and the gardens. There is also outdoor seating and roll-up doors provide an outdoor felling for those who wish to remain indoors.

There are 32+ tap handles and 80+ beers available by the bottle and since Greg doesn't seem intimidated by other brewers, the guest tap list of local, national and imported beers is extensive. The day I visited they were just finishing up a Belgian festival so the selections were quite amazing. Don't ever visit expecting to find a particular beer though as the draft and bottle list changes daily.

Tuesday is tapas night and the menu has a number of small plates made for sharing and categorized by price ranging from a Pickled Egg with Kimchee for 2.00 to onion rings and the famous Brussels Sprouts for 3.00 to Lamb Kebabs and Beef Stirfry for 7.50. I tried the Onion Rings, the Mac & Beer Cheese and the Spicy Lime Almond Crusted Tilapia. Every item was excellent, well prepared and served promptly and hot. After trying the tapas it was time for Beer University.

The class was held upstairs in a private seating area and was taught by Stone's beer purchaser. There were about 15 people including Greg. Each participant was presented with a syllabus that listed details of the class and the beers to be tasted. The presentation was in Powerpoint with lots of great pictures and text that made the instructor easy to follow and understand.

Some common sour styles (with tasted beer) are: Flanders Red (Verhaeghe Duchesse Bourgogne Flemish Red), Lambic (Cantillon Rosede Gambrinus Rasberry Lambic), Oud Bruin (Liefman's Goudenband Oud Bruin ), New World Sour (Russian River Compunction) A couple of spontaneously fermented ales were also added: Oud Beersel Oud Lambic and Boon Geuze Lambic.

The beers were all incredibly different in flavor profiles and all very good in their own way. I would have to say that my favorite that evening was the Boon Geuze which is very sour and very refreshing.