BEER WITH A SOCIALIST: The flip side of Stone's Berlin farewell.

I believe there are times when all of us can be found on both sides of a particular issue. Consequently, yesterday I made reference to Stone's withdrawal from its Berlin facility, to be replaced by BrewDog.

BEER WITH A SOCIALIST: "Farewell Stone Brewing Berlin: Too Big, Too Bold, Too Soon."

I've never been a fan of BrewDog; not an enemy, either. Stone's a different story, and I retain a soft spot in my three-sizes-too-small heart for the San Diego brewery. I'll never forget Stone founder Greg Koch's visit to the Public House in August of 2007. There's a photo somewhere, but no matter.

As usual, Jeff "Bluegill" Gillenwater offered a clear-headed take.

Hmm... I appreciate Stone’s early efforts in the U.S. but I’m not sure I exactly jive with much of what Koch has to say here. Suffice to say, the list of long-standing German beers I would choose over a Stone IPA is long and typically pretty accessible in lots of parts of Germany.

For the remainder of the day yesterday, even before Bluegill commented, my thoughts kept returning to Stone's (and Koch's) German experience.

I'm a fan of Greg Koch, who with his Public House visit gave me a nice boost when I needed it most. I'm a fan of Stone's beers ... which I drink quite seldom these days, and there's the rub: I've long since boarded the pendulum swinging back to the traditional German (and British, and Belgium) way of drinking beer and thinking beer.

And, I don't want these traditional notions to disappear any time soon. We went to Munich and Bamberg last December and did/ate/drank almost nothing that wasn't old-school. That's a big part of why we went there in the first place. Do I like the idea of American-style "craft" beer flooding Europe? That's a hard question to answer.

Maybe I'd say yes insofar as a beer drinker in Berlin appreciates choice. Maybe no if it means Berlin becomes more like San Diego and less like Germany. Maybe my answer has changed over the years, and will again.

As such, I think Bluegill rightly looks to the points in Koch's explanation of Stone's retreat as a major source of dissonance. Here's an excellent take on the Stone situation, which riffs heavily on Bluegill's observation.

Pay especially close attention to the comments. It isn't so much that both sides of an issue are in play. There actually are multiple sides, multiple issues and something not entirely convincing as it pertains to Koch's reading of them. Thought-provoking, indeed -- and extending beyond beer into many more cultural considerations.

The Hubris of Stone Brewing, by Jeff Alworth (Beervana)

Who knows if Stone might have made the Berlin project a success by building a bridge between two cultures. But the failure to even try is surely the centerpiece of this story. BrewDog, which has modeled their business strategy on Stone, will take over the keys to the building. It will be fascinating to see what changes they make and whether they learn from Stone’s actual mistakes, or double down on the narrative of cocky disruption.

BEER WITH A SOCIALIST: "Farewell Stone Brewing Berlin: Too Big, Too Bold, Too Soon."

BrewDog is taking over Stone's ambitious brewing operation in Berlin, Germany.

BrewDog's new brewery in Berlin

We are delighted to announce that we have completed a deal to acquire an amazing brewery & tap room in Berlin from our good friends at Stone Brewing. We will officially take ownership of our new brewery on May 1st. The brewery we have acquired is in the Mariendorf neighbourhood of Berlin was originally opened in 2016 in a beautiful and historic gasworks building which dates to 1901.

We get the keys to our new European home on May 1st. After a certain time for evaluation we will be closed for a little bit as we turn the building into a BrewDog space, similar to the vibe we have created at our Columbus brewery. Once we reopen, we are looking forward to holding a huge opening party, as well as hosting an epic European AGM for our Equity Punks there later in 2019 and also making Berlin the next destination for BrewDog Airlines ...

I've never been a fan of BrewDog; not an enemy, either. Stone's a different story, and I retain a soft spot in my three-sizes-too-small heart for the San Diego brewery. I'll never forget Stone founder Greg Koch's visit to the Public House in August of 2007. There's a photo somewhere, but no matter.

Here's Greg, explaining the Berlin experience.

Farewell Stone Brewing Berlin: Too Big, Too Bold, Too Soon

My heart is broken. It’ll mend, but I’m gonna let it be broke for a bit.

I love Berlin. And when you love something, it’s bound to frustrate you at times. Times like right about now.

Today we announce we are transferring the ownership of the Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Berlin facility to our friends at Brewdog. Brewdog has agreed to adopt what we’ve built, and they will make it their own.

Since that day I first walked onto the historic gasworks property at the beginning of the decade, we accomplished some great things in Berlin. And we struggled greatly ...

THE BEER BEAT: Everybody wants to rule the world -- maybe "craft" beer will, too.

Lew Bryson's column is linked below, but first: Beer with a Socialist.

If you missed it earlier at Facebook, my friend Jonathan Kiviniemi had the best idea ever:

"An event popped into my feed, 'Beer with a Scientist' at Against the Grain and I misread it as 'Beer with a Socialist' and instantly wondered what you were doing with ATG."

This is exactly what the world of beer commentary is sorely lacking: Beer with a Socialist. I'm grateful to Jonathan for the idea, and will owe him a beer of three is this goes anyplace.

Now, give it up for Lew Bryson and another thought-provoking (and fun) column at The Daily Beast.

Has American Craft Beer Taken Over the World?

 ... It should come as no surprise that American brewers are now finding jobs across Europe, Asia, and Africa. But they’re not going around the world to learn from locals but to make the same beers they’ve made at home, and they’re a hit.

That’s quite a reversal. When the craft beer movement began in America in the 1970s, there were already lots of small breweries in countries like Germany, Belgium, and the UK. Many of them made great beer, fantastic beer. But they made the traditional beers of their respective lands and cultures: lagers and wheat beers in Germany, a relatively narrow variety of malt-forward ales in the UK, and an eccentric but consistent array of ales in Belgium.

Just as in the U.S., there were some new small brewers that opened in Europe, Scandinavia and Japan. But unlike their American counterparts, they made beer using the national template, perhaps gently tweaked. I remember going to several “house” breweries in the Czech Republic that served a variety of pilsners, some flavored with herbs, some unfiltered. British brewers made porters, pale ales, summer ale, and mild.

American craft brewers on the other hand, impatiently floored it and blew the doors off brewing. (What else would you have expected?) Not only did this approach work but over the past 15 years these upstarts have been able to claim an ever increasing chunk out of the very profitable U.S. beer market. Their wildly different beers—IPAs running on overdrive, “imperial” everything, “session” this and that, big barrel-aged beers, and crazy, hazy New England IPA—have become best-sellers.

The world’s next generation of brewers was intently watching this beer revolution and soon began emulating their American counterparts ...