You might notice in your next few packs a can that stands out from the other beers. Something that doesn't fit the normal profile of the beers we source. Depending on your experience in the beer consumer space, it might be something that is a retro reminder. To others, it might just be another can of beer that you haven't had before. No matter, there is a story around how we came to have the Stone beers in our container that I probably need to share.
Our story starts with a Cali-inspired eatery in North Sydney called Marlies Eatery (www.marlieseatery.com) Proprietor Mark is a massive fan of Stone Brewing and was happily supplying his customers Stone beers for years until they stopped being imported into Australia a couple of years ago.
Stone Brewing were one of the early icons of the US craft beer movement, and in particular the west Coast IPA. But just big, bold beers in general. In 2022 the company was sold to Sapporo for USD $165 milliion, and the existing import arrangement into Australia ceased. Maybe not quite patient, but Mark is a persistent chap, and kept badgering Stone directly to try and get some beer into Oz, but without any success.
The Stone Export Manager, Frank, reached out to his European import partners to see if anyone knew of an Australian importer that would be interested in bringing Stone beers into the country. We got an email from Stone’s importer in The Netherlands as they knew about us bringing in beers from De Molen, Kees, Uiltje, Tommie Sjef and more.
We were put in contact with Frank to discuss getting some Stone beer over here. Frank's preference was to source directly from Stone, but the quantities were too much for what we’d ever expect to sell, and American hoppy beers really aren't the space we play in. But thinking it would be nice to help Mark, as well as a selfish want of tasting beers like Ruination and Arrogant Bastard again, we worked on a compromise.
Frank suggested we could place a pre-order for beers that could be added to those destined for The Netherlands, and we could time a shipment to pick them up and get them to Oz. Sounds pretty simple in theory, but if you had any idea of the issues with organising international shipping – and keeping remotely to a schedule – you’d just laugh.
Well, it turns out the Beer Gods were smiling on us. We duly placed a pre-order last year for a mixed pallet of Stone beers that were to be packaged the last couple of days of November and early December. That made us feel better about the date issue. This was then to be cold-shipped to arrive in The Netherlands the first week of January 2025.
As luck would have it, our original plans were delayed (one of the breweries wasn't ready for pick up - we'll allow them to remain anonymous to protect their reputation!), and we had to push our container packing back to the second week of January 2025. Perfectly timed to add the pre-ordered pallet from Stone!
My next problem was that I had a full container so had to bump a pallet, to be stored for a few months to allow the Stone pallet to take its place. I chose a mix of Christmas beer and barrel aged beer that better suits arriving in winter than summer anyway, so the Stone beers were allocated a spot in our container and all was ready to go. (Of course we then had a two week delay before the ship eventually set sail, but that's normal now.)
While these plans were on-going, we read the news that Stone Brewing was ceasing all export arrangements. We had the pallet in our possession, so no problems for that one. But it was destined to be a one-time arrangement. Mark's joy no doubt deflated quickly, but better to have loved and lost, and all that.
Last year when we were organsing this, I was disappointed to see that some of the specialty beers were no longer being produced. No more Ruination, RuinTen, Imperial Stout or the amazing Double Bastard Ale. But I guess that's what happens when big business takes over a specialty producer. I don't know why the Stone export program was ceased, but it wasn't something we were going to do regularly so it isn't of that much consequence for us.
But it was a fun exercise, and I'm glad we have a few of these iconic beers to try. And I think they are very decent beers still, so that makes it all the better.
So that's how we - and ultimately you guys - ended up with Stone beers to drink!