Stone Brewing Co.

Introduction: Stone Brewing Co. is a craft brewery headquartered in Escondido, California. Founded in 1996 in San Marcos, California, it is the largest brewery in Southern California.As of 2012, it was the 10th largest craft brewery in the United States and 17th largest brewery overall, based on sales volume.

Established in 1996, the brewery's first beer was Stone Pale Ale,[4] which they consider to be its flagship ale.Most of their beers are characteristic of west-coast craft brews, meaning that they have a high hop content. Stone beers are bottled in 22 ounce bottles, 12 oz six packs, and occasionally 3 liter bottles. The beers available in six-packs are the Stone Pale Ale, Stone IPA, Stone Levitation Ale, Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale, and Stone Ruination IPA. Stone uses 22 ounce bottles to feature their "bigger character" beers and Stone Special Releases.Compared to most brewers, many Stone brews feature alcohol percentages that are well above average. The alcohol-by-volume content of Stone brews ranges from 4.4% to well over 11%.

Stone Brewing is rated as a "world class brewery" by the two largest beer enthusiast websites, RateBeer and BeerAdvocate.[8][9] Stone Brewing has been voted by the readers of Beer Advocate as the #1 "All Time Top Brewery on Planet Earth."