Stone Collaborations

I have not been diligent in buying, drinking or documenting Stone Brewing's many collaboration beers.  The concept's great and the experimentation's exciting, but I just haven't aggressively sought them out.   Some collaborations that I have bought I have yet to drink, including the Kona Coffee, Macadamia, Coconut Porter and last fall's pumkin beer, La Citrueille Celeste de Citracado.  I need to get to these two beers one of these days.  I skipped last year's Japanese Green Tea IPA (and I feel bad because it was brewed for charity) and the Cherry Chocolate Stout.

I am going to make an effort, I promise, to get Stone's two latest collaborations, the More Brown Than Black IPA and the TBA (Texas Brown Ale).  The IPA sounds interesting, because, well, it's an IPA.  The TBA caught my attention because who knew there was such a thing as a Texas Brown Ale.  I've had Shiner Bock, which is brown, but not an ale.  It's a boring beer, but the beer I'd think of if I ever thought about Texas beer, which I never do.    I hope TBA, which is being brewed by three non-Texas brewers - Stone, Bear Republic and Fat Head - is as interesting as Shiner Bock is bland.  Here is a video on TBA:


Bear Republic / Fat Head's / Stone TBA from stonebrew on Vimeo.



In the video, Mitch Steele, Stone's head brewer, says the beer is like a pioneering craft beer from the 1980s, but doesn't name the beer.  What beer is he talking about?

Of the Stone collaborations I have tried, my favorite was Saison du BUFF, a sage infused beer that Stone brewed with Dogfish Head and Victory.  This beer is being brewed again this spring and Stone is growing the sage at its farm.