U.S. craft brewer Stone to open a brewery in Berlin
It’s amazing. Another U.S. craft brewer has ventured overseas. Really, you have to admire them for their guts. It takes guts, and probably more, to want to open a brewery in Germany these days. Beer consumption is in decline, competition is fierce and U.S.-style “craft beer” largely unheard of.
But this is what Stone is planning to do. The 10th ranking U.S. craft brewer from San Diego announced in mid-July 2014 that it has closed a deal to open a brewery and bistro in Berlin, becoming the first American craft brewer to independently own and operate a brewery in Europe.
Stone is not the first craft brewer to build a brewery in “Old Europe”. Brooklyn Brewery was the first. But its recently opened outfit in Stockholm is a venture between Brooklyn and Carlsberg and therefore, in Stone’s view, not independently owned.
Known for its hop-centric beers, Stone will set up shop in a former gasworks plant in south Berlin in a move expected to cost at least USD 25 million (EUR 19 million). Once proper permits are secured, the construction is expected to take 14 to 20 months, putting Stone on target for an opening in late 2015.
According to reports, Stone plans to install a 70 barrel brewhouse (equalling a 40,000 hl capacity, approximately) to produce year-round and special-release brews that will initially be packaged, kegged and served on-site, but will eventually be distributed in Germany and elsewhere in Europe.
Like Scotland’s BrewDog, Stone has also set up a crowd-funding scheme, called Indiegogo (at www.indiegogo.com), where fans will be able to buy certificates for future “Stone Groundbreaking Collaborations” which will be brewed in Berlin once the facility is open. Stone hopes to raise USD 1 million through the campaign which runs until 16 August 2014, with the money used to expedite both the Berlin project and a future “east of the Mississippi” Stone brewery.
The remarkable thing is not that Stone has chosen Berlin for its new site. Berlin is the largest and probably most cosmopolitan of all German cities. Therefore, I believe that if they can build up interest in their beers – as the other Californian brewer Lagunitas did in Chicago (see my report “Honey, I think I’ll open a brewery” in BRAUWELT International 3/2014) before they opened a brewery there this spring – Stone will receive a hero’s welcome in Berlin.
Actually, what is even more remarkable is that Stone was only founded in 1996 by Greg Koch and Steve Wagner. As Mr Koch said, five years ago they began looking for a site in Europe. Well, five years ago, when they took the unprecedented decision to scan Europe for a brewery location, Stone had been operating for a mere 13 years and was producing under 100,000 hl beer. That’s what I would call ambitious.
In 2013 Stone brewed 250,000 hl beer according to estimates by Beer Marketers Insights with net revenues of USD 137 million (EUR 102 million).
