FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	Greg Koch / Stone Brewing Co.
3/26/2004	(760) 471-4999

"Stone 04.04.04 Vertical Epic Ale" Release is Imminent
Hints About The Special Brew Revealed

San Marcos, San Diego County, CA --- On 04.04.04, Stone Brewing will release the third of eleven Stone Vertical Epic Ales. Each of the eleven ales will be released one year, one month and one day apart. In other words, next year's edition will be released May 5th, 2005, followed by June 6th, 2006, all the way to December 12th, 2012. Finding the beer The first edition in the series --- the Stone 02.02.02 Vertical Epic Ale --- is long sold out. "I haven't seen a bottle of that on a store shelf since just a week or so of its release in 2002. We still get periodic calls from enthusiasts, but short of a time machine there's nothing we can do to help them find one," said Stone CEO Greg Koch. To aid beer enthusiasts, Stone Brewing lists the areas of the country that are slated to get an allocation of the Stone 04.04.04 Vertical Epic Ale. In the areas of California, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon and Washington the company’s website goes even further to provide a list of retailers. "We know that people drive all over to track down our special releases," says Koch. "We thought it would be nice if we could save them some gas in the process, especially with current gas prices here in SoCal!" The premise The grand premise of the series is that each edition is to be brewed in a different style from the previous year, and since the beers will be bottle conditioned (naturally carbonated in the bottle) they will mature when cellared, providing the beer enthusiast with a Vertical Epic tasting to look forward to sometime after 12.12.12 when the last edition is released. The bottle label on the 02.02.02 edition explains it as such: "As with any good epic, herein lies the promise of larger-than-life experiences, heroics and twists & turns as the adventure unfolds." The Stone 04.04.04 Vertical Epic Ale "Think Belgian-style triple," begins Stone Head Brewer Lee Chase, "but with some unmalted wheat and a dash of Indonesian Kaffir Lime Leaf. The result is a bit like a strong golden Bier de Garde / Saison-esque influenced beer coupled with some aromatic Bavarian hefeweizen-style phenolic banana esters, and a backnote hint of lime from the lime leaf," continues Chase. "Oh, and with some hops of course." The result? "Glorious. My favorite Stone Vertical Epic Ale yet!" The tasting notes Additionally, as with all of the Stone Vertical Epic Ales, Stone Brewing is posting detailed tasting notes on their website. Since the idea of the Stone Vertical Epic Ale series is to age them for years to come, the brewery thought that beer enthusiasts would like to know how the beer is progressing. To that end, Stone conducts "tasting panels" at the approximate six-month mark for each of the editions of the beers. "Hey, we're brilliant here at Stone," said Koch modestly, “but we don’t claim to be infallible! We acknowledge that one of the Epic series might peak in perfection before 12.12.12 rolls around. The only way that someone would know, is if we are keeping them apprised of the various beers' progress on an on-going basis." These Tasting Panels not only include members of the Stone crew, but each session endeavors to include an industry VIP as well. To wit, Belgian beer expert Don Feinberg, co-founder of New York’s famous Belgian-style brewery Ommegang and co-owner of specialty Belgian beer importer Vanberg & DeWolf joined in on the Stone 04.04.04 Vertical Epic Ale tasting panel. Tasting panel notes can be found at <http://www.stonebrew.com/epic/>. The homebrew recipes & competition As with previous editions of the Stone Vertical Epic Ale series, Stone is again posting a detailed homebrewing recipe complete with hints, anecdotes and musical suggestions courtesy of recipe creator Lee Chase. Additionally, Stone is challenging homebrewers to brew their favorite Stone Vertical Epic Ale and submit it the brewery for a competitive judging. The recipes and competition guidelines can be found at <http://www.stonebrew.com/epic/challenge>. Stone Brewing is located at 155 Mata Way in San Marcos. For more info, go to www.stonebrew.com or call the brewery at (760)471-4999.