Kris Ketcham is the Brewing Manager at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station.
How long have you been working at Stone, and when did you transition to Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station?
I’ve been with Stone for almost nine years. I moved from the brewery in Escondido to Liberty Station in early April.
Can you tell us about the brewing system and your fermentation capacity?
We have a 10-barrel single infusion mash tun along with a 10-barrel kettle. Currently we have four 20-barrel fermentors that we double batch into. In the few months we’ve been open, we’ve averaged 120 barrels a month. That number will go up when we get an additional four fermentors at the end of August. We plan on being the reason Stone gets well beyond that 210,000-barrel mark this year. Okay, perhaps not really, since what we produce in a month is just a single batch for them, and they brew at least eight batches a day! We can dream though, can’t we?
Do you produce any of Stone’s year-round release beers, or just specialties?
Everything we brew at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station is a specialty, one-off beer. We don’t brew any of the regular year-round release beers; we leave that to the Escondido brewery. That’s not to say that we don’t get to try any new twists on our year-round releases. For example, we brewed an imperial version of Stone Pale Ale called Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station Commemorative Imperial Stone Pale Ale and a session version of Stone Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale called Stone Supremely Self-Conscious Ale.
Can you describe a few of the beers you’ve made since you started?
So far we’ve brewed more than 20 different beers on our brewhouse at Liberty Station. Some of my personal favorites have been Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station Witty Moron, a black wit with a touch of dark malt, and Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station 12/15 IPA: Ales for ALS IPA, a session-ish IPA which was brewed to raise funds for ALS research using four new unique hop varieties.
We have a guest brewer program where the brewers in Escondido take turns working at Liberty Station. During their time here, they have the opportunity to brew some of the beers they’ve been waiting to make on our 10-barrel brewhouse (as opposed to the 120-barrel system). Our first guest brewer, Matt Courtright, brewed Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station Matt’s Thrill Rye’d IPA, a rye IPA using 20 percent rye malt and Helga hops, and Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station Crimson Gate Keeper, an oaked cherry porter with the balanced addition of cherry and oak. He and I also collaborated on a beer called Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station Call It What You Want, an imperial hefeweizen spiced with tangerine and lemon.
Do you have a particular style you really like to brew?
That’s a tough one! Brewing is so much fun and such a creative process; I enjoy it all. If I had to pick, I would go with something that is primarily malt dominated. There is just something about mashing in a brown ale or stout in the morning. The smell of roasty, chocolaty, fresh-baked goods is amazing.