18 years ago, on July 26, 1996, Stone Brewing Co. sold the first keg of Stone Pale Ale to Vince Marsaglia of Pizza Port fame.
This is a big deal, as there were few craft breweries in San Diego at the time, and this showed two local companies supporting each other.
Three years ago, Stone co-founders Greg Koch and Steve Wagner gave Vince Marsaglia a call to commemorate the fifteen-year anniversary of the sale, and uploaded the resulting video to YouTube.
In 2006, Stone decided to move operations to their current location in Escondido. And who ending up taking their place in San Marcos? Port Brewing/The Lost Abbey, a brewery project by none other than Vince Marsaglia and his sister Gina.
Stone has also been in the news recently for other reasons; as you have probably already heard, one week ago today the brewery announced that they are pursuing a brewery project in Berlin, Germany that they hope will be open in late 2015 or early 2016. Peter Rowe from the UT went more in-depth on the $25M project, which is being pushed forward with an indiegogo campaign. Stone is also looking to build a brewing facility “East of the Mississippi” — details for which are still under wraps.