Stone Brewing’s Greg Koch On Beer During COVID-19, Music And The Beer Jesus Documentary

Since 1996, California-based Stone Brewing has been at the forefront of the craft beer explosion that’s taken place over the course of the last twenty years in America. 

From day one, Stone went about the business of brewing differently, pushing the beverage forward via new flavor profiles at a time when the average beer drinker’s palette was a bit less refined, the product of an era dominated by low quality, mass-produced lagers and pilsners.

Like any visionary, Stone looked ahead at craft beer’s future, refusing to pander to what was expected or accepted at the time, pushing the consumer toward an embrace of something different.

“Test marketing and all of that can only tell you so much. It can only tell you what the current state is, not what the potential future state is. At some point, you can only really tell what’s already been discovered,” said Stone Executive Chairman and co-founder Greg Koch. “If you look back at our history at Stone, test marketing and consumer surveys wouldn’t have told you very much. If you said to people [in 1996], ‘Hey, would you like an aggressively bitter beer? Would you like something that has a flavor profile that’s different from anything you’ve ever experienced?’ How would people even respond to that?”

Today Stone is one of the ten largest craft brewers in the country, operating seven taprooms and two restaurants in addition to breweries in California and Virginia. 

The company’s attempted expansion to Berlin lies at the heart of the documentary The Beer Jesus From America, now streaming via Amazon Prime. 

Director Matt Sweetwood masterfully tells a story that’s equal parts humor and heartbreak, tracing the imperfect process from the inception of the idea in 2014 to opening the doors of a new German brewery in 2016 and, ultimately, the sale of the facility just three years later. 

But it’s not just the Stone story that The Beer Jesus tells. The film lays out the history of craft beer in America with Koch as its main character, cheerleader and rebellious protagonist.

“It’s awkward and heartbreaking and invigorating and frustrating and everything else – all of the emotional things that I go through when I watch it,” said Koch of reliving the experience during documentary screenings. “I’m really impressed with what Matt Sweetwood did but also how it just takes me on that emotional journey every time.” 

As the film explains, one of Stone’s most popular beers, Arrogant Bastard ale, is the product of a mistake and provides a great example of the brewer’s unique approach.

“It was the very first brew we did on a new home brewing kit that Steve purchased specifically with the intent of creating recipes for Stone. And it was about halfway through the brewing process that he noticed a miscalculation,” Koch explained of Stone President and co-founder Steve Wagner’s early efforts. “We decided to go ahead and finish the beer anyway. It was late enough in the day that we couldn’t just start over. Thank goodness. And a couple of weeks later, when it was ready, we were just like, ‘Wow!’”

Koch is a product of the music industry and owns one of the world’s largest rehearsal studio facilities, Downtown Rehearsal in the downtown warehouse district of Los Angeles.

Koch first discovered craft beers like San Francisco innovator Anchor Steam while spending time at infamous, now defunct, L.A. punk rock haven Al’s Bar. 

As a musician, Koch is acutely aware of the benefit in accepting mistakes. Just as embracing a mistake made Arrogant Bastard possible, mistakes have also come to define some of rock’s finest, most unexpected moments.

But the comparison between music and craft beer goes much further. The same creativity and desire for something different despite a crowded marketplace that drives craft beer has long characterized groundbreaking music and both feature often striking artwork in an effort to grab attention.

“I think it’s a great analogy between music and what we do at Stone. The bands that have just stood the test of time – whether it’s the Rolling Stones or the Grateful Dead or U2 or Metallica, or even a Jimmy Buffett – what they all have in common is they sort of have done things their own way. They didn’t go after the popular style of the time,” said Koch. “Instead, they just did their own thing. And the people came to them. They just focused on their art. Similarly, what we try to do at Stone, is just do our art. We’ll do our art our way. And we’ve got to believe in it. And if we think it really is great, then eventually people will come on.”

Punk rock has long been defined by its “do it yourself” mentality and music in general often comes from a rebellious place. Unpredictability and change make for the best rock and roll. Stone has collaborated with artists like punk rockers NOFX and metal legend Metallica and all of those ideas influence the way Stone has gone about its business over the last quarter century.

“Music is art. Certainly anybody can agree to that. What a lot of the public didn’t realize until the craft brewing movement is that beer can qualify as art. It’s a very simple thing: art is best when it has a point of view. Serious art that lasts a long time, like seminal albums, that’s stuff with a point of view and it lasts. And it still sells. You put [Pink Floyd’s] Dark Side on now and it’s as good as it ever was. So have a point of view. Don’t try to be for everybody,” said Koch. “If you are thinking something as a brewer – if your tastes are going one way and it seems like the popular tastes are going another – you’ve gotta follow your own tastes. Sometimes you get that 2112, right?” he continued, noting the 1976 Rush album, a breakthrough for the band despite doubling down on progessive rock with twenty minute tracks at the height of disco. “It’s about differentiation. You’ve got to create a fanbase. I think different is really, really important. And it is harder today in craft beer to be different because there’s so much of everything out there.”

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Recent reports indicate that alcohol consumption has seen a 22% increase as Americans observe self-quarantine. And, despite recent cuts to its workforce as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Stone remains in production to meet demand.

“We’ve been continuing to make beer deliveries. That’s how the beer gets to the grocery stores. And we have teams working very, very hard. So I have some thank yous – thank you not just for doing the job but doing it safely and following all of the protocols that we very carefully have set and are following,” said Koch. “We always say the appropriate consumption of beer is a very positive thing – especially good beer. You can get, hands down, some of the best beer that’s ever been created in the history of the world – today, conveniently, right now – delivered to your door in most places. And it’s just part of a well-balanced life. We’ll enjoy good craft beer and keep our social distancing but maybe put a smile on our face along the way.”

In The Beer Jesus From America film, Koch talks about an early distrust of corporate America as an influence on his work. But, approaching its 25th anniversary, the challenge for Stone in 2020 is in continuing to keep things interesting following a progression that’s seen the brewer move from pioneer to elder statesman. 

As one of the nation’s largest craft brewers, it can be difficult to avoid falling in line with the status quo and to avoid resembling that which it used to rebel against. With that comes the standard online accusation of “selling out.” But the desire to remain independent and continue to push the boundaries of craft beer seems to be a great equalizer for Koch.

“It gets back to, ‘What’s the underlying ethos? What’s the underlying qualitative standards?’ And we see ourselves at Stone as curators. We like to have that underlying level of creativity,” said the brewer. “When I first started, people asked me all the time, ‘Who’s your competition?’ And I said, ‘My competition isn’t so much one of the big breweries or another craft brewery. My competition has been people’s low expectations for beer – and helping them understand that they should have high expectations for beer.’ Being an entrepreneur is helping elevate the conversation and being part of that. And now, today, the idea of craft beer is commonly understood – even amongst people that aren’t craft beer drinkers, they understand that’s the good stuff. I’m proud to have accomplished that. That’s what Stone has meant to me.”