Stone Brewing (Escondido, California) recently announced that their fan-favorite Stone Xocoveza, a Mexican hot chocolate-inspired Imperial Stout, has officially returned for a limited run during the holiday season.
To ensure that only the finest, “expertly sourced, high-quality cacao” makes its way into Stone Xocoveza – a beer that is widely known as “one of the country’s best-selling holiday spiced stouts”, the brewers at Stone Brewing take a “bean to beer” approach. This process begins by sourcing the cacao directly from Belize, and then those “raw cacao beans are sorted, roasted, de-hulled and ground into chocolate all by hand at Stone Brewing under the tutelage of Belyzium brand cacao grower and chocolate maker Andrei Shibkov.” These efforts result in a gorgeous cocoa flavor that works beautifully alongside Xocoveza’s
“strong malt bill” and added notes of cinnamon, coffee, pasilla peppers, vanilla and nutmeg. Stone Xocoveza (8.1% ABV) can either be enjoyed fresh or it can be cellared for “months or even years [to] allow the malt character to evolve, making the cocoa and coffee flavors more prevalent.”
“Stone Xocoveza continues to rally our fans into the holiday spirit, but it stands for even more than that here at Stone,” said Greg Koch, Stone Brewing executive chairman & co-founder. “This extraordinary beer dates back to our annual American Homebrewers Association competition of 2014 in which Chris Banker’s original recipe was selected as the winner and first brewed on a national scale. Its powerful flavor profile, innovative recipe and the way in which it lends itself to the use of such high-quality ingredients, make this a winner for us still today.”
Stone Xocoveza is out now and will be available through the 2017 holiday season. You can find this Seasonal release available in 6-packs of 12 oz. bottles and on draft at craft beer establishments located in Alabama, Florida, California, Virginia and throughout the rest of Stone Brewing’s nationwide distribution footprint. Prost!
Vital Information for Stone Xocoveza from Stone Brewing
Release – Seasonal, 2017 Holiday Season
Style – American Imperial Stout
ABV – 8.1%
IBUs – 50
Featured Hops – German Perle & English East Kent Golding
Added Ingredients – Cocoa, coffee, pasilla peppers, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg & milk sugar
Availability – 6-packs of 12 oz. bottles & draft
Beer Finder – https://find.stonebrewing.com/#ready
Fun Fact – To tell the story of the intensive process required to craft Xocoveza each year, Stone Brewing recently released a short-form documentary called ‘Bean to Beer: A Cacao Story.’ Check it out below:
To bring even more hoppy goodness to spring, Stone Pataskala Red X IPA has returned once again as a Stone Seasonal release. First brewed in September 2015 as a fundraising beer to support music and arts education programs in the hometown – Pataskala, Ohio – of Stone Brewing Co. co-founder Greg Koch, the popularity of Stone Pataskala Red X IPA only grew when it was given a much wider release in 2016. Back for its third release, this Red India Pale Ale stays true to its unique recipe by featuring Red X malt, a special German malt variety that “is typically reserved for German amber lagers, Irish red ales and other mildly-hopped beers.” Although mild is not a descriptor that can be used for the copious amounts of Mosaic, Amarillo and Cascade hops employed in this beer, the “cereal notes and biscuit undertones from the Red X malt” provide an interesting and distinctive balancing character to the herbal, citrus, stone fruit and pine notes sourced from those hops. Stone Pataskala Red X IPA is also available now in 6-packs of 12 oz. bottles and on draft at restaurants and bars where beers from Stone Brewing Co. are normally found.
To add a little craft beer interest to Valentine’s Day this year, 
If those three brews do not seem to fit the criteria to properly bewilder, batter and beat your taste buds, Arrogant Brewing more than has you covered with these four brews dropping from their Small Batch Series:
Mashing In 