Stone Brewing has revealed that mustards — Stone Cali-Belgique IPA Cali-Dijon Mustard and Stone Pale Ale Stone Ground Mustard with Chipotle Peppers — Stone and consumers thought contain its beer do not.
The San Diego area brewery offered a public apology for what it is calling “MustardGate”:
“We had no idea this was happening, and we immediately removed them from sale as soon as we learned of it last week. We work with Russ Bruhn, a local guy who owns a company called Carlsbad Gourmet to supply the mustards; Russ then contracts with another company to produce them. It is this company that we have found failed to put the beer in the mustard. What they did with the beer, we’re not sure. We sent them full kegs and they sent us back empty kegs . . . one can only imagine where it might have gone.
“It is important to note that all of our other sauces, including our hot sauces and grilling/BBQ sauces, which are made by a different local company, do in fact have our beer in them.
“We accept full responsibility for this misleading mustard and are committed to making it up to you if you bought it. If you come to the Stone Company Store with a jar of the above-mentioned mustards before September 1st, we’ll swap it for a 22oz. bottle of Stone Cali-Belgique IPA or Stone Pale Ale. If you can’t make it to the Stone Company Store, use the online coupon code mustardgate for 10% off any purchase from StoneCompanyStore.com good through September 1st.
“Needless to say, the sham mustard isn’t going to hurt anybody, and frankly, it’s still damn tasty mustard. If you don’t want to go through the hassle of exchanging it, be confident in the knowledge that you can still safely and satisfyingly continue eating it. Or better yet, pour a dash of our beer in your mustard and enjoy it the way it was supposed to taste.”
When I saw the video they made for the apology last week, it was definitely heart felt and done in the Stone fashion, straight to the point but fun & full of character. They strive to be awesome and on the rare occasion when they don’t reach that they’ll tell you.
Like Chris said, this really shows what type of character they’re made out of. And it’s good stuff. They didn’t know what was going on, and they admitted that that in itself was their fault, and when they found out that they did exactly what they should have done. It was more than just heart felt. They acted real. Like real human beings. Then itself shows the legacy that they’re trying to leave behind here. It’s about far more than simply beer for them.