He’s definitely tossed a few things: like a few pints. Fortunately, it’s not too often that he throws a fit. Over the years Stone CEO and co-founder Greg Koch has definitely pitched a lot of things: our beers, ideas, tents, ethics, a little BS, and more. Sawyer’s mother, Janis, has visited more than 2,300 medical facilities in 48 states in the never-ending fight for awareness, and mandatory screening for ALD is now becoming a reality! We rebrewed the beer in 2008 and at the end of 2015 to raise additional money for Fight ALD, the charity founded by his parents. Knowing this beer was brewed on Sawyer’s behalf and for all those who have had to fight his fight, we thank you for helping the cause and supporting a beer that stands for something more than well-crafted flavor. He was an engaging and athletic kid and it was a crushing blow to lose him in September 2003, only days before the initial release of Sawyer’s Triple. Over a period of four years, we had the distinct pleasure of getting to know Sawyer from his visits to the brewery and the occasional backyard BBQ. He was diagnosed with adrenoleukodystrophy - aka ALD - a rare genetic disease. The inspiration for Sawyer’s Triple came from its namesake, Sawyer Benjamin Sherwood, the 8-year-old son of former Stone brewer Bill Sherwood. Then, when Y2K came around (sans anarchy and apocalypse), the 2000 batch of Old Guardian took a silver medal out of a pool of sixty-five barleywine entries at the Great American Beer Festival. But we weren’t inspired by any suggestions that came in, and we had actually grown to like the name Old Guardian. In fact, we printed the bottles with a note asking for name suggestions from anyone loyal and dedicated enough to read through Greg’s typically lengthy musings. We decided to go with Lee’s suggestion of Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine, but we didn’t really intend to keep it. We first made our barleywine in 1998, but we had trouble deciding on a name for it. Even though the flavor of the final beer is incredibly complex, the recipe is surprisingly simple. As an added bonus, our yeast happens to work exceptionally well with high-gravity fermentation, which is one of the defining features of barleywines, so we made it happen. We were big fans of other West Coast barleywines, especially Old Crustacean, Bigfoot, and Old Foghorn, and we wanted one to call our own. Greg and I knew we wanted to put out a barleywine pretty early on.
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