(Courtesy Stone Brewing)

Stone Brewing is turning 30, and the brewery that helped put San Diego on the national craft beer map is celebrating the milestone with an appropriately oversized party.

And if ever there was a beer celebration worth traveling for, this is it.

On Saturday, September 12, Stone will take over its sprawling Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens at Liberty Station for a daylong 30th Anniversary Celebration. And unlike many brewery anniversary events, you won’t need a ticket just to get through the door.

The main celebration runs from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and is free to attend, a new approach for Stone’s anniversary festivities. For fans who want to go considerably deeper into the brewery’s beer archives, Stone is also offering a limited VIP experience.

It’s hard to imagine a more fitting location for Stone’s 30th birthday than Liberty Station.

Stone opened the destination in 2013 inside the former Naval Training Center San Diego, transforming interconnected historic Navy buildings, including the original mess hall, into one of the most ambitious brewery restaurants in the country. The massive indoor-outdoor complex spans roughly 55,000 square feet and was originally designed to accommodate more than 800 guests. It includes expansive gardens, bars, bocce courts, an outdoor movie area and a 10-barrel pilot brewing system that allowed Stone brewers to experiment with small-batch and one-off releases away from the company’s main brewery.

Over the years, Liberty Station has become more than another Stone taproom. Its restoration of the historic Naval Training Center earned recognition from the San Diego Architectural Foundation, while its combination of beer, gardens, food and brewing helped make it a beer destination in its own right.

And its rich history promises to make September’s celebration even more memorable.

The free public portion will run throughout the day, while Stone is also selling just 300 VIP tickets at $100 each. Those tickets include unlimited two-ounce pours of rare Stone beers and selections from brewery friends, throwback food favorites, access to a dedicated VIP area, preferred seating for live music, a commemorative glass with custom etching and limited-edition 30th anniversary merchandise. So yeah, we’re doing that.

VIP guests will also get access to a cigar lounge and brewer Kris Ketcham’s Archive Beer Cellar, which could prove to be one of the more interesting attractions for longtime Stone fans given the brewery’s considerable history of anniversary ales, imperial stouts, barleywines and aggressively hopped experiments.

Stone Brewing’s 30th Anniversary Celebration takes place Saturday, September 12, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens, 2816 Historic Decatur Road in San Diego’s Liberty Station.

And naturally, Stone brewed something special for the occasion.

Stone 30th Anniversary Double IPA is intended as something of a liquid timeline of the brewery’s three decades in San Diego. The beer brings together pioneering American hop varieties such as Centennial and Chinook, which helped define Stone’s early beers, with later-generation stars including Simcoe and Citra, before moving into newer varieties such as Krush and Thora.

It’s an appropriate concept for a brewery whose reputation was built largely on pushing American hops harder than most breweries dared to at the time.

Stone Brewing was founded by Greg Koch and Steve Wagner in 1996, and the brewery quickly became one of the most influential names in the emerging West Coast craft beer movement. But a lot has changed since then, including Stone itself.

The company was acquired by Japan’s Sapporo in 2022, ending its long run as one of America’s largest independent craft breweries. And in April, 2026, the legendary brewery which basically enshrined the West Coast Style IPA acquired by Duvel Moortgat USA and Firestone Walker Brewing.

Stone’s impact on American craft beer is difficult to overstate and on September 12, it will marking its three decade run with a remarkable beer and event at a truly striking San Diego location

And if there was a beer celebration worth travelling for, this is the one.