Rock Band Beers: Stone Brewing & Pierce The Veil Release Special West Coast IPA
Rock Band Beers: Stone Brewing & Pierce The Veil Release Special West Coast IPA
(Courtesy Stone Brewing)
Stone Brewing is turning up the volume on its 30th anniversary year with a collaboration that’s as loud and as San Diego as it gets.
The iconic craft brewery has teamed up with hometown rock heroes Pierce The Veil on Stone Pierce The Veil IPA, a limited-edition West Coast IPA brewed to celebrate the band’s sold-out September 12 performance at Petco Park.
And this isn’t just another rock band lending its name to a beer. This was as hands-on as it gets.
Pierce The Veil emerged from San Diego’s punk and post-hardcore scene in 2006, initially built around brothers Vic and Mike Fuentes before guitarist Tony Perry and bassist Jaime Preciado joined the fold. Over nearly two decades, the band evolved from an underground touring act into one of the defining names of the modern post-hardcore movement.
Their breakthrough came with 2012’s Collide with the Sky, an album that reached No. 12 on the Billboard 200 and produced “King for a Day,” the band’s collaboration with Sleeping With Sirens vocalist Kellin Quinn that became an anthem for a generation of post-hardcore and emo fans. The song’s popularity has proved remarkably durable, enjoying another surge years after its original release.
Pierce The Veil followed with Misadventures in 2016 and, after an extended recording hiatus, returned with The Jaws of Life in 2023.
And the band has been experiencing something of a resurgence as younger listeners have discovered its music through streaming and social media. Pierce The Veil’s massive I Can’t Hear You World Tour was designed as a career-spanning celebration, pulling material from all five of the band’s studio albums and taking the group to major venues around the world.
Which brings things back to San Diego.
The September 12 Petco Park concert is the sold-out finale of the I Can’t Hear You World Tour and the band’s only mainland North American headline show of 2026. For a group that started in the San Diego punk scene and spent years building its following one tour at a time, headlining the hometown baseball stadium is a pretty serious homecoming.
And the beer is pretty special as well.
(Stone Brewing’s Kris Ketcham and Pierce The Veil frontmanVic Fuentes / Courtesy Stone Brewing)
Stone Pierce The Veil IPA was created for the occasion by Stone Brewing Senior Manager of Brewing & Innovation Kris Ketcham and Pierce The Veil frontman Vic Fuentes, who happens to be a longtime fan of Stone and classic West Coast IPAs. And this was a real, uber-local collaboration. Fuentes was actually at the brewery making the beer with Ketcham. This one is the real deal.
And that connection makes this collaboration even more interesting.
Stone Brewing was founded in San Diego County in 1996 and became one of the breweries most closely associated with the aggressively hopped West Coast IPA movement. Pierce The Veil arrived a decade later and built an international following out of the same Southern California music culture.
Stone Pierce The Veil IPA is a 6.5% ABV West Coast IPA brewed with Centennial, Citra, El Dorado and Krush hops. Stone describes it as light-bodied and dry, with orange peel, ripe citrus and tropical fruit notes backed by the crisp bitterness and resinous finish that helped define the brewery’s reputation.
Krush, a relatively new hop variety, gives the beer a more contemporary fruit-forward edge, while Centennial, Citra and El Dorado keep one foot planted firmly in Stone’s old-school West Coast IPA roots.
For Fuentes, the collaboration was personal.
“Beer has always been something I’ve loved, especially a great West Coast IPA,” Fuentes said. “Getting to brew one with Stone, my favorite hometown brewery, made this incredibly personal.”
Stone Pierce The Veil IPA will debut on August 29 at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens at Liberty Station, where the brewery is hosting a launch party featuring fresh pours, exclusive merchandise and flash tattoos. The beer will then roll out to select San Diego bars and retailers beginning the week of August 31.
It will be sold in 16-ounce four-packs while supplies last and will also be available inside Petco Park for Pierce The Veil’s September 12 show.
And the collaboration isn’t ending there.
Stone Pierce The Veil IPA will make another appropriately loud appearance at California’s Aftershock Festival this fall, where Pierce The Veil is scheduled to headline.
Rock music has long been a part of craft beer’s DNA, but the best collaborations are about deeper connections.
Stone Brewing and Pierce The Veil share a hometown, a fiercely loyal fan base and a history of doing things louder than necessary.
And now they share a West Coast IPA too.
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And while we’re at it…
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