Beer of the Week: Lifeblurred

People in the craft-beer industry look up to Kris Ketcham, and rightfully so. He is a wonderful person who has graced San Diego’s brewing industry with his trademark kindness, generosity and charm during his two decades working for Stone Brewing. His friendly openness extends well beyond his Team Stone colleagues to contemporaries at beermaking institutions throughout and well beyond the county, as well as everyday beer fans, all of whom he amazingly always seems to have time for despite being perpetually busy. And, oh yeah, he’s one hell of a brewer. One would be hard-pressed to find another fermentationist who has brought as many original recipes to life as he has since taking over production at Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station back in 2013, much less recipes that have gone on to be nationally and internationally distributed. Working on a pilot-sized brewpub setup, Ketcham goes far beyond Stone’s well-known core and seasonal offerings, tackling just about everything on the stylistic spectrum, including barrel-aged beers. And he’s been recognized at major national and international brewing competitions for a number of those creations. The guy is so good at what he does that, when he decided to brew a higher-alcohol take on one of his World Beer Cup medal-winning brown ales, the resultant beer medaled at the Great American Beer Festival. That imperialized accolade-garnerer is this week’s featured beer, Lifeblurred. Originally produced last year, it pours a deep chestnut with a sturdy beige head boasting a rich, roasty bouquet. Bold flavors of coffee and dark chocolate segue to a finish with a lingering touch of smokiness. A great colder-weather beer, Stone picked the right time to bring it back, re-releasing it as the initial installment of its new Brewery Exclusive series and providing a glimpse into what makes the innovator behind it so great…even if there are countless other factors that go well beyond his vocational skills.

Stone Lifeblurred Imperial Brown Ale is an amped-up version of our team favorite and award-winning Stone Lifeblood American Brown Ale. The name itself came from a random conversation with our Liberty Station Store Manager, Nick Ray, where we discussed ‘imperializing’ some of our favorite beers. (Which may or may not have started as a discussion about Happy Hops and me wanting to see Happier Hops…looking at you Russian River Brewing.) From that fun little interaction, Nick dropped the name ‘Lifeblurred’ which immediately stuck. Since Stone Lifeblood was originally released within our first year of opening Liberty Station in 2013, we decided there would be no better time to brew and release Lifeblurred than as Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens – Liberty Station’s 11-year anniversary beer. With some crafty recipe-scaling and a collaborative team-building day involving our Liberty Station Store crew, Stone Lifeblurred was created. Upon its release, Stone Lifeblurred quickly became a fan favorite. It has everything we loved about Stone Lifeblood, but with even more flavor and a drinkability that belies its 11% alcohol-by-volume. It’s so good. Good enough, in fact, that it won a gold medal at the 2024 U.S. Beer Open Championship and a bronze at the Great American Beer Festival the same year. We immediately decided this beer needed to be canned and released as the first of our 2025 Stone Brewing Exclusives, which just so happened to coincide with my 20-year anniversary with the company. Stone Lifeblurred is available now at all of Stone Brewing’s San Diego County locations. We hope you all get a chance to enjoy it. And P.S.: Of course we barrel-aged some of it!”

Kris Ketcham, Senior Manager Brewer & Innovation – Liberty Station, Stone Brewing