Stone Brewing, Escondido, Calif., announced its first quarter results for fiscal 2017, reporting 18 percent growth versus the prior year. The company’s performance is outpacing both the year-to-date grocery craft category growth rate of 4.4 percent and the category’s 52-week growth rate of 6.4 percent, based on Chicago-based Information Resources Inc. (IRI) data, it says.

Stone Brewing’s growth is fueled by its core beers, it says. Stone IPA is up 8.2 percent, demonstrating continued opportunity to convert more to its iconic West Coast style. Stone Delicious IPA is up 142 percent for the same period. Stone buttressed these core beer advancements with the release of two new year-round beers: Stone Ripper and Stone Tangerine Express IPA.

Stone Ripper is one of the Top 5 new six-packs in U.S. Food, according to IRI, while Stone Tangerine Express IPA depletions year-to-date make it the fifth largest draft IPA brand and the top new 22-ounce beer, the company says. The Stone All IPA Mixed Pack is up 14.7 percent, it says.

“2017 is off to a great start for Stone Brewing both on-premise and off-premise, and it‘s showing us that craft beer fans nationwide appreciate our genre-defining styles of IPAs and our new complementary San Diego-style Pale Ale in Stone Ripper,” said Dominic Engels, Stone Brewing chief executive officer, in a statement. “In a category that seems to be talking more and more about slowdown, we are pleased to be talking about continued double-digit growth.”

Stone Brewing Distribution is expected to expand availability to all 50 states, in addition to the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, while internationally its products now are in 35 countries. Stone Brewing – Berlin is on pace to brew and sell more than 20,000 hectoliters in its first year, it adds. BI