San Diego Magazine's Happy Half Hour

Listen, I know it can seem like some of us at San Diego Magazine basically eat tacos and taste beer for a living. But it’s in pursuit of the story. Whatever it takes to get to the grist of it all. For you. You deserve this. And if that raises our BAC a tad, we’re there for you. For Stone Brewing’s Laura Ulrich, on the other hand, sampling IPAs is a major part of a hard day’s work. Officially one of Stone’s “small batch brewers,” it’s Laura’s job to research and develop new suds, tweaking recipes—and naming brews after her favorite songs—using Stone’s seven-barrel system in Escondido. She devised two new versions of our beloved Delicious IPA: Delicious Citrus and Delicious Double, both as perfect with a Wagyu patty as their forerunner. Laura’s now one of the key creatives in the Stone brewing operation. But it didn’t happen overnight. She started out 19 years ago on the packaging line. She was a brewer, then a brewery trainer, before landing her spot among the small-batch masterminds. “I’ve seen the whole hous