It seems that despite the announcement that Stone beers are to be legitimately imported to Australia for the first time, we will continue to go Stoneless.

Importer ExperienceIT announced in January that it had secured the import rights to Stone’s beers, an announcement that was soon denied on Twitter by founder Greg Koch.
Huh? Sorry no, NOT legit. “@ptidsy: @StoneGreg Stoked that we’ll soon be able to buy Stone in Aus, legit. Some thirsty folks over here.”

— Greg Koch (@StoneGreg) January 30, 2014
After some back and forth, Greg announced that there had been internal miscommunication at Stone.
@birraitaliana1 There has, apparently, been an internal miscommunication here at Stone. You have our sincere apologies. We’re reviewing.

— Greg Koch (@StoneGreg) January 30, 2014
Australian Brews News exchanged emails with Greg last week to clarify the situation. Greg advised:
It appears that Experience IT are not at fault here, and that there was an unfortunate internal miscommunication. When wrote [sic] that tweet, I had not been privy to discussions between some of our folks and Johnny, so my initial thought was that it was not legit.

This is an embarrassing example of our left hand not knowing what our right hand was doing. It’s a pretty unusual occurrence for us, but possibly putting Experience IT in an awkward position. I owe Johnny a sincere apology if that has been the case.

It sounds like Johnny and his team are doing great things and carrying forward the cause of great craft beer in Australia, and I laud their efforts…and look forward to learning more about what they’ve been able to accomplish and where they’re going.

Our reality is that we’re simply not yet ready to export to Australia.
After a week’s discussion, John Latta from ExperienceIT has announced that he won’t be able to bring Stone in, for now.

John advised:
Over the last several years, we have invested a significant amount of time and effort into developing our model and discussing our approach with Stone. Our focus is on quality and the freshest product, as it always has been. After discussions with folks on the Stone team and the green light being given that we would move forward, it came to light that internally some of their communication had broken down which had then flowed through to us. Stone is extremely embarrassed as such an internal communication gaff of this sort has never happened before, and they have sent us their sincere apologies for their miscommunication. As a result they are now working internally to get back up to speed so everyone is on the same page, and ensure that no damage is done to anyone’s businesses or reputation. We have the greatest respect for Stone, the people we have worked with to date have been fantastic and unfortunately from time to time these things happen, its just a shame that it’s so high profile, but we will jointly get clarity and put it all straight. Please note that it may take some time to get it all sorted, and for Stone to determine their course forward in regards to Australia. It remains our position, and Stone Brewing’s that grey market imports do not respect their brand, nor the consumer’s right to quality.
It’s an unfortunate error, though as Greg has explained to Australian Brews News before, he has concerns about sending his beers to Australia.

In one potential bonus for Australia – or a small segment of it – Greg announced last year he was going to take a mini-sabbatical from the business. This will see him travelling, potentially including Australia in his itinerary. If that comes of, Greg advises he may be looking to hold an event featuring a special import of his beers.