Yes, you read that headline right, Stone Brewing—purveyor of Arrogant Bastard Ale, famously anti “fizzy yellow beer”/mainstream industrial beer—has a hard seltzer(!). Buenavida Hard Seltzer was initially launched in Southern California only, but now the company has announced its nationwide rollout.

Press release:

After a wildly successful launch in Southern California, Stone Brewing’s premium Buenavida Hard Seltzer is now rolling out nationwide. The company, known for its commitment to challenging convention, has once again kicked sameness to the curb when it became the first to break the hard seltzer can trend last July. Buenavida Hard Seltzer is:

• Packaged in custom-molded glass bottles, doing some serious favors to its bubbly carbonation
• Made with real cane sugar
• Sugar-free (the yeast converts all the sugar to alcohol and CO2 in the natural brewing process)
• Gluten-free
• 100 Calories
• 5% ABV

When Buenavida Hard Seltzer launched last summer in Southern California, the company’s first five-week forecast sold out in one week. Stone attributes its success to not only its refined bottle experience, but to the superior flavors that elevate this hard seltzer.

Stone Brewing CEO Maria Stipp explains, “We’ve never offered anything like Buenavida, but we’ve often left our comfort zone to try new things. Our brewers ran trial after trial until we landed on flavors we’d reach for, regardless of the low calories in a seltzer. Then we thought through each detail to guarantee that everything about this would be ‘buena’ – a truly enjoyable experience. While this is a new innovation for Stone, it reflects the same really high standards of attention and quality found in all our award-winning beers.”

Buenavida Hard Seltzer is brilliantly bubbly and packaged to impress. Mixed 12-pack bottles of four festive flavors are now available nationwide:

• Buenavida Hard Seltzer – Watermelon & Lime
• Buenavida Hard Seltzer – Mango
• Buenavida Hard Seltzer – Black Cherry
• Buenavida Hard Seltzer – Mandarin

Buenavida Hard Seltzer joins Stone Buenaveza Salt & Lime Lager in Stone’s family of “Live Buena” beverages. Both brands pull inspiration from Stone’s North of the Border heritage and complement Stone’s year-round IPA offerings.

Visit Stone’s Beer Finder to locate the brewery’s beers and seltzers nationwide: Find.StoneBrewing.com.

It makes a certain sense; Stone is really a lifestyle brand as much as a brewing company, and has carefully cultivated this image for years, so why not add a lifestyle-oriented line of hard seltzers? (“Lifestyle” referring to the low-calorie, low-carb appeal of seltzers to the healthier-conscious drinking segment.)

Even so, I’d be interested to see Arrogant Bastard Hard Seltzer.