It’s no secret that we at The Full Pint are Stone Brewing Co. fans from way back. One of the biggest reasons is our pal Mitch Steele, not only does he churn out some of the best beer in the world year after year for Stone but he is one of the nicest guys you might ever meet. The Las Vegas Weekly had some great questions for Mitch last week on drinking local, collaborations, canned microbrews and more. Here is an excerpt from the interview

On beer trends in 2013: I don’t have a crystal ball. (laughs) I think IPAs are going to continue to grow, that’s a given. People are just really getting interested in hops as a primary flavor in a beer and the different types of flavors that hops can provide.

One of the things that I like to think I see happening is a trend to lower-alcohol beers with a lot of flavor, more of the sessionable. Session IPAs and session beers, beers that are less than 4.5 percent alcohol. I don’t know if that’s going to happen or not, [but] it’s something I’m watching. I still think people are looking at alcohol content, though, when they make their purchasing decisions.