As the movers prepare to depart with the last of their blankets, Greg Koch steps over to slip them a generous cash tip. Then one more thing: Beer. From the Sub-Zero fridge that’s face up and packed full like a market cooler, he grabs two six-packs. The movers depart with smiles. Beer smiles. Smiles like Koch’s.

Chief executive and co-founder of the wildly successful Stone Brewing Co. in San Marcos, Koch’s ample charm is a mixture of evangelical belief in his product — “I didn’t choose beer, it chose me. Of course I can’t say I’m unhappy” — and the savvy skills of a well-trained marketer — photographing him without a beer in his hand is a challenge. The former passion came from living in San Francisco during the microbrewery Golden Age. The latter skill was honed following a strategic educational course that included both business and music school.

The public face behind popular beers such as Arrogant Bastard Ale and company mainstay Stone Pale Ale, Koch, 38, is bleached blond this moving day as he becomes one of the first residents of Downtown’s solid and spacious Parkloft. His blond hair is the result of a step taken to change the color from the red he sported for a week in response to a charity challenge.

The Journey’s Head

Koch’s journey to leading a brewery about to land on the Inc 500 list is transcontinental in nature and begins with his birth in La Habra. His family moved to Ohio when he was 4 years old and he stayed there the next 17 years, including two years as a business major at Ohio State. He moved to Los Angeles to attend the Musicians Institute of Hollywood before graduating from USC with a degree in management and marketing. Noticing, in 1989, a lack of practice space for musicians in Los Angeles, he opened Downtown Rehearsal, a 32-room studio in an old downtown warehouse. Today, that music rehearsal business includes 267 rooms and sprawls across 130,000 square feet.

While working on a music venture in San Francisco, Koch found his true calling. “I learned what beer was capable of being.”

He also ran into Steve Wagner, who he first met when Wagner’s band was rehearsing at the L.A. studio. This time they were each taking a UC Davis extension class: sensory evaluation of beer. The pair went back and took a two-week course in microbrewery operations and management.

Wagner was so good at beer making he was hired by Pyramid Brewing Co. outside Portland. But the two kept in touch. When Koch tossed out the idea of starting a microbrewery, Wagner hesitated. “I said, ‘I’m not sure there is any place I would move back to (in California)’.”

Koch suggested San Diego’s North County. Wagner’s brother had gone to school at the University of San Diego, and he was familiar with the area’s slower pace. He agreed.

For four months, they worked out of an office in Koch’s condo, testing beers. When they settled on their favorites, Stone was born in 1996 with Wagner serving as president and brewmaster.

The business was started with $500,000 in private funding. “We were able to convince a couple of angels that we knew what the hell we were doing,” Koch says. “The truth is we didn’t, and it would be arguable that we still don’t. But we are figuring it out pretty fast.”

In six years the operation grew from three to 55 employees, and sales only in San Diego to 14 states.

From its 16,500-square-foot brewery, the company will brew about 18,000 barrels this year, making it the county’s largest beer maker. (A barrel is 31 gallons, which is two regular kegs. A keg will fill 55 six packs.) Plans are in place to build a 35,000-square-foot expansion.

Sales will grow about 60 percent this year to just shy of $6 million. “That will help make up for our embarrassment of last year when growth was 52 percent,” Koch says.

The Downtown Living Decision

Although the business is in the north, Koch likes Downtown’s urban environment. For the last two years he rented a loft at Sixth Avenue and Broadway. The commute? No problem, he says, noting he is driving opposite traffic and that it takes about 35 minutes in his 1999 BMW 328.

“Downtown is where it is at,” Koch says. “I lived in a loft in Downtown L.A. for nine years and I really like the loft style, the big open cubic feet. Given my druthers, I’d most prefer the top floor of an old warehouse. I was looking for a place to purchase rather than rent, so when I learned about Parkloft, I was immediately intrigued. Then when I saw it, well, it is quite a project.”

For recreation, Koch enjoys music — he plays the guitar — travel and eating. A big fan of cheese, he launched a site last month called ratecheese.com where visitors, well, rate cheese. He is especially looking forward to the cheeses he will experience during a “business trip” this month to the every-other-year Salone del Guston organized by Slow Food in Turin, Italy. Stone Brewing is one of 500 exhibitors chosen to participate — four beers will be presented — in what is billed as the world’s largest specialty art and food event.

Play Ball, Or Not

At home in his ninth-floor loft, Koch, who is single, lets his visitors into the building parking garage by using a fishing pole to lower the remote.

It’s good he has such an efficient entry system. His south balcony’s sight line is directly across center field to home plate at the new ballpark. Visitors could be frequent.

Asked if he will be out there watching, the man with the ready quip hesitates.

“I would never say that I don’t like baseball,” he finally says. “I love baseball. The Padres are my favorite team. I can say that honestly.”

Even if friends are over and the game uninteresting — how many exciting Padres games did you watch this year? — Koch figures to enjoy himself. “Anything that I do recreationally, whether it is dining or conversing with friends or watching a sporting event, only hits its pinnacle with good beer.”