(Escondido, CA) – Stone Brewing Co. announced on Friday afternoon that wholesalers may contribute to the $1 million Indiegogo campaign for regular distribution into the market.

“Stone Groundbreaking Collaborations are available for purchase by anyone looking to get their mitts on these awesome beers. That includes distributors, and we’re seeing that a number of them are beginning to secure their “beer futures” via our campaign. This means two things: 1) When distributors sell these beers to retailers, and then retailers sell them on the open market (to the likes of you), they will inevitably cost substantially more than the $30 we are charging you on Indiegogo; 2) Individuals interested in purchasing beer will want to do so sooner than later—distributors tend to purchase in LARGE quantities, meaning an increased probability that these beers will sell out rather quickly.”

As Stone Co-Founder, Greg Koch, explained on Beer Advocate on Friday, “the wholesaler orders are starting to get logged in (they can buy the beers just like anyone else…they just tend to buy more) and thus the volume sold is going to take a big tick up.”

Indeed, we saw the first big boost to the tune of between $40,000 and $50,000 through a flood of anonymous $300 donations late Friday afternoon.

As of 5PM PST, those contributions helped pushed the project to over 2,000 funders and $220,000, making Stone’s campaign the #1 trending Community project and #3 all-time in the category.

If Stone succeeds in reaching its $1 million goal, which is looking more and more to this long-time observer like a foregone conclusion, it will rank among Indiegogo’s top 20 all-time projects.

The campaign, turning one week old on Saturday, has already smashed previous crowdfunding records set by U.S. breweries like Tributary Brewing, Modern Times Beer and J. Wakefield Brewing.

We reached out to Stone with a handful of questions following Friday afternoon’s announcement and hope to post another progress report next week.