In anticipation of the Fair Trade Jewellery Co.’s big launch I took a day away from designing jewellery to design a beer recipe for our opening with Simon Rollason of Great Lakes Brewery. Inspired by the shared heritage of our trades, the artisans process and the fact we’re big kids who had the run of a brewery; we settled on creating a ‘Stein beer’.

In anticipation of the Fair Trade Jewellery Co.’s big launch I took a day away from designing jewellery to design a beer recipe for our opening with Simon Rollason of Great Lakes Brewery. Inspired by the shared heritage of our trades, the artisans process and the fact we’re big kids who had the run of a brewery; we settled on creating a ‘Stein beer’.

Photo: Simon setting up the Great Lakes Brewery ‘Pilot System’

So what is a Stein beer?

*"..In the early days of brewing, brewers were much more concerned with method than style. Heating the water and boiling the wort were probably the greatest obstacle to making a decent beer. How in the heck were you supposed to brew without the modern conveniences of steam jackets or direct heat? For brewers in the Middle Ages, hot rocks were the most logical means of conducting heat. When dropped in a wooden vat filled with wort, the heated rocks had a cauldron effect, causing the wort to boil vigorously over a period of several minutes. This resulting brew became known as "stein beer." From the name – "stein" is German for "stone" – we can gather that Germans developed this traditional brewing method. Stein beer was most common in the Alpine regions of Europe, where stones were easily quarried and transported back to the brewery. With the Industrial Revolution came easier means of heating wort, and by the start of the 20th century, the method was obsolete."

*Content from BYO 2001:

To summarize we’re gonna throw really (really, really) hot rocks into beer.  Heating the rocks (pink granite to be exact) is often done in an open pit fire, some brewers have built fires around kegs with the tops cut off in which the stones are placed. But, we had a better idea. Because we use extremely high temperatures in the process of jewellery casting it only made sense to use a kiln rather than an open fire to super heat the rock to a specific temperature. 900 degrees Celsius (1652 degrees Fahrenheit) to be exact.

Photo: FTJCo’s Kiln & the Pink Granite sourced from a local beach.

By heating to such a temperature: (a) it would be really cool (b) unknown volatiles would be released by the wort that normally wouldn’t be extracted by simply boiling (c) something would catch fire (and did) (d) we hoped because of the heat some of the sugars and proteins would deposit on the rock as it ‘cooled’ in the brew, creating natural and subtle burnt caramel flavours.

The ‘Stein Paper Scissors’ Recipe: (Influenced by a Sierra Nevada Pale ale)

5kg of Canadian Pink Granite (from the beach) at 900 degrees C at 60 min

Malt: 2 Row, Crystal, Wheat

Plato Readings: Before sparge: 19 / after sparge: 12.6  / after boil: 14.4 / after rocks: 15.6

Hops: Ammarillo: 200gr at Boil,  Cascade: 200gr at 55min

Pink Granite heated in conventional goldsmith’s convection casting kiln over 5 hours allowing the rocks to soak in heat gradually until reaching and maintaining 900 degrees C.

Rocks were removed from the kiln and literally thrown in the wort using wood we soaked all morning in boiling water.

Also added a couple of super secret ingredients <here>

The rocks were added after the Cascade hops had 55min of  ’rolling boil’, producing a violent ’super boil’ instantly.

We had expected some caramelization on the rocks however the extreme temperature created enough steam to protect the surface of the rock.

Fermentation: California Ale Yeast

We decided to add the rocks to the fermentation process hoping some sugars were extracted into the rock.

C02 Bubbles a good sign shortly after finishing.

We’re extremely exited about the process and there is some potential here to create a really incredible and unique process. If you’d like to try our ‘Stein Paper Scissors’ Great Lakes will have limited quantity  (about 20 pints) available for sampling at their Project X #3 tasting on Sept. 10th at 6:30pm. The last cask will be saved for our opening party on the 25th of September if you’d like to attend please RSVP here: http://reno.ftjco.com

We’ll be updating this post with some process and recipe tweeks, tasting notes, photos of the final product. If your interested in the process, have some questions please feel free to leave a comment below we’ll try to fill in any missing bits.

*Update*

Thanks to Jack from Great Lakes Brewery for delivering me a bottle of ‘Stein Paper Scissors’ to sample. Here are some photos and tasting notes.

Unfiltered with a deep Amber colour, sadly the head quickly dissipated leaving only a bubbly ring around the glass.  (Though I probably wasn’t using the correct glass) A 

Smell was floral, rose, caramel, citrus a complicated but balanced smell almost like a perfume. A+

Taste. %^!*^#ing Wow. Explosion of so many tastes that almost feel like they evaporate off your tongue, it’s the oddest sensation. It leaves behind a very tasty but extremely bitter hop flavour that seems to coat the inside of your mouth. A burnt, peppery, woody undertone is complimented by some citrus flavours produced by the Cascade hops and that ‘rose’ flavour/scent keeps popping up. A++++++++

The high alcohol volume (approx 6.5%) is unnoticeable when drinking, and dare I compare it with Southern Tiers ‘UnEarthly’ I.P.A for complexity? I’m interested in Simon’s review as the IBUs are so very high I would no longer classify this as simply a Pale Ale but an American style I.P.A. 

I’m obviously biased but this one of the most interesting beers I’ve ever tasted. We are awesome