As far as beer landscapes go, no other country on the planet has the variety of the US. After industrializing the industry and virtually exterminating every style of beer, except for light golden lagers, the American craft beer scene has made up for this atrocity in recent years by leading a revival in handcrafted brewing that has spread around the globe.

It’s been a while since we’ve been able to get away from the brewery, let alone make it overseas, but the 2012 World Beer Cup (held in San Diego, California) seemed like a good enough excuse for Brad and Ross to pull out the passport and go visit our Yankee brothers and sisters.

Brad reckons the scene over there is still as crazy as ever. It’s still full of crazy beers that sit somewhere between absurd and ridiculous levels of bitterness, but the beers are also becoming more balanced and drinkable. Australia makes more approachable beers though.

The biggest change he noted since his last visit, which was a few years ago now, was the amount of sour beers and barrel-aged brews around the place. Every brewery that they walked into had barrels of some description. The Australian scene is catching up very quickly though, and the gap between both countries is certainly narrowing.

As we know the US is in such financial trouble, but incredibly, it doesn’t look like the craft beer scene has been affected at all.

As well as bringing home a bag full of brews for us to sample (we hope), the guys had to make room for a silver medal that our Pacific Ale won at the awards.

That’s a little humbling for us as we put our toe into the water of the awards world with Pacific Ale, based on there being a class that it sort of fitted into, being English Summer Ales. It wasn’t a neat fit, but we gave it a go to see how the judges would view it. Winning a silver medal was just amazing.

Since the win on the weekend we’ve had lots of comments from Pacific Ale fans that are happy that their love of our beer has been validated.

That’s a great thing in itself.

One happy brewer. Brad on stage with Charlie Papazian at the World Beer Cup.

What is The Pitch? Well, have you ever dreamt about sitting around with a bunch of creative types and thinking up a new beer? Not only that, but have your creation brewed and released in pubs and bottle shops across the country? The Pitch is your one chance to make that daydream come true.

As part of Stone & Wood’s exciting new side project, The Mash Collective, we’re searching for an amateur brewer to become part of a joint effort in the brewhouse. From the initial concept to the eventual consumption, you’ll be involved in every step along the way.

Home brewers will have the chance to pitch their beer and the idea behind it to The Mash Collective during a beer dinner at The Courthouse in Melbourne on May 15. Guests on the night will also be able to participate by tasting each of the beers and submitting their own votes.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a serious all-grain brewer or someone who simply likes to tinker around with kits. The beer itself is only half the equation, because what we really want to discover is who you are, what you’re passionate about, why you brew and the inspiration behind your beer. You’ll have two minutes to give us your spiel!

You in? Just follow these easy steps to get involved:

1) Brew a beer. Any style you like. Bottles or keg. You’ll need to bring 9 liters along, so everyone can have a taste.

2) Buy a ticket to the dinner (which will feature the full range of Stone & Wood beers, the first Mash Collective brew and delicious produce from the Northern Rivers). They cost $75 and you can purchase by emailing: trevor@stoneandwood.com.au Tickets are limited, so get in early.

3) Craft your pitch!

The Pitch is part of Good Beer Week in Melbourne. Click here to see the full program.

Illustration by Jase Harper ©

For some time now we’ve been working on brewing a beer that would be more suited to the cooler months, a beer that contrasts our current range of Stone & Wood beers. We’re really happy that we are now in a position to be rolling out our new brew just in time for the change of season.

Joining Stone & Wood Pacific Ale and Stone & Wood Lager in our permanent line up of beers, will be a shiny new beer called Stone & Wood Jasper Ale.

Our Jasper Ale reflects the red volcanic soil of our hinterland and is brewed from a blend of pale and crystal malts. Jasper Ale is deep red, has a rich malt character and is well balanced with a firm spicy hop bitterness. If you’re looking for a pidgeon hole to stick it in there’s probably no neat fit, but the inspiration comes from German Alt, American Amber Ale and an English Brown Ale. We love the spicy bitterness that a German hop such as Hersbrucker bring to a beer with that rich malt character.

Over the last couple of years we have been trialling elements of the brew in things like our fund raising beer Red Relief and our Stone Beer brews, and it was just a matter of us having the tank space to brew it in so we could get it out there.

Keep an eye on our ‘Where to get it’ page, up there to the top right of this page, mid-April for stockists.

A selection of the pale and crystal malts used to brew Jasper Ale.

There’s been a lot of talk about festivals in Byron this week. It started with the news that Splendour In The Grass is back in town, come July,  after a few years up north. That made us happy, considering it’s only a lazy stroll from the brewery gates to the site. No doubt they’ll have some amazing acts on the bill, we just hope that our own Festival Of The Stone, held at the start of July to celebrate the release of Stone Beer, doesn’t overshadow it.

Another gathering that’s shaping up to be a mammoth event is the Endless Sunrise Exhibition, here from 5pm on Sunday Feb 19. The Endless Sunrise is a local charity initiative where photographers sign up to try and capture the perfect photo of a Northern Rivers sunrise for 30 days straight. Sponsors then make a donation for each morning the photogs get out of bed in time to capture that first light. It’s the brainchild of Stephan Jose and he’s been blown away by the response with over 50 lensmen (and women) coming onboard to help raise money for Positive Change for Marine Life and the Jonno Howell Photographic Scholarship Fund.

The exhibition will be a showcase of the best photos, plus there will be bands, skate demos, live tattooing, food stalls and of course a few Stone & Wood beers. Tickets are $15 at the gate. All proceeds going to the chosen charities. Families welcome.

Hopefully see you out here!

We’re still amazed that Pacific Ale topped the Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers for 2011. It’s a fantastic list of beers and we’re really thankful that people thought our simple brew was worthy of their vote.

In case you missed it, the Hottest 100 is an online competition driven by The Local Taphouse bars in Melbourne and Sydney. Punters are encouraged to vote for their top five Australian craft beers, available either on tap or in a bottle, throughout 2011. Apparently, this year’s poll was the biggest yet with thousands of votes coming from around the country, which is great news for craft beer in general.

We were pouring beers at a few festivals on Australia Day, when the results were announced, so it wasn’t long before we were celebrating with a few Pacific Ales ourselves. Congratulation to Little Creatures and Feral Brewing who rounded out the top three. Check the out the rest of the list here.

There are always mixed emotions the day a new tank arrives at the brewery. It’s mostly excitement at the thought of having more space to brew more beer into, something we know will make people right around the country pretty happy. There’s a bit of doubt, because the tanks always look smaller when they’re resting on their side and so we wonder if they’ve sent us the right size (compare the photo on the home page to the one below to see what we mean). There’s some anxiety too, because when you’re a small brewery and have nothing more than a forklift, some old straps and a bit of man power to stand the tank into place, things can get a little stressful. But this isn’t our first rodeo. This is tank number eight, so we finally have the process sorted. And with two bigger ones on their way next month, we’re looking forward to a heap of brewing over the coming weeks to fill them all. Just got to work out where the heck we’re going to fit them first…

You always look forward to the next one. The first half disappears too quickly and only once you get to the end do you start to reflect on the highlights. Looking back over the calendar stuck to the brewery wall these are the bits and pieces that have made 2011 a special one for us…

January : Pacific Ale came second in the Local Taphouse Hottest 100.

February : We brewed up some Red Relief , which raised $15k for the Queensland Flood Relief Fund. Launched Pacific Ale in 500ml bottles and Miss Fiona Lane started spruiking our brews around Melbourne.

March : Visited Bushy Park in Tasmania to see (and smell) Galaxy hops being picked during the hop harvest.

April : Pacific Ale was voted best beer in Australia by the Critics’ Choice.

May : The whole team headed down to Good Beer Week in Melbourne. Backed that up by heading north for the Archive Beer Fest in Brisbane.

June : Stone Beer brew day, attended by our new man on the ground in Sydney, Mr Steve Blick. A couple of new tanks arrived at the brewery.

July : Rolled out Stone Beer at the “Festival of the Stone” in Byron and the following week in Melbourne.

August/September : Road trips to share a beer with the good people of Adelaide and Perth.

October : Hosted the opening ceremony for the first Byron Bay Surf Festival at the brewery, attended by our two new brewers Simon Bardill and Luke Rutland. Also ducked off for Sydney Craft Beer Week.

November : A huge one at Newcastle Craft Beer Week followed by Warners at the Bay Beer festival.

December : Nothing but brew, brew and brew some more !

Cheers to everyone who enjoyed a Stone & Wood (or two) along the way. We appreciate the support. Looking forward to this new year with new kegs, new team members, new events and new brews on the way.