Stone Beer is back! Brewed using one of brewing's oldest traditions, Stone Beer 2026 is a rich porter made with wood-fired stones, delivering layers of roasted malt, dark chocolate, coffee and subtle smoke.
In mid May, we gathered in the brewery for one of our favourite annual rituals: Stone Brew Day. Heated over a wood fire before being lowered into the brew, the stones caramelise the malt, creating the rich, distinctive flavour that makes Stone Beer what it is.
Brewed just once a year and worth the wait. Stone Beer is available soon online, in our Byron Bay Tasting Room and at select bottle shops.
Back for its third year, our strawberry and cream sour sensation – Strawberry Sundae Kisses – has returned and is bubbling away in our Brisbane Brewery, getting ready for an early August release.
Packed with 60kg of Queensland strawberries, this gorgeous little limited-edition is not only delicious, but has a heart of gold.
Each year, proceeds from our Strawberry Sundae Kisses, sold exclusively from our Brisbane Brewery, are directed toThe Common Good, the fundraising initiative of The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane.
For 33 years, theRoyal Queensland Show- the Ekka– provided The Common Good with one of its biggest fundraising drives of the year, with the sales of its iconic Strawberry Sundaes going direct to the charity.
So, in 2020 when the Ekka was cancelled (for the first time) due to Covid restrictions, our Brisbane Head Brewer, Mick Barnes got curious about how we could get on board to help the cause.
The result: Strawberry Sundae Kisses.
Based on the traditional Berliner Weisse beer style, brewed with fresh strawberries, lactose and vanilla added during fermentation for a creamy, delectable beer with hints of Ekka strawberry sundaes.
For the past two years, the legends of Southeast Queensland have absolutely got behind our delicious homage, with the brew selling out both years in a matter of weeks.
This year, with the Ekka back on (touching wood, crossing fingers), we’re thrilled to continue to be a part of The Common Good story, with the 2022 Strawberry Sundae Kisses batch being sold not just at our Fortitude Valley Brewery, but also at the big old show itself!
You can grab a glass of SSK in the phenomenal Craft Beer Alley at this year’s Ekka while chomping down on the original Ekka classic, Strawberry Sundae.
As with previous years, all proceeds from the sales of Strawberry Sundae Kisses will go towards The Common Good and all the amazing work that takes place atThe Prince Charles Hospitalin Brissie.
Catch Strawberry Sundae Kisses at our Brisbane Brewery from Thursday 4 August and at the Royal Queensland Show from Saturday 6 August.
We’re stoked to announced an epic $15,000 was raised at Murbah Open Day 2022 to support Tweed Palliative Support & Wedgetail Retreat.
Just like the Willy Wonka of beer, we’re opening our big brewery gates to let the public in for a peek at our Murwillumbah Open Day on Saturday, 6 August.
Though we’re short on Oompa Loompas, we do have some of our best brewers on hand ready to show you all the behind the scenes treats of our Murwillumbah (Murbah) Brewery with Brewery Tours being held on the day by our crew.
This is where your favourite Stone & Wood beers get brewed and bottled so there’s no better place to enjoy a few fresh ones among friends at one of the many pop-up bars spread across the site.
Also pouring for one day only, will be Murbah Session Beer. An easy-drinking kolsch lager, MSB is brewed in honour of the resilient legends who reside in our beloved Murbah. We’re proud to have this Northern Rivers enclave as the home of our brewery and MSB is our way of saying thanks to our local community.
Bringing the fiesta to the festival will be an awesome local musical line up and the region’s best selection of food trucks and market stalls, further details to be announced in the weeks ahead.
A day for all the family, there will be a designated area for the kiddies, with face painting and arts and crafts, so parents will also get a chance to kick back.
Entry to the day is by gold coin donation with all profits from the festival going towards an amazing local cause:Wedgetail Retreat.
Wedgetail Retreat provide free palliative care to the Northern Rivers community, giving locals and their families a warm and welcoming environment to call home. Operating without government funding, Wedgetail relies on the support of its community to keep its doors open and continue with the amazing care they provide.
MALT DISNEY
At our dedicated kids area, Malt Disney, hosted by Kidz Klub, provides little ones with fun workshops, arts and crafts and garden games, and a special guest appearance from Shorty Brown the Clown. Parents will be required to supervise their little ones.
Needless to say, there will be beer. Pop-up bars will be pouring brew straight from the source and for those looking for something beyond the froth, there will also be pop-up bars fromHusk Distillery(serving up Ink Gin & Husk Rum Cocktails),Little Dragon Ginger Beer,Sunly Seltzer,Treehouse Ciderand a coffee cart for midday caffeine kicks, soda/water refill stations and ice-blocks for the kids.
Good beer may be our reason for being, but great people are at the heart of our company.
Good beer may be our reason for being, but great people are at the heart of our company.
From the dedicated brewers on the brew deck, to the friendly voices on the phone in our Customer Service team, every member of the passionate Stone & Wood family has a story to tell.
With that in mind, we thought we’d open the brewery gates and introduce some of the legends who bring their best to our beers every day.
OUR FIRST LOOK IN OUR MEET THE CREW SERIES, MATT ATKINS
One of our talented Pilot Batch Brewers, working across our Murwillumbah and Byron breweries. Tune into the video below.
While our big brewery in Murbah is busy bottling up your Stone & Wood favourites, our smaller brewery at Byron operates like a testing lab. It’s here that our brewers get to cook up all our weird and wonderful limited-releases, Counter Culture beers and Pilot Batches.
Matt started out as a home brewer almost 20 years ago, before coming on board with Stone & Wood as one of our brewers 10 years later. Now Matt’s using that depth of knowledge to help bring our Byron Pilot Batches to life.
On brewing, Matt said, “I like the process, the same with anything – I like to know how things are done.
And it’s quite basic as well. Beer has four ingredients, and to get different flavours and styles, it just takes slight tweaks in the recipes. I like that side of it. The simplicity of it.”
After hours of research, Matt has created a delicious limited-edition delight in the form of a Strawberry Cheesecake Sour. Using a sour beer base to start, Matt added strawberry puree, crushed-up biscuits… and cheesy corn chips…into the mix to bring out that Strawberry Cheesecake flavour.
For those lucky enough to be in or near Byron in the next few weeks, Matt’s Strawberry Cheesecake Sour will be on tap in our Byron Brewery for a limited time!
We’re stoked to announce our Festival of the Stone held on Saturday 3 June,raised $20,000for Byron’s homeless and rough sleeping community service,Fletcher Street Cottage.
Over 1800 people passed through our gates to come together, shake off a tough start to the year and dance the night away for a good cause.
With an awesome musical line-up that appeared across two stages, local legends Drop Legs and Death By Denim packed out the mainstage with Melbourne rockers, The Delta Riggs capping off the night with an epic set.
Inside the Brewery, our brewtanks became the illuminated backdrop for one heady dancefloor as the Club Raiders DJS, Cashew and Yazmin dropped some fresh and frothy beats.
Most importantly, in the process of this revelry, all ticket, beer and raffle sales were steadily raising funds to go directly to Fletcher Street.
Outside of Sydney, the Byron Shire has the largest rough-sleeping population in Australia (even bigger than Melbourne’s), making the Fletcher Street Cottage and its services such a crucial part of the Byron community. They’re open every day, ready with breakfast, hot showers, laundry and counselling services for those in need.
Our Events Guru, Sally G, was blown away by the happy vibe brought by the big crowd on the day.
Sally said, “It’s such an honour to put on an event where locals can come together and really enjoy themselves. Holding it in support of such an important issue for our region, just adds that extra layer of meaning.
There was such a happy spirit here on Saturday, a good sign that big events in Byron are back and here to stay.”
Stone & Wood is proud to support Fletcher Street Cottage and other local grassroots organisations through our not-for-profit arm, theinGrained Foundation.
As the shorter days and colder nights creep in, our brewers set to work creating one of our most coveted limited-releases, our delicious wood-fired porter: Stone Beer.
STONE BEER 2022
Pouring dark brown, this decadent brew begins with rich and chocolatey aromas, followed by dark chocolate, coffee, caramel and toffee flavours on the palate and finishes with a firm bitterness.
But there’s much more to this beer than just delicious indulgence.
For the first time in Stone Beer history, we’re thrilled to announce Stone Beer 2022 is made using regenerative grain. Sourced from farms that replenish and restore the earth they toil, it is our hope with further adaptation to this way of farming, there will be many more vintages of Stone Beer to come.
While we’re embracing the future, Stone Beer will always be a homage to the past. Created each year using ancient brewing techniques, our brewers set volcanic rock into a burning hot fire, before adding them glowing red to the kettle. This rouses the boil and intensifies the beer’s malt character.
Best enjoyed with mates by a fire somewhere, we also suggest pairing this dark beauty with a rich chocolate cake or a serving of nonna’s tiramisu.
STONE BEER VINTAGE PACK
A very limited number ofStone Beer Vintage Packsisonly available from our online store. For the Stone Beer devotee, the Vintage Pack comes with a traditional ceramic crock filled with our delicious 2021 Barrel Aged Stone Beer brew, plus a cheeky taster of 2022 Stone Beer on the side.
Find your nearest stockist below, and give them a call before heading out to ensure it’s in stock! Note: Listing will be updated in the weeks ahead as word gets out.
Stone Beer 2022 stockists
Find your nearest stockist below, and give them a call before heading out to ensure it’s in stock! Note: Listing will be updated in the weeks ahead as word gets out.
Last week our delicious Green Coast Lager wins Silver in its category at theWorld Beer Cupheld in the USA.
The most prestigious beer competition in the world – commonly known as the Beer Olympics –Green Coast Lagercame second in the Kellerbier or Zwickelbier category, a category historically dominated by European breweries.
For those without an in-depth beer knowledge: a Kellerbier or Zwickelbier beer is an unfiltered European-style lager that has yeast present.
With over 2,493 breweries competing in the Cup from 57 countries, we are stoked at what this great lager has been able to achieve on the world stage.
Originally known as Stone & Wood Lager, Green Coast was the first beer to be bottled by Stone & Wood and from 2008 made its way around venues and bottle shops in the Northern Rivers before branching out across the country.
Brewed with food accompaniment in mind, Green Coast Lager is a balance of subtly spicy hops with a soft malt profile.
Now 14 years on from its origin, the Green Coast Lager family also includes an easy drinking, modern lager: Green Coast Lager Crisp.
Lover of beer and long time Stone & Wood ambassador Viren Goundrie breaks down this European-style lager and its role in our lineup of beers. Crack a coldie and press play.
And last but not least – a special shout out from the Cup goes to our fellow Aussies who also got on the podium this year:Bucketty’s Brewingwho received Bronze for their Pale Ale No.2 andUrban Alleywho also won Bronze for Slapshot.
Because as the darker days of the year start to creep in, it’s a signal to our brewers that the season of the Stone has begun.
It starts with the brewing of our decadent, limited-release wood fired porter and ends in our biggest party of the year – Festival of The Stone.
Every year, our brewers begin the Stone Beer brew by employing ancient techniques of setting fire stones in the kettle. On this year’s Stone Brew Day, we invited legends of the local hospitality game down to help us start the story of Stone Beer 2022 and breathe fire into this year’s legend.
We make a slight twist to the Stone Beer recipe each year, but the element of 2022’s brew we’re most proud of is the use of regenerative grain. Grain is the base of every great beer and the crop we sourced from this year, comes from farms that replenish and restore the earth they toil, a way of farming that’s soft on the soil and sustainable for years to come.
Stone Beer 2022 was made with a range of the highest quality Australian malts from Voyager Craft Malt and native wattle-seed. Pouring dark brown, this decadent brew begins with rich and chocolatey aromas, followed by dark chocolate, coffee, caramel and toffee flavours on the palate and finishes with a firm bitterness.
WATCH: STONE BREW DAY 2022
STONE BEER 2022 RELEASE
Of course, not everyone is able to drop all their plans for a decadent porter, so the great news is Stone Beer will be available in our online store and at select bottle shops and venues this June. Stay tuned for a release time.
FESTIVAL OF THE STONE
Of course, there’s no better place than try Stone Beer than right at the source.
Festival Of The Stonemarks the tapping of each year’s Stone Beer and also doubles as Byron’s biggest neighbourhood block party. This year, we’re stoked to have Melbourne rockers The Delta Riggs headline an amazing lineup that also includes Death By Denim, Drop Legs, South Summit, Club Raiders DJs, Cashew, Spacie, Yazmin and the Stone & Wood DJs.
Wherever you are this winter, we invite you to enjoy Stone Beer 2022, preferably around a fire, with mates…or on a Byron dancefloor with hundreds of strangers
Counter Culture’s International Can of Mystery Is Here
Born in Southern France but stationed all over the globe, international can of mystery – Wayne Dubois – recently fell into the hands of the fiends at Counter Culture.
Deep in their dark lab, he was transformed into an intriguing hybrid of French sophistication and Australian good times.
A sparkling shiraz at heart, Wayne underwent a rigorous and experimental fermentation process that resulted in a personality so dry and refreshing that one encounter with this smooth operator is never enough.
Sour by name, not by reputation, there are few who can resist a night with Wayne Dubois.
An international can of mystery…who really is Wayne Dubois?
AVAILABILITY
The Counter Culture Lab have lost control of Wayne.
WAYNE IS NOW SOLD OUT ON OUR ONLINE STORE. If you’re lucky you might be able to find him at selected bottleshops and venues and ourByron Bay Tasting RoomandBrisbane brewery.
LISTEN:WHO REALLY IS WAYNE DUBOIS? PLAYLIST
Counter Cultureby Stone & Wood present theWho Really Is Wayne Dubois?Playlist: music inspired by the latest limited release, the intriguing hybrid of French sophistication and Australian good times. Crack open a cold can of Wayno andpress play.
Be sure to follow@counterculturebeerto be the first across all the brewing magic.
APPLICATIONS HAVE BEENEXTENDEDUNTIL 5PM FRIDAY 6TH MAY
Many of you who are fans of our beer also know that being a useful part of the community is an important measure of who we are as a business.
It’s why we started a separate, not-for-profit arm called the inGrained Foundation, an organisation designed to help tackle the challenges faced in the areas where we work and live.
This year, more than ever before, our backyard of Northern NSW, needs support. That’s why, we’re pumped to announce the inGrained Foundation’s 2022 Northern Rivers Large Grants program.
With a funding pool of $200K, grassroots organisations from the Northern Rivers and Clarence Valley can apply for a cash grant between $5 – $30K to assist with programs that directly benefit our community, or the environment that surrounds us.
Obviously, flood relief and recovery will be top of mind for a lot of people, but inGrained are encouraging applications for a wide range of causes from not-for-profits with DGR status.
This year’s categories for grants are:
Conservation of natural resources and habitats.
Action on climate change.
Mental health and wellbeing.
Accommodation and homelessness.
Inclusion and diversity.
Applications are open today so to find out more and apply, head to theinGrained website.
Outside of this program, Stone & Wood are committed to helping the recovery efforts in the region by running a fundraising program over the bars at both our Byron and Brisbane breweries for the foreseeable future and lending a hand on the ground whenever we can.
If you’re keen to find out how you can connect to some of the great organisations in Northern NSW who are working directly with the community,visit our recent blogfor some helpful links.
FOR A LITTLE FEEL GOOD INSPIRATION… WATCH THE STORIES OF PAST RECIPIENTS
In the past 10 days, the heartland of Stone & Wood – the Northern Rivers region – has faced a disaster unlike most of us have ever seen before.
The recent floods have touched all of us here, either directly or through family, friends and neighbours.
We are immensely proud of our Stone & Wood team who have been out on the streets, in community halls and people’s homes doing everything they could to help their communities through the rescue and recovery efforts.
While for some of the region, the first stage of recovery is coming to an end, we know that for many people, this will be a process that takes months.
So, what can we do as a Northern Rivers business who wants to be a part of the solution? This is what we’ve been asking ourselves since day one.
Later this month, the inGrained Foundation, will be launching its annualLarge Grants Roundwhere local not-for-profits can apply for funding for long-term-projects. Those who are operating flood recovery projects are encouraged to apply.
SUPPORTING OUR COMMUNITY
As the situation continues to unfold, we will be doing all we can to support our community and show up for each other as best we can throughout 2022 and beyond.
On Sunday 13 March, our breweries in Byron and Brisbane both held Flood Relief Fundraisers with all profits from the events going to the amazing people atOrange Sky, who are on the ground with mobile laundries and showers, getting those affected fresh clothes for their backs. Stay tuned to find out how much was raised on the day.
For a little snapshot of our day in Byron and how our community are holding up, we pulled together a quick video.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
If you’re looking for some direction on how you can help, below is just a small list of some of the great people out there working directly with the community.
It Takes a Town: Helping affected families directly with supplies and essential items.
Resilient Lismore – Lismore Helping Hands: The Lismore community-run disaster response network are coordinating with services across the Northern Rivers and are building systems to assist across the region.
The Byron Rangersare mobilising 3,000+ local volunteers to organise crisis accommodation, supply food packages, transport goods for people and wildlife, and the massive clean up.
The Echo Go Fund MeRaising funds and distributing them as quickly as possible to help the community organisations on the ground.
…into the mix to bring out that Strawberry Cheesecake flavour.
