seasonal Archives - Stone & Wood

Autumn is one of the best times of the year, the wind’s light, the sun’s bright but the humidity has disappeared leaving our evenings crisp and fresh. It’s also the season to bring our close friends together to brew our annual Stone Beer.

Our Festival of the Stone Tour, that’s seen us travel down to Tassie and back up the East coast collecting ingredients needed to brew Stone Beer, has been all about sharing a beer with the communities that support us.

Stone Brew Day is an extension of this, bringing together some of our crew, customers and suppliers to say thanks, acknowledge their support and… gives us an excuse to wrangle them in to help us with the brew!

We’re proud of the area we get to call home, so we took the legends through the hills and up to check out what’s been brewing in our Murwillumbah brewery. The perfect midday weather illuminated our epic scenery and took the job off our hands to explain just why the area was such an important part of who we are.

Beers in hand, we walked them through the upgrades and work that’s been going on to ensure our handcrafted beer retains consistent quality as we grow.

As the sun started to dip, we headed back to the Byron brewery where the real work had started. Milling had begun and with beers in hand…again, we started making our annual Stone Beer.

After dinner the stones were thrown onto the coals, once they were as hot as the chillies used by the road crew to rim one another’s beer glasses, they were thrown into the kettle to rouse the boil and intensify the malt character… just like the old days. This technique pays tribute to the processes undertaken by traditional brewers in a time before steam and electricity.

Amongst all the brewing there were plentiful platters of local cheese and mouth-watering tucker prepared on an open grill, giving us an opportunity to share local produce and flavours with our mates.

Stone Brew Day is much more than making our favourite seasonal beer, it brings brewing back to the basics and what local breweries were originally about… the community. The simple act of playing host, sharing our backyard, food and way of living is what it’s all about… It’s the way it should be.

Be the first to try this year’s Stone Beer, which will be launched at our Festival of the Stone on Saturday 14 May at the brewery. Bring the family and let us share this special beer and day with you.