Our latest video…
Film and edit: The Noun Collective – David Child and Katrina Parker
Our latest video…
Film and edit: The Noun Collective – David Child and Katrina Parker
The evolution of our lager…
It’s taken six years for the craft beer world to come around to where our head was at when we launched our lager.
Whilst the hardened craft beer drinkers turned their back on lager the newer drinkers have been taking to our lager to a point where it now represents almost a half a million litre product.
As the craft world now wakes up to lager, the timing is perfect for us to give our Lager more of an identity within our range, with a few more tweaks – a brown bottle and the bottled beer now unfiltered to match its draught format, along with a name that reinforces the refreshing nature of our home shores.
Green Coast is the first beer we put in a bottle more than six years ago and is also our second biggest selling beer, growing at 80% on last year.
The delicate and finely balanced flavours of Green Coast have always been admired by true flavour junkies over the years. The people who genuinely understand the nuances involved in bringing disparate flavours like bitter and sweet together in harmony.
It’s been the quiet achiever in our range of beers because Pacific Ale has got all the attention (and tanks).
It’s not easy making lager and our brewing team have always taken great pride in continually making minute tweaks to the structure of Green Coast in keeping with that ongoing journey towards brewing nirvana.
As brewers who are focussed on making good beer (all beer) and not just on what’s hot, we have always believed in and loved what lager brings to the table as a beer, whilst others have been disparaging, we think it’s future is bright.
Live on the Green Coast …. we do!
Over the next few months you will start seeing Green Coast replace our existing lager in bottleshops and on tap. We’re starting local then taking it South!
While many of today’s new age brewers turn their nose up at brewing lagers, we at Stone & Wood embraced it from the start. We think brewing a lager is a real test of a brewer’s technical ability, however the delicate balancing act that’s required is something that some shy away from.
An industry commentator once said that brewing a delicate malt driven lager is like wearing a tight white tshirt – there is no where to hide. If it’s not right, it shows. Balancing the rich malt with hops to get everything in tune takes quality ingredients, experience, skill and time.
Whilst the emerging beers of today seem more in your face and bolder than typical lagers, that doesn’t make them better, it just makes them different.
Like most well developed flavour based industries, the more sophisticated and developed tasters search out the products with refined and subtle flavours. Yes, it takes work and time to appreciate and understand massive hop character, but it is a more developed and learned palate that appreciates and understands the nuances of all beers across the style and flavour spectrum.
We are very proud of the lager we brew, and we will continue to embrace the challenge that brewing a lager brings. The inspiration that led to our lager was based in German tradition and will continue to shape the way we develop our approach.
A couple of months ago we decided to give our filter a rest and let the Lager we put in kegs go out unfiltered, in the tradition of a kellerbier. Beer drawn straight from the cellar.
So now when you’re drinking our Lager off the tap, it will have that unfiltered yeast cloud and a little extra character due to the yeast remaining in suspension all the way to the glass.
We also couldn’t contain our curiosity about the kellerbier traditions and had to have a crack at dry hopping a tank of our lager that was destined for kegs. Putting a local spin on it, we dry hopped the tank with two new age Australian hops Ella and Galaxy. We wanted to see what those fruity flavoursome hops would do when combined with the rich biscuity malt of the lager.
The result … well you will have to taste it for yourself, but we think it delivers all that it promised.
Seek out our Dry Hopped, Unfiltered Lager on tap at a good beer pub and bar near you – see below
Prost!
Meet The Crew: Matt Atkins, Pilot Batch Brewer
Good beer may be our reason for being, but great people are at the heart of our company.
100 Centennial Circuit
Byron Bay NSW 2481
PO Box 2165
Byron Bay NSW 2481
CONTACT
Ph: (02) 6685 5173
Customer service and order enquires
trevor@stoneandwood.com.au
Community sponsorship and marketing enquiries
marketing@stoneandwood.com.au
For anything urgent, please contact us via our Facebook page.