Standing Stone Brewing Company

beer styles

By in Brewery & Beer, Events 0

Freestone Sour Takes Bronze

We can add the first notch on our belt for Best of Craft Beer Awardsaward winning beers in 2015; our Freestone Sour took bronze at the Best of Craft Beer Awards!  The beer took third place in the Berliner Weisse category, a style also designated as sour beer.  The Best of Craft Beer Awards is a competition put on by beer connoisseurs to help promote the best of the best in craft brewing.  The Berliner Weisse category was one of forty-nine styles judged at the contest.

Brewing companies from all over the United States participate: from Pennsylvania, to Wyoming, New Jersey, to Washington, and even all the way out from Hawaii with Maui Brewing Company.  Our Berliner Weisse ranked third after silver medalist Tower 23 by Cape May Brewing Company and gold medalist Volkssekt by Bend Brewing Company. Sour beer

The first thing one can assume from reading the name Freestone Sour, is that it’s probably very different.  Berliner Weisse style beers have a fruity sour tartness that gives them a unique flavor, different than any other kind of beer.  Our sour used over 120lbs of fresh peaches during the brewing process, giving us the name Freestone Sour.  The beer has a rounded, sweet-sour flavor, not as tart as some – it doesn’t pucker your face like a handful of sour candies – but still has enough to give it a lively temperament. We’re incredibly proud of the beer, and of Larry for making two award winning beers in the last six months!  In case you missed it, our Steelcut Stout took silver in an organic beer competition last fall.  For the full list of beer contestants and beer winners, check out the award list at the Best of Craft Beer Awards website.  When you’re done perusing through the winner’s list, come by Standing Stone and try out the Freestone Sour while you still can!

By in Brewery & Beer 0

Meet Our New Regular: Milk & Honey Ale

Good news, Part I: Milk & Honey Ale is back on tap!

Good news, Part II: Milk & Honey Ale is here to stay!

We hear customer and employee requests for this specialty brew all year long, and we decided it’s about time we dedicate a year-round tap line to this favorite. So, for all you Milk & Honey lovers out there, come grab a pint, pitcher or keg and rest easy; we won’t be running out any time soon.

Milk & HoneyAbout Milk & Honey Ale

This ale presents a polished copper color, silky smooth medium body and nuances of honey, which comes from a proprietary honey malt. We add lactose, an unfermentable milk sugar, to provide body and a slight residual sweetness. 6.0% abv. 25 IBU

Malt

Organic Pilsner

Honey Malt

Acidulated

 

Hops

Bittering = Organic Centennial

Flavor/Aroma = Organic Golding

 

Food Pairings

The medium body and light sweetness of this beer make it a great pairing with like-bodied comfort foods. You can also use it to cut some heat when eating spicy meals, as the malt character will cool your palate in between hot bites. Here are a few pairing suggestions from our menu:

Turkey Reuben

Bread Pudding

Fish Tacos

Roasted Beet & Chevre Salad

Want to hear even more good news? We’ll feature this beer in one of the six courses at our annual Winter Beer Dinner in January – more info on the beer and food pairing extravaganza coming soon. In the mean time, come down and say “hi” to this new regular on tap.

 

By in Brewery & Beer 1

10 More Barrels of Beer with Our New Brewing Tank

We had a special delivery this Tuesday – a brand-spanking new serving tank for our brewery! Our other five serving tanks are positioned right above our bar and allow us to serve cold beer fresh from our taps everyday. This vessel will allow us to always have six beers on tap (a goal we sometimes struggle to reach with our current brewing capacity) and increase the variety of beer styles we offer.tractor move

Our brewer, Larry Chase, is particularly excited about the opportunity to experiment with brewing more lager-style beers. Because of their colder fermentation temperature and longer maturation time, lagers take longer to brew and therefore take up more tank space. With this extra serving tank we can transfer batches faster and free up fermenters to start new batches all over again.

Here’s the specs on our new tank:

Working capacity :10 BBL (310 gal)

Total capacity :12 BBL (372 gal)

Weight: 1000 lbs

The tank was built by Marks Design & Metalworks in Vancouver, WA. After it arrived on upstairs viewTuesday we brought our New Holland tractor up the road from our farm to move it to a safe space in our back alleyway. This afternoon, co-owner Alex Amarotico and his team will move the vessel upstairs to our overhead brewing facility inside the brewpub.

Larry hopes to start using the new tank right away, and we can’t wait to see what’s in store with new varieties and more of old favorites on the way! Stop by to gander at our new pride-and-joy, and, of course, have a pint while you’re here.

By in Brewery & Beer, Sustainability 0

Sourcing Salmon-Safe Hops

In brewing, cooking and tending to our farm, we are always looking toward environmentally sustainable practices that benefit land, health and community. This year, in a move to source even more ingredients for our brews from farms that practice similar missions, we are welcoming Centennial and Cascade hop varieties from Goschie Farms in Silverton, Oregon.hops2

Goschie Farms grows over 500 acres of predominantly organic hops in the Willamette Valley, along with 600 more acres of grapes, corn and other crops. Their commitment to agricultural research together with Oregon State University means they are constantly moving to improve operations and help educate other growers and the craft brewing community.

One thing in particular about Goschie Farms that draws us to their delicious hops is their pioneering drive to become the first hop farm in the nation to be certified Salmon-Safe. Salmon-Safe certified farms use organic operations and biologically-based pest management to help protect water quality and local salmon logofish habitat. This program extends across the region with more than 60,000 acres of farm and urban land certified in the Pacific Northwest.

With a mission of saving the wild salmon population through transforming land management practices, Salmon-Safe works with farms, vineyards, college campuses, nurseries, parks, golf courses and more. We’re thrilled to source a portion of our hops from an Oregon farm involved in this beneficial and widely successful program! Other microbreweries in the state that source hops from Salmon-Safe certified farms include Full Sail in Hood River and Deschutes Brewing in Bend.

We know that Salmon-Safe is good for more than just the local salmon hops3population – healthy salmon represent a thriving environment and unsoiled waterways. In turn, we enjoy cleaner water for drinking and brewing craft beer. You can find Centennial and Cascade hops from Goschie Farms in our Amber Ale, I Heart Oregon Ale, Twin Plunge Double IPA and a handful of Seasonal Brews. Find out more about Salmon-Safe and where to find certified producers and growers on their website, and enjoy a Standing Stone brew to toast water wellbeing in the Pacific Northwest.

By in Brewery & Beer 1

Beer Name Debut: Twin Plunge Double IPA

_GEO8938_edited-1Good beer deserves a good name, and after 16 years of serving pints and pitchers of our most popular brew, we’re unveiling a fresh, new name for our long-beloved Standing Stone Double India Pale Ale: Twin Plunge Double IPA. We feel this special ale deserves its own label, and after much brainstorming we landed on a name that reflects our desire to plunge into a tasty pint.

Twin Plunges was the name of the spring-fed, side-by-side pools in Ashland, OR where the Ashland Food Co Op stands today. These pools opened in 1931 and the facility was a major attraction to locals and tourists alike until they closed in 1977 due to maintenance costs and vandalism. The dual pools served as a refreshing summer getaway in Southern Oregon, and we like to think our Double IPA is similar: an exciting break from conventional beer, with invigorating bitterness from a double dose of delicious dry hopping.

twin_plunges-30s-40s

(photo: Rogue News Online)

About the Beer

This hoppy ale shows light copper color, medium body and refreshing bitterness. The ale is dry hopped twice, first with Cascade and Centennial hops for a citrus and fruity character, and then with whole leaf Amarillo in the serving tank to ramp up the floral aroma. 8.1% abv, 55 IBU

Malt

• Organic 2-row

• Organic Munich

• Dextrose

• Organic C-60

patio serve Hops

• Bittering = Apollo

• Kettle Flavor/Aroma = Cascade, Liberty

• 1st Dry Hop = Cascade, Centennial

• 2nd Dry Hop = Whole Leaf Amarillo

Food Pairing Suggestions

This big, hoppy beer pairs well with bold, full-flavored foods. The astringency of the hops will help cut richness between bites, refreshing the palate with each sip. The hoppiness will intensify spicy heat if you’re looking for an extra kick, so try with Buffalo wings or chili peppers to go the extra mile. Here are our food pairing suggestions from our menu:

  • Spicy Thai Curry

    twin_plunges-1930s

    (photo: Rogue News Online)

  • Italian Sausage Pizza with Pepperoncinis
  • Buffalo Wings
  • Guacamole Burger
  • Lamb Pita
  • Grilled Reuben Sandwich

Hop heads and India Pale Ale enthusiasts, come in and enjoy our much-loved Double IPA with its brand new name! It’s the same fresh and hoppy brew, just a splash more fun.

By in Brewery & Beer, Restaurant & Menu 0

Food and Beer Pairings: Expert Tips From Our Brewmaster

Our brewmaster, Larry Chase, isn’t just an expert on beer. He’s also savvy about food and is particularly fond of crafting beer and food pairings that bring out the best in both. We asked him to share a few pointers.

Why pair beer and food?

It creates new flavor experiences that are often more than the parts. Craft beers provide many flavor possibilities from the wide variety of malted barley, hops, carbonation and yeast used within and across beer styles. Microbrews also work with many foods that wine doesn’t pair so well with.

What are your general tips for pairing food and beer?

First, think about intensities. Combine foods that have a delicate flavor with lighter microbrews, and vice versa. You want the pairing to be complementary instead of having one element overwhelm the other. Think about flavors, too. For example, malted barley provides sweetness you can use to balance acidity and spicy heat. Alternately, use a beer’s bitterness to emphasize spicy heat. Balance sweet or rich food with hop bitterness, carbonation, alcohol and roasted malt flavors..

What pairings do you recommend for folks to try at home?

Bring out the cheese. Beer’s carbonation scrubs away the fat, readying your palate for more cheese. Blue cheeses have fun with IPA’s – the stronger the IPA, the stronger the cheese can be. Try mild white cheddar with a classic Pilsner. Then move to dessert. An easy one is brownies, paired with stout and a fruit-flavored lambic.

Any suggestions for combining craft beer and other ingredients for blended beverages?

A stout float is one of the tastiest and surprising blends. Our Christmas Eve tradition is to create a tomato beer with a low flavored pale lager, tomato juice and lots of spices, like a bloody mary.

What pairings do you suggest for Standing Stone’s microbrews and menu items?

  • Double IPA: Black and Blue Burger, Spicy Thai Curry
  • Amber Ale: Charbroiled 5-Spice Ginger Teriyaki Ribs, Bread Pudding
  • Pilot Rock Pale Ale: Sauteed Veggie Wrap, Cobb Salad
  • Oatmeal Stout: Sweet Potato Curry Fries, Stir Crazy Black Chocolate Cake
  • Noble Stout: Saturday breakfast, especially bacon

What’s one of the most surprising – but delicious – pairings you’ve tried?

I helped host a summer beer and food pairing a few years ago. Being a hound for basil, I topped a water cracker with a few lemon basil leaves and chevre. This was paired with a Hefeweizen. People often enjoy a slice of lemon with hefeweizen, a flavor which the lemon basil brought forth. The creamy chevre played along with the Hefeweizen’s unfiltered texture and added a tanginess to its banana-like character. It was yummy.

A classic pairing that gets at the essence of umami is fresh oysters and stout. The stout’s roasted barley balances the oysters’ brininess. Together, the two create a new flavor sensation that’s heavenly.

Thanks Larry. We’re excited to mix and match across the brewery and restaurant menu, and explore the options at home, too. How about you? Feel free to share your favorite beer-food pairings and any questions in the comments section.

By in Brewery & Beer 0

Latest Specialty Beer: Midsummer Dream Ale

Though the summer solstice is still new in our minds, we’ve put Midsummer Dream, our latest specialty beer, on tap. This microbrewed ale debuted last year and received high raves, so we thought we’d bring it back.

Description

Midsummer Dream is named in honor of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, located here in Ashland, OR. This ale offers a bright yellow color matching summer’s rays and a very light body. It’s a session-style craft beer with a lower alcohol content, making it the perfect choice to sip on the season’s long afternoons.

It’s no lightweight when it comes to flavor, imparting a distinct cracker-like malt character with spicy and floral nuances from the blend of Cascade and Centennial hops. Due to fermentation at a lower temperature (62F) than our other ales, this beer has a crisp, dry finish much like a pilsner (a member of the lager family, oh how we doth love thee). 4.9% abv

Malt

  • Organic Pilsner
  • Organic Crystal 15
  • Organic Carapils
  • Ashburne Mild
  • Acidualted

Hops – from Oregon!

  • Bittering = Centennial
  • Flavor/Aroma = Centennial and Cascade

Food Pairings

The dry (lack of sweetness) nature of this brew lends itself well foods that have more of a sweet character, creating a delightful marriage of contrasts. You can pair it with dishes that are lightly flavored to match the delicate flavors of the beer.  You don’t want to overwhelm this microbrew with heavy foods. Here are some suggestions off of our menu:

  • Wood Fired Pretzel
  • Monterey Calamari
  • Sea Scallop and Spinach Salad
  • House Greens
  • Creamy Garlic Chicken Pizza
  • Artichoke Chicken Wrap
  • Sauteed Veggie Wrap
  • Tempeh Stir Fry
  • Fish Tacos

At home, you can enjoy a liter or growler to go with a farm-fresh salad, locally-made bread with mild cheeses and seasonal fruit, or strawberry shortcake.

Cheers to summer! Celebrate it with us by enjoying Midsummer Dream soon. Like all of our specialty brews, and summer itself, it’s on tap for a limited time and will be gone before you know it.

By in Brewery & Beer 0

Hefeweizen is On Tap: Savor a Pint of Summer!

(Photo: M. Schweisguth)

With the summer solstice just around the corner and the sun gracing Ashland, OR fully, we thought it was time to bring back Hefeweizen!

This summer seasonal is always a hit, and customers have been clamoring for its return.

It’s received even more notoriety since it garnered a gold award in the Lallemand Brain of Brewers contest in 2010. Of course, we promise this batch is just as good, if not better!

About our Hefeweizen

Translated literally as “yeast wheat,” Hefeweizen is a traditional Bavarian wheat beer that’s customarily top fermented. It’s unfiltered, resulting in a hazy gold color matching summer’s late afternoon rays. This craft beer offers aromas and flavors of clove and banana. It’s highly carbonated for a refreshing mouthfeel. 6.0% abv

Malt

  • Organic Wheat
  • Organic Pilsner
  • Acidulated

Hops

  • Organic Magnum for bittering
  • Organic Saaz for flavor/aroma

Food and beer pairings

Hefeweizen is a lighter flavored, refreshing summer beer, so it goes well with lighter foods, following the concept that you should pair food and beer intensities. Think of refreshing menu items that are lighter on the palate. Several of our menu items and specials have goat cheese as an ingredient, as well as strawberries in season, which pair wonderfully with hefeweizen. Here are some other menu items we really enjoy with a pint of Hefeweizen:

  • Sea Scallop and Spinach Salad
  • Artichoke Chicken Wrap
  • Sauteed Veggie Wrap
  • Fish & Chips
  • Fish Tacos
  • Strawberries Roulade (specialty dessert)

We encourage you to pick up a liter or growler to go and try it with favorite foods at home, too.

I really enjoy it with chevre and a leaf or two of lemon basil on a water cracker. The water cracker provides a flavor-neutral medium to hold the chevre and lemon basil. Many people like to put a slice of lemon in their hefeweizen and the lemon basil offers the same citrus flavor in a different format. The creaminess of the chevre and its slight tartness create a new flavor sensation when mixed with the banana and clove character of the beer.

Pair it with local, seasonal foods for a complete summer experience that’s full of flavor and supports growers in your community. Strawberries and greens are at their peak, making a crisp salad a perfect pairing. Try it with a strawberry shortcake for dessert, too.

We’ll keep Hefeweizen on tap through the summer. Please come in and enjoy this microbrew while it lasts. Feel free to take some to go, too, to savor the flavor of summer at home and share it with friends.

By in Brewery & Beer 0

Latest Specialty Beer: Hop Night (Cascadian Dark Ale)

(Photo: Larry Chase)

As a Northwest-based brewpub, we try to honor our roots. In that spirit, our latest specialty beer is Hop Night, a Cascadian Dark Ale.

Also called Black IPA and India Black Ale, this beer style originated in the Pacific Northwest and features the region’s signature Cascade hop varietal. We chose a name for this microbrew that harkens its dark color and pronounced hoppiness. You can get more details on the style from CraftBeer.com and Lisa Morrison at Hop Press.

About Hop Night

This microbrew is as dark as night with a light tan head of foam. Before your imbibe, take in its spicy aroma to prime your palate. You’ll enjoy a big, full mouthfeel, and a roasted malt flavor with subtle nuances of mint. A lingering finish of hop bitterness tops off the experience. 7.2% abv

Malt

  • Two-Row
  • Carafa
  • Munich
  • Chocolate
  • Crystal 60
  • Acidualted
  • Oat Flakes
  • Wheat Flakes

Hops

  • Bittering = Apollo
  • Aroma/Flavor = Cascade, Goldings, Liberty
  • First Dry Hop = Golding
  • Second Dry Hop = Cascade (from Alpha Beta Hops Farm in Ashland, OR)

Food Pairings

To pair beer and food, one tried and true method is to match intensities. For example, a microbrew that offers a less intense flavor is the ideal pairing for food with a delicate disposition. Hop Night has a big, robust, strong character. Here are some menu items that can stand up to it and complement its qualities for an enhanced dining experience:

  • Black Bean Nachos

    (Photo: Larry Chase)

  • Black and Blue Burger (made with Rogue Creamery cheese)
  • Grilled Reuben
  • Daily Beef Primal Cut
  • Tempeh Stir Fry

Stop by to enjoy a pint of Hop Night any time. It’s a great way to savor and celebrate the Northwest’s passion around beer, and its influence on innovation and quality in the broader craft beer movement.

By in Brewery & Beer, Community, Events 0

Latest Specialty Beer: Indie Pilsner (Benefits AIFF)

The newest specialty beer to hit our taps is Indie Pilsner. Pilsner is a lager-style beer, named after the Czech town of Pilsen, where this beer originated. Pilsners use bottom-fermenting yeast and are generally pale in color, as they use lighter malts.

We named this microbrew in honor of the Ashland Independent Film Festival (AIFF), which receives a portion of sales from 3/30-4/20. This is the latest round of our Pints for a Purpose program. We’re holding a kickoff party at Standing Stone Brewing Company on 3/30 from 5-9 pm and encourage you to join us. The more pints we sell that night, the more we donate per pint!

Back to the beer….here are the details:

Indie Pilsner has a bright yellow color. You’ll savor a spicy-herbal hop aroma from the use of Czech Saaz hops. Enjoy the light to medium body and a bready, biscuit-like malt profile.  A finishing medium bitterness rounds out the tasting experience.  4.9% abv.

It’s made with 100% organic ingredients.

Malt

  • Pilsner
  • Carapils

Hops

  • Bittering = German Magnum
  • Flavor/Aroma = Czech Saaz

It pairs well with lighter food like chicken, salmon, salads and mild cheddar cheeses. We recommend trying it with these offerings from our restaurant menu:

  • Sea Scallop and Spinach Salad

    Photo: AIFF

  • Creamy Garlic Chicken Pizza
  • Lamb Pita
  • Sauteed Veggie Wrap
  • Penne Pasta

It’s also the perfect complement to the fabulous offerings at the Ashland Independent Film Festival. Check out AIFF’s lineup so you don’t miss out on the fun, and treat yourself to a pint of Indie Pilsner and some food before or after the films.

NEWS ON TAP

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LOCATION
Standing Stone Brewing Co.
101 Oak Street
Ashland, OR 97520 View Map

HOURS

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541.482.2448
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