Striving for good beer means looking after our Earth. We make the most of the natural ingredients that are available today and they’re expressions of the environments from which they originate. Think clean water, nutritious malt, botanic hops, ambitious yeast: Good environments make for a good beer, it’s as simple as that.

To celebrate our Earth, we’re releasing six new limited release Stone & Wood beers, a London Porter, Czech Pilsner, Belgian Saison, German Hefeweizen, Antipodean Pale Ale and an American IPA, that pay homage to each of their humble beginnings and the influence the environment has on brewing.

Over the years, beer styles have intimately co-evolved with their environments. Be it the roasted malts and bicarbonate rich water of the UK that inspired great dark beer styles such as the Porter to the aromatic love affair between malted wheat and Bavarian top fermenting yeasts that has left us all gasping for more Hefeweizen. How about the ales of the US, Australia and NZ that have been cultivated by new world hop gardeners and brewers together in their lust for pungent fruity hop botanicals.

The ritual of coming together and sharing a few brews is grounded in our world’s history and these beers are a tribute not only to beer but this amazing planet.

While we only ever use four ingredients to brew our beers, many other resources play their part in delivering beer to our drinkers. Energy, glass, cardboard and fuel are a few examples of the other things that come from environments to support the journey from grain to glass.

We acknowledge the reliance we have on our Earth to enable us to produce good beer so it is our responsibility to tread a path towards sustainability through our Green Feet program.

Green Feet is a company wide program we’ve been working on for a couple of years now. It’s about minimising our foot print on the Earth through striving not only to reduce, reuse and recycle but also exploring innovative practices by reimagining the ecology of brewing.

We have a number of initiatives that are already underway or implemented including:

• The installment of 480 solar panels at our Murwillumbah site. This system will significantly reduce our grid-based electricity demand (by at least 40%). This reduction is the equivalent to the electricity used to power 20-25 homes.
• Installed LED lighting in workspaces. Lighting now uses a quarter of the energy, equivalent to taking 7 cars off the road.
• Installed a baling unit which compresses cardboard and plastic waste from the packaging line into 75kg bales to be recycled. Compressing this waste means less truck movements and our plastic is now recycled and not contributing to landfill.
• Our water to beer ratio (water: beer) is fantastic. Whilst the industry average is 5:1 our ratio is 3:1 (it takes 3L water to produce every 1L of S&W beer.). This can be attributed to not only our beer being handcrafted but we also maintain our brewery and package by hand, ensuring we have control on the amount of water we use.
• Our water: beer is soon to become even better since we are poised to install infrastructure to harvest the water used to rinse bottles before filling. This rinse water will be collected into tanks so we can use it in other areas of the brewery for tasks such as cleaning.
• Our grain bags are up-cycled into bags and bunting by the community based recycling organisation SORT.org

… And with us working on more initiatives into 2015, this makes our beer now even easier to drink!

So raise a glass and celebrate we are the only planet with beer!

Beers of the Earth – Tasting Notes

London Porter

Porter is the original urban ale, getting its name from the 1700’s equivalent of white delivery van drivers who loaded and unloaded the ships, moving goods around the city. Its silky charms made this dark brew the pint for the people.

Toasted and roasted malt with a fruity aroma of prunes & raisins and earthy English hops, followed with a dry and satisfying finish. 5.1% alc/vol 25 IBU.

Czech Pilsner

After the brewers of Pilsen watched helplessly as their barrels of contaminated ale flooded the streets, they enlisted the help of a Bavarian brewer and his lager yeast. Throwing in Saaz, the most noble of hops, a new light coloured beer was born that would become an international favourite.

Rich sweet malts, balanced with lashings of Czech Saaz hops adding a soft yet assertive bitterness. 5.0% alc/vol 40 IBU.

American IPA

The American IPA emerged on the West Coast during a 1980’s beer renaissance. Using strains of hops that imparted a more fruitier, resinous character than their English equivalents, this style of beer has influenced a whole new generation of hop heads from the States and abroad.

Deep marmalade colour from the American ale & crystal malts. Upfront citrus with a piney aroma from US hops that deliver an outrageous bitterness. 8.2% alc/vol 75 IBU.

German Hefeweizen

In 16th Century Bavaria, the local royals allowed the use of wheat in addition to barley despite the restrictions of the Reinheitsgebot. The aromatic cloudy Hefeweizen became a favourite Summer quencher.

The German yeast creates the cloudiness and the fruity banana and spicy characters typical of this style. Delicate yet complex with a refreshing acidity. 5.4% alc/vol 12IBU.

Belgian Saison

A farmhouse ale brewed seasonally in Autumn through to early Spring, revitalized the weary who worked under the searing summer sun, satisfying their thirst. A true utilitarian beer and an ultimate refresher.

Golden in colour with the complexity of yeast spiciness, white pepper and citrus. Firm bitterness and very dry finish. A thirst quencher. 6.8% alc/vol 36 IBU.

Antipodean Pale Ale

Whether it’s grabbing a six pack for a backyard BBQ or meeting your mates at the pub to watch a band after a surf, this refreshing ale, brewed with new a new generation of Antipodean hops is the quintessential beer for a Southern summer.

Lush tropical floral aromas created by blending NZ & Australian hops lead to a clean malt & refreshing dry bitter finish. 5.1% alc/vol 42 IBU

Around the country venues will be celebrating that we’re the only planet with beer, with beer dinners, tap takeovers and the like.

Here’s what’s going on:

Northern Rivers

1 APRIL The Rails Tap takeover – 5pm
10 MAY Foam Beer Degustation

Qld

2 APRIL BINE Tap takeover
2 APRIL Justin Lane/Cavalier Stone & Wood tap takeover
10 APRIL Archive Beer Boutique Tap takeover and beer paddles
16 APRIL Statler & Waldorf Tap takeover and food
APRIL Oxford Tap house Month of beers
APRIL Malt Dining Month of beers
APRIL Scratch Month of beers
APRIL Story Bridge Hotel Month of beers
APRIL BOSC Tap takeover
APRIL Woolly Mammoth Tap takeover + Stone & Wood beers
APRIL Hoo Ha Bar Beers of the Earth dinner (date TBC)
APRIL Tomahawk Tap take Over
APRIL Bittersuite Beers of the Month

NSW/ACT

31 March The Grainstore Beers of the Earth Dinner
http://events.ticketbooth.com.au/event/StoneWoodBeersoftheEarthDinner
2 APRIL The Blind Bear Weekly release for 6 weeks
4 APRIL East Village Hotel Beers and Bowls of the Earth
6 APRIL The Lord Dudley Rotating beers of the month
9 APRIL Dove & Olive Around the World with Stone & Wood Tap Takeover
9 APRIL Bank Hotel Uncle Hops explores the Earth with Stone & Wood
23 APRIL East Village Hotel Beers of the Earth Dinner
27 APRIL Hopscotch Beer Dinner (more info to come)
APRIL Local Taphouse (TBC)
APRIL Union Hotel Beers of the Earth + Stone & Wood tap takeover

Vic

01 APRIL Taphouse Rotating beers of the month – 5pm
01 APRIL Park Hotel Tap takeover & Beer Talk – 12pm
01 APRIL Beer Deluxe Tap takeover & Beer Talk – 6pm
02 APRIL Great Northern Tap takeover & Beer Talk – 4pm
02 APRIL Edinburgh Castle Beers & pong with beer food – 6pm
02 APRIL Young & Jacksons Tap takeover & beer Talk – 6pm
07 APRIL Foresters Tap takeover & beer tasting – 6pm
09 APRIL Village Brasserie Tap takeover & beer & food matching -5pm

SA

10 April The Wheatsheaf Tap takeover and food truck

Tas

02 APRIL Saint Johns Tap takeover – 4pm
12 APRIL Preachers Sunday sesh tap takeover & DJ’s – 2pm

Beers of the Earth will start hitting bottleshops and going on tap from 30 March

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