Gullywasher – making a steinbier, Appalachian style

Finding a craft brewery making steinbier these days is a rarity. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that the folks at Fonta Flora Brewery in the Appalachian region of North Carolina have made several steinbiers in recent years. That includes one brewed this summer as a collaboration with Weathered Ground Brewery of Cool Ridge, WV.

Steinbier, also called stone beer, is the name given to a beer that is made using red hot stones to boil the wort during the brewing process. Long ago, this process developed in Europe, allowing brewers to boil wort in wooden brewing tanks.

Collaborations happen

In years past, Todd Boera, Fonta Flora’s co-founder and head brewer, came to West Virginia to brew collaboration beers with Sam Fonda at Weathered Ground Brewery. Both had enjoyed the experience. (See the articles on their collaborations, Lay of the Land Saison and Foraged Birch IPA at these links.)

This year, Fonda was set to do a return collaboration visit by traveling to North Carolina to brew with Fonta Flora there. Earlier in the summer, while making plans for the trip, Fonda and Boera discussed what beer they would brew. Fonda said they looked at doing either a mixed-fermentation ale or a steinbier.

On a past visit to West Virginia, Boera had enjoyed Weathered Ground’s German-style Altbier. Boera pitched the idea to brew Fonda’s Altbier recipe—but to brew it using a steinbier process.

Fonda was intrigued by the idea. “So I traveled down to Nebo, NC, to brew the steinbier with them,” he said.

Fonda explained that in the steinbier process they used, you begin with a normal mashing step. The grains are steeped for a time in hot water, then the liquid (the wort) is drained off the mash and pumped into the boil kettle.

Here’s where things depart from the modern brewing process. Instead of using a gas flame or steam coils to heat the wort in the kettle to boiling, the steinbier process uses scorching hot stones to provide all the heat needed to boil the liquid.

Scorching hot stones for steinbier

A natural question here is: Where do you get scorching hot stones?

Fonta Flora’s Whippoorwill Farm brewery sits out in the country near Nebo, NC. The Fonta Flora staff had earlier collected a bunch of granite river stones from a nearby creek and rinsed them off. On collaboration brew day, they built a large bonfire in the brewery parking lot and placed the stones in the fire.

Once the rocks were red hot they removed them one-by-one from the fire, using heavy-duty blacksmith tongs. They carefully carried the stones over to their kettle — a 7-barrel, open-top wooden foeder full of wort — and plopped them in.

“The stones are heavy and extremely hot,” Fonda explained. “It was extremely labor intensive — the most labor-intensive beer I’ve ever been a part of.”

They started adding the stones to the kettle as the wort began running off from the mash tun. The red hot rocks immediately caused the contacted liquid to boil vigorously.

Extra caramelization happens

Fonda says Boera believes that you get extra caramelization in the wort from the wort’s contact with the hot stones. You can count on that extra caramelization coming through in both the beer’s color and taste. Because of that factor, they reduced the amount of dark caramel malts in the grain bill.

”I was surprised at just how rolling the boil was,” Fonda said. “Once it became kettle-full and boiling, we started adding the hops.”

After all the wort boiling finished, it was cooled and sent to the fermentor, as in a normal brewing process. Yeast was pitched, fermentation took place, and the beer was lagered/conditioned and then kegged.

Altbier recipe

Fonda’s Altbier recipe is heavy on Pilsner and Munich malt from Riverbend Malt House in Asheville. It also has a small portion of darker caramel malt, which they reduced to compensate for the extra caramelization their steinbier process provided, Fonda said.

”Someone might think it’s going to be a really heavy beer, but it comes across very light and crushable,” said Fonda.

To get a little beer-geeky, Altbier is a hybrid beer style — using ale yeast, but fermented cooler than regular ales. Then, following fermentation, it also undergoes a cold lagering period of 2 to 3 more weeks.

That process produces a cleaner, more integrated taste profile. As a malt-driven beer style, the hopping in an Altbier is moderate. Brewers typically use enough hops added to the boil to provide a nice balancing bitterness. This works great with the beer’s characteristic caramel malty flavor, which includes a touch of sweetness.

Gullywasher on draft

Fonta Flora is calling this steinbier Gullywasher. Its tagline is: A stone-boiled West Virginia-style Altbier. The finished beer came out a deep amber, almost brown color. Its ABV is 4.8%.

It should be available on draft at Fonta Flora’s three taprooms during the coming month or so. Unfortunately, due to West Virginia state regulations, Weathered Ground Brewery may not sell the beer in at its taproom here. But if you should happen to be in Morganton, Nebo, or Charlotte, NC, check and see if the beer is available at a Fonta Flora Brewery taproom. Gullywasher is also in limited distribution at other craft beer specialty accounts in North Carolina such Salud (Charlotte) and Carolina Beer Temple (Matthews).

Maybe a Smolder Bock steinbier coming

Down the road, Fonda said he hopes hope to brew a version of his Smolder Bock using the steinbier process. He’d love to see what the red-hot stones would add to this smokey, heavier bock-style beer. Boera told him they could easily truck their steinbier kettle up to West Virginia for another brew day.

We’ll be on the lookout for that.

You could hear from the enthusiasm in Sam Fonda’s voice that he really loved his steinbier brew day. He even said he’d like to pick up a wooden tank and other necessary equipment to keep at his brewery so Weathered Ground could do regular steinbier sessions.

LINKS

Fonta Flora Brewery website
Weathered Ground Brewery website