The Craft of Stone Brewing Co.: Liquid Lore, Epic Recipes, and Unabashed Arrogance by Greg Koch, Steve Wagner and Randy Clemens (Boek)

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Since its inception in 1996, Stone Brewing Co. has been the fastest growing brewery in the country—Beer lovers gravitate to its unique line-up which includes favorites such as Stone IPA and Arrogant Bastard Ale. This insider's guide focuses on the history of Stone Brewing Co., and shares homebrew recipes for many of its celebrated beers including Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine, Stone Smoked Porter, and Stone 12th Anniversary Bitter Chocolate Oatmeal Stout. In addition, it features recipes from the Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens like Garlic, Cheddar, and Stone Ruination IPA Soup, BBQ Duck Tacos, and the legendary Arrogant Bastard Ale Onion Rings. With its behind-the-scenes look at one of the leaders of the craft beer scene, The Craft of Stone Brewing Co. will captivate and inspire legions of fans nationwide.

Review
Featured Recipe: Stone Pale Ale and Garlic Stir-Fried Brussels Sprouts

Serves 2 as a main course or 4 as a side dish

Ingredients
1 pound brussels sprouts (about 4 cups)
1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
1/4 pound pancetta, diced
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups (12 fluid ounces) Stone Pale Ale
1/4 cup vegetable stock
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Finely diced tomato, for garnish
Shaved or grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, for garnish


Instructions
Set up a steamer with 1 to 2 inches of salted water and bring the water to a rolling boil. Put the brussels sprouts in the steamer, cover, and cook until slightly tender, about 4 minutes. Drain and immediately transfer the Brussels sprouts to a large bowl of ice water to halt the cooking and preserve their bright green color. Let them cool in the ice water for about 1 minute, then drain. Lay them on a clean dish towel and pat dry. Cut them in half vertically, right through the core.

In a large wok or cast-iron skillet, heat the oil over high heat until it begins to shimmer. Turn the heat down to medium. Add the pancetta and cook, stirring occasionally, until it begins to brown. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Turn the heat up to high, add the brussels sprouts, and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, 4 to 5 minutes.

Add the beer and continue to cook over high heat until the liquid is mostly evaporated. Deglaze the pan by adding the vegetable stock, stirring and scraping up any browned bits that may be affixed to the pan. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with the tomato and Parmigiano-Reggiano. Serve immediately.

Review
“All-Time Top Brewery on Planet Earth. The most popular and highest-rated brewery . . . ever.”
—BeerAdvocate

“Not for the faint of heart, [Stone’s] bold brews have a strong and fast-growing fan base.”
—Bon Appétit

“Stone Brewing makes aggressive beer--good news for those tired of the fizzy yellow stuff.”
—Los Angeles Times

“San Diego [is] the new beer capital of the United States. Stone exemplifies the local approach, with aggressively hopped but completely drinkable brews.”
—Men’s Journal

“Stone Brewing’s ‘extreme’ beers are like standard ales in overdrive.”
—Food & Wine

“[Stone] has no interest in going mainstream if that means watering down the product.”
—Inc.

“[Stone] is one of the best-known West Coast brewers with one of the most devoted cult followings this side of The Grateful Dead.”
—Beverage World

“Stone Brewing Company from San Diego is arguably the most notorious player on America’s exhilarating craft brewing scene . . . .”
—The Publican

About the Author
Greg Koch and Steve Wagner are mad passionate about great beer. As the co-founders of Stone Brewing Co., they’ve become recognized leaders in the craft brewing industry. Visit www.stonebrew.com for more.

A graduate of the California School of Culinary Arts and a BJCP Recognized Beer Judge, Randy Clemens has written for Gourmet, Saveur, BeerAdvocate, Draft, Imbibe, Los Angeles, and Wine Enthusiast. He is also the author of The Sriracha Cookbook and is the Public Relations Coordinator at Stone Brewing Co.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
THE NATURE OF BEER

Before we get into the story behind Stone Brewing Co. and fun facts about all of our beers, let’s take a look at beer as a whole: what it is, how it’s made, and its history. Put on your safety glasses and lab coat. (Simple reading glasses or a proverbial thinking cap would be acceptable alternatives.) At times, this discussion is a bit technical and the tone is somewhat serious, but it’s good information, damn it! And, in the interest of making this a complete guide to beer, we figured it best to start this epic tome, well, at the start with the simplest of questions: what is beer?

WHAT IS BEER? (NOT A STUPID QUESTION!)
Beer is an alcoholic beverage that is most typically made with four basic ingredients: malted barley, hops, water, and yeast. You may wonder how so many different beers can be made using just these four ingredients. Let’s consult Stone’s head brewer Mitch Steele and ask him to explain the role that each of these ingredients plays in the final brew.

MALTED BARLEY

“As the brewing saying goes, ‘Malt is the soul of beer.’ It provides the color, the body, the sweetness, and, perhaps most importantly, balances the flavor of our hops. (Not to mention that without malt, there would be no sugar for the yeast to ferment!) A good-quality malt is crucial to brewing good beer. We talk a lot about the ‘backbone’ of our beer being the malt component. A good malt blend, with the right (balanced) amount of flavor, sweetness, and body, provides the foundation for every one of our beers.” --MITCH

It’s My Own Damn Malt
Hordeum vulgare, or barley to you and me, is the fourth most cultivated cereal grain in the world. It’s used around the globe for making breads, soups, main courses, and salads, not to mention being a key ingredient in livestock feed. However, before it can be used to produce beer, it must undergo a simple process called malting, which involves soaking the grain until it begins to germinate, or sprout, releasing enzymes that begin to convert the starches in the barley into smaller-chain sugars--sugars that yeast can convert into alcohol and carbon dioxide.

You’re Not the Only One Getting Toasted
Okay, so you’ve got a ton of barley soaking in water, with enzymatic reactions abounding, but you’ve got to put a stop to the fun eventually. Once the sprout, or acrospire, has grown to 75 to 100 percent of the length of the grain, the barley is said to be fully modified. At this point, it’s quickly kiln-dried with hot air, which halts the starch-to-sugar conversions, stops the sprout from developing into a full-on seedling ready to plant in the ground, and produces dried kernels of malted barley.

Lighter and darker styles of malt are produced by variations in the temperature at which the malt is dried and the length of time it’s heated. Lighter malts with higher levels of fermentable sugars and more enzymatic activity (pale malt and pilsner malt being two of the most common) are referred to as base malts and make up the majority of the grain bill called for in any given brew. Other varieties, called specialty malts, are used more for flavor than yeast fuel.

Lighter roasts in which the sugars in the kernel have begun to crystallize, such as crystal and Vienna malts, often impart notes of caramel, biscuits, toffee, and bread, among others. Further roasting at higher temperatures produces darker malts, such as chocolate malt or black malt, which, added sparingly, can contribute robust flavors similar to coffee and chocolate, adding complexity and a touch of roasty bitterness.

The brewer’s selection of malts is the keystone for any quality beer, as it affects not just the flavor of the beer, but also the aroma, the color, and the all-so-important mouthfeel. The following table outlines some of the malt varieties most commonly used in craft brewing, along with all of the varieties called for in the homebrew recipes later in the book.

Let’s Get Cereal
Other cereal grains can also be used to make beer, though barley typically makes up the majority of the base with other grains added in smaller amounts. Wheat, rye, and oats find their way into some brews to contribute flavor and mouthfeel. The megabrewers use a lot of corn and rice to create their fizzy yellow stuff, since neither grain contributes any real discernable flavor, and they cost a fraction of what barley does. Bonus! (Well, for them at least. What they gain in cost savings, we lose in taste.)

HOPS

“Hops are often called the spice of beer, as they contribute bitterness, flavor, and aroma to beer. There are literally hundreds of different varieties of hops available to brewers, and each can contribute unique flavors, aromas, and bitterness. Several of our beers are identified with a particular variety of hops. For example, Stone IPA is most identified with Centennial hops, one of our favorites. A signature hop flavor is what craft beer lovers often seek when they try new beers.

I get really excited when we have the opportunity to use a variety of hops that we haven’t used before. We’ve had some fun with one-time brewing projects using varieties such as Nelson Sauvin and Motueka (from New Zealand) and Sorachi Ace (from Japan). That said, I’m a huge fan of classic hop varieties, like Saaz and Hallertau, which we don’t have much opportunity to brew with here at Stone, and also East Kent Goldings, which we’ve used a bit in our Stone Old Guardian Barley Wine. I tend to gravitate toward hop varieties that have unique flavor attributes, and we have fun trying to capture those flavors in our beers.” --MITCH

Hopping Mad
Hops are the cone-shaped flower of the perennial plant Humulus lupulus. They’re very rich in resins, alpha acids, and oils that produce a veritable treasure chest of flavors and aromas familiar to anyone who has ever tasted an India pale ale or any type of “imperial” fill-in-the-blank. They can impart essences that are often redolent of citrus, spices, flowers, or grass, or they can exhibit piney, earthy, or woodsy notes.

Hops were probably originally added to beer for medicinal purposes, then later were found to extend shelf life, a very important factor historically speaking, since transoceanic voyages by boat lasted months and beer was a vital source of nutrition and clean drinking water, not to mention a way to unwind during a very long and possibly trying voyage. (It would have to be a pretty crazy ride for someone to confuse a manatee or dugong for a mermaid, wouldn’t you think?)

As mentioned, hops add an element of bitterness to beer that balances the sweet profile of the malt. However, since a growing number of imbibers are gravitating toward bigger, bolder, and hoppier beers, the argument can certainly be made that the roles have changed and malt is being used to balance the hops. At least that tends to be how we view it at Stone Brewing.

Hour of Flower Power
Hops are traditionally added at three stages during the boiling process that all beers go through. (More on that later.) First added are the bittering hops, which, as their name implies, add the crisp bitterness and graceful bite found in many styles of beer, from pilsners to IPAs. Longer boiling time is critical for bittering hops--typically an hour to an hour and a half, although sometimes longer. During this time, certain otherwise insoluble compounds called alpha acids go through isomerization, a process that makes them soluble so they can lend their unique character to the final brew.

In contrast to the bittering components of hops, their aroma and flavor components are extremely volatile, so they evaporate during a long boil. For this reason, aroma hops and flavoring hops are typically added near the end of the boil: aroma hops in the last ten to twenty minutes, and flavoring hops in the final three minutes), to preserve their full sensory potential.

Another popular method for boosting hop flavor and aroma is dry hopping, a simple procedure that allows the brewer to add hops to the beer after it has cooled and most, if not all, of the fermentation has completed. A nice long soak, ranging anywhere from a few days up to two weeks, allows the beer to draw essential oils from the flowers without fear of losing their amazing volatile aromas, since no heating is taking place.

Wet hopping may sound vaguely related, or reminiscent of some sort of bitter rivalry, but it actually refers to a completely different process. Sometimes called fresh hopping, it’s simply the use of just-picked hop cones, directly from the vine rather than dried. These wet hops can be incorporated at any stage of the brew, including--believe it or not--for dry hopping. (What? Dry wet hopping? Wet dry hopping? Huh?)

What’s in a Name?
You’ll sometimes see the varieties of hops used in the craft beer you’re drinking listed on the bottle, but what’s the difference between them, and why should you care? The chart on pages 12 and 13 shows some of the varieties of hops most often used in craft brewing, along with a selection of the varieties called for in the homebrew recipes later in the book. Note that alpha acid content can vary from region to region and season to season; the values listed are approximations.

IBUs and You
So, how do you know how hoppy a beer is going to be? Well, beyond the clever names that sometimes warn (or entice) you about the palate wrecking you’re about to receive, some brewers also alert you to the IBU count of their beers. IBUs--International Bittering Units, that is--are a measure of the bitterness in beer, with each IBU equating to 1 milligram...

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