Brewing with stones
Speaking of extreme beers, Mike Rybinski has brewed a “stone” (or “stein” to put it into historic perspective) beer with hemp at Walter Payton’s Roundhouse restaurant in Aurora, Ill.
Basically, Rybinski heated stones to 1,000 degrees , then tossed them into the wort to bring it to a boil - just as brewers did long ago, when they used wooden kettles and couldn’t heat those with fire. This “singes the sugars in the mixture, which will lend a caramelized and smoky flavor to the beer that will emerge,” he said. Toasted hemp seeds were added to provide another layer of flavor. The beer won’t be on tap for a few weeks yet.
Rybinski said experiments like this make his job fun. “It’s almost like a fine wine,” he said. “Every batch I make, I get to try something new.”
