The Spirit World

One of my other jobs is being the editor of the Long Island Beer Guide which means that I have to drive around and find the greatest places on Long Island to have a beer and write about it.

On a recent trip out to New Suffolk I discovered this place called Legends that had a very nice selection of beer on tap and in the bottle. I noticed they had a few German style beers and so we had a German beer tasting that day.

May and October are the two months that I get thirsty for German beers. Of course there’s the Marzens that come out in March, but for some reason I’m still in my Belgian mode in March. But when May comes I think May Bock or Maibock as the Germans would say.

There’s one unusual style of German beer that you might want to keep a eye open for as you work your way through the German beer list; it’s something called steinbrau or stein beer. “Stein” means stone. So, literally this is called stone beer.

I had a Rauchenfelser Steinbrau at Legends for “dessert”. This beer is one of those classic styles defined by it’s method of production. Back in the old days before metal pots were available for direct heating, the mixture of water, malt-sugars, and hops (called wort) was placed in wooden vats. To heat the wort, heated stones were placed into the vat. The stones were heated in fired ovens and thus would be covered with soot. Flavors from the fire, smokiness, would be imparted to the beer.

The Rauchenfels stone beer is a light bodied lager that is a dark, caramel color. It’s actually a very refreshing beer that is easy drinking. But what you’ll notice in the flavor is hints of smoked bacon or sausage. So if you do a lot of grilling and like the flavor of the grill, a stone beer would be an ideal pairing.