March 2-4 ~ 8th Annual Oregon Chocolate Festival: This weekend –long celebration of chocolate features chocolatiers and food vendors from across Oregon. Enjoy Standing Stone’s special Chocolate Stout at the Chocolate Maker’s Dinner reception, Friday at the Ashland Springs Hotel. Or, stop by the restaurant for a chocolaty pint to satisfy your craving.

March 16th ~ Joel Salatin’s “Rogue Valley Farm Tour 2012”: We’ll be joining Valley View Beef in welcoming this influential farmer and author to Ashland, OR for a day of touring and education on our neighboring farms. Tickets for the day can be purchased through the Jackson County Local Action Coalition.

April 28-29 ~ A Taste of Ashland: We’ll serve a select menu favorite to pair with one local winery in this annual extravaganza of art, music, food and beverages that benefits the Ashland Gallery Association. This year, you’ll find us right next door with our new neighbors, Hanson Howard Gallery.

May 14-20 ~ American Craft Beer Week: also known as the “Mother of All Beer Weeks.” To celebrate, we’ll offer specialty beers, food & beer pairings, menu specials, tours and more all week long. Watch our blog for details.

June 4-8 ~ Go By Bike Week: The Rogue Valley’s official get-out-and-ride week! From Central Point to Ashland, supporting businesses will host breakfast, coffee and happy hours for bike riders. You’re sure to see Standing Stone bike commuters out on the road! We’ll have prime bicycle parking for downtown Ashland right outside our front door.

June 8-9 ~ SAVOR: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience, Washington DC: This event is a national celebration of craft beer featuring tastings, pairings, education and more. For the second year in a row, we’re among the 60 breweries in the U.S. that were hand selected to pour craft beer and represent our region with pride.

June 16 ~ Southern Oregon Craft Brew Festival: This “beer-centric” festival highlights the booming craft beer industry in the Pacific Northwest. Staged in “Old Town” Medford, this gathering offers a full day of tastings and food for enthusiasts. We’ll share details as the event approaches.

July ~ Oregon Craft Beer Month: Enjoy local craft beer with us to celebrate the state that represents the hub of American craft beer! Oregon is among the top 5 in the U.S. for number of breweries, breweries per capita, craft beer production and craft beer consumption…woohoo!

Of course, we’ll brew up more great reasons to celebrate as the year continues on, so keep an eye out on Twitter, Facebook, and our Website Calendar for up-to-date info on Standing Stone events.  Cheers, to celebrating great community, food and, or course, beer!

Join us this weekend for Zwickelmania, a statewide event uniting 67 craft beer establishments to offer tours, tastings and more.

This annual fiesta takes its name from the zwickel sample valve on beer conditioning tanks, which allows brewers to take quality control samples during fermentation. Now in its fourth year, Zwickelmania takes place on Presidents’ Day Weekend – an apt occasion to celebrate independent American brewpubs and American-made craft beer.

Along with Caldera Brewing and Southern Oregon Brewing Company, we’ve brewed up activities to represent Southern Oregon’s craft beer excellence with pride. We’ll offer tours and a class with Brewmaster, Larry Chase, all free of charge and open to those age 21 and over.

Event details:

• February 18
• Tours and tasting: 12-1 pm and 2-3 pm
• Class: 3:30-4:30 pm, “Beer Ingredients and their Flavor Contribution”

If you’re in Southern Oregon, make a day of it and visit our friends at Caldera and Southern Oregon Brewing, too. As always, please celebrate responsibly and have a designated driver if needed.

We’re excited to be a part of this fantastic event, and the growing craft beer industry in Oregon and the US. This movement is indeed brewing quickly. According to the Oregon Brewers Guild, 19 new Oregon breweries and brewpubs opened in 2011, and participation in Zwickelmania has grown from 15 to 67 establishments since the first event in 2009.

Here’s the full list of Oregon craft beer makers that are taking part, so you can celebrate anywhere in Oregon:

Southern Oregon

• Caldera Brewing
• Southern Oregon Brewing Co.
• Standing Stone Brewing Co.

Central Oregon

• 10 Barrel Brewing Co.
• Bend Brewing Co.
• Boneyard Beer
• Cascade Lakes Lodge
• Cascade Lakes 7th Street Brewhouse
• Deschutes Brewery
• GoodLife Brewing Company
• McMenamins Old St. Francis School Brewery
• Silver Moon Brewing Co.
• Three Creeks Brewing
• Yet To Be Named Brewery

Hood River

• Double Mountain Brewery & Taproom
• Full Sail Brewing Co.
• Logsdon Farmhouse Ales

Portland Metro

• Alameda Brewing
• Ambacht
• Amnesia Brewing Co.
• Breakside Brewery
• BridgePort Brewing
• Burnside Brewing Co.
• Cascade Brewing Barrel House
• Coalition Brewing
• Columbia River Brewing Co.
• Deschutes Brewery-Portland Pub
• Full Sail at Riverplace
• Gigantic Brewing
• Green Dragon
• Hair of the Dog Brewing Co.
• Hopworks Urban Brewery
• Laurelwood Public House and Brewery
• Lompoc Brewing Co. – 5th Quadrant
• Lompoc Brewing Co. – New Old Lompoc Brewery
• Lucky Labrador Beer Hall
• Lucky Labrador Brewpub
• McMenamins Crystal Brewery
• MacTarnahan’s Brewing Co.
• Migration Brewing
• Occidental Brewing Company
• Philadelphia’s Steaks & Hoagies
• Portland U-Brew & Pub
• Rock Bottom Brewery
• Rogue Distillery+Public House
• Rogue Hall
• Sasquatch Brewing Co.
• The Commons Brewery
• Vertigo Brewing
• Widmer Brothers Brewing Co.

The Coast

• Fort George Brewery + Public House
• Pelican Pub and Brewery
• Rogue Ales Public House
• Rogue Brewer’s on the Bay
• Rusty Truck Brewing Co.

Willamette Valley

• Falling Sky Brew House
• Flat Tail Brewing
• Fire Mountain Brewery
• Heater|Allen Brewing
• Hop Valley Brewing
• McMenamins High Street Brewery
• McMenamins on Monroe
• Ninkasi Brewing Co.
• Oakshire Brewing
• Oregon Trail Brewery
• Rogue Ales Public House and Brewery
• Two Kilts Brewing

For a detailed list of events each brewery will be offering visit the event web site.

See you this weekend!

The Boomer 30 Tractor from New Holland

This month, we’re rolling out a big welcome to the newest addition to our Standing Stone farm family – a Boomer 30 tractor from New Holland. We won a 5-year lease on this beautiful new piece of equipment through an online contest put on by the agriculture and construction gear supplier. Our very own Melza Quinn submitted a video on Standing Stone’s behalf illustrating how we would use the tractor on our farm, and we won!

With our new tractor en route, we’re busy making plans for new and continuing projects on our 265 acre plot of land , including building fences, turning compost, moving chicken housing and building trails. So far, all of the ventures on our new farmland on Eagle Mill Rd. have been accomplished through remarkable human-power from Standing Stone employees. This tractor will enable us to save human time and energy, and permit us to carry out even more visions and plans for our farm, including starting garden beds and irrigating the land.

The winning video highlighted several of our sustainability practices, including energy conservation, livestock farming, and composting, as well as lots of fun footage from the farm, brewery and restaurant. We couldn’t be more proud of the efforts shown by Melza and our crew in creating and submitting this video!

And, of course, we’d like to send a big thank you to New Holland for awarding us this great piece of machinery! We can’t wait to put it to good use.

Keep an eye out for more farming news coming soon – we’ll have animal babies on the way in no time, along with our first rounds of rich compost soil. Plus, who knows what kinds of great projects we’ll find we can achieve with our new tractor in tow.

Since Standing Stone Brewing Company’s grand opening in 1997, the Easy Valley Eight have enthusiastically shared their swing jazz music with our customers every first Saturday of the month and every New Year’s Eve. Their big-band style has entertained fans with dancing feet and snapping fingers as long as our restaurant and brewery has been around. The eight-piece outfit has been the cornerstone of our music schedule for nearly fifteen years!

The lineup of the Easy Valley Eight has proudly included over two dozen of the Rogue Valley’s finest jazz musicians, and good friends of Standing Stone. We’d like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to all these talented members, past and present:

(photo: Sydney Michael)

Original Members:
Richard Cottle – Trumpet, Sax and Vocals
Dave Wright – Sax and Vocals
Clem Novak – Bass
Leo Stan – Baritone Sax
Bob Sharp – Valve Trombone and Flugelhorn
Warren Moore – Tenor Sax and Vocals
Sidney Goldberg – Piano and Vocals
Gary “Chicken” Hirsch – Drums
Pam Lawson – Vocals and Special Spirit

(photo: Denise Baratta)

Former and Incumbent Members:
Lyle Ames – Guitar, Vocals and Drums
Bruce McKern – Bass
Sue & Shue – Bass and Piano
Garret Edmands – Drum and Slide Whistle
Phil Michaels – Baritone Sax
Daryl Fjeldheim – Alto, Tenor and Baritone Sax
Fritz Hunnicut – Alto Sax, Flute and Vocals
Larry Cavalier – Piano and Vocals
Michael Barth – Bass
Robin Lawson – Piano and Arranger
Craig Mather, M.D. – Drums
Randy Hugdahl – Trombone and Vocals
Dave Richardson – Arranger

(photo: Jim Lamberson)

We have lots of great memories of performances and members over the years, and could not be more pleased with the energy they have brought to Standing Stone time and time again. We wish them the best as they continue on, as the band’s final show at Standing Stone certainly does not mark the end of the group. As said by band members, “Easy Valley Eight continues to play, driven by the respect of the past and former members, camaraderie, swingin’ jazz and musical desire!”

You can visit their website to stay in touch with band happenings and learn about future gigs. You can also view past articles about the band and their history in the Mail Tribune and Daily Tidings.

As for Standing Stone’s musical future, stay tuned to our event calendar to learn about shows on the horizon. As always, we invite Tim Church and his acoustic guitar to play for our dinner guests every Saturday from 5:30-8:30pm. We will also return our Music on the Patio series this summer with lots of local duos and trios to whet your musical appetite.

Be sure to visit us on February 4th for the Easy Valley Eight’s farewell show at Standing Stone, and toast a glass to our longest standing house band. In the mean time, you can visit the music page of our website and enjoy some sample tunes from the Easy Valley Eight at home.

(photo: Rachel Koning)

We present our next Pints for a Purpose specialty beer – Peace Ale.  A portion of the sales from this brew will go to Peace House, the next on our list of non-profits to receive donations from our Pints for a Purpose program.

The program runs for three weeks, beginning with a kick-off party tonight, January 23^rd, from 5-9pm. During the kick-off, we’ll give 50 cents for every pint sold to the organization.  If supporters purchase more than 50 pints, we’ll up the donation to $1 per pint! For the remainder of the donation period, Standing Stone will give 25 cents per pint to Peace House. Come downtown and toast a pint to supporting this local non-profit!

(photo: peacehouse.net)

Peace House is a local organization that promotes community and environmental sustainability, along with non-violence and social justice in Southern Oregon.  Their list of programs includes Uncle Food’s Diner, which provides free weekly community meals in Ashland for the homeless and economically disadvantaged.  We’re thrilled to support this local group and their mission.

About the beer

This beer shows off with a bright yellow color.  A mild, slightly spicy aroma is contributed by Willamette Valley hops grown in the Oregon.  A distinct, cracker-like malt flavor balances nicely with medium bitterness. With a lower fermentation temperature (62F) than our other ales, this beer has a crisp, dry finish, much like a classic pilsner.  5.3% abv

Malt

Organic Pilsner
Ashburne Mild
Organic Carapils
Acidulated

Hops

Bittering = Centennial
Flavor/Aroma = Willamette

Beer and Food Pairings

Complement the light body and flavor of this beer with lightly flavored food. The cracker-like, dry characteristics of this beer also make it an excellent choice with foods that exhibit a light sweetness. Here are some suggestions for pairings from our menu:

• Sea Scallop and Spinach Salad
• Tempeh Stir Fry
• Fish Tacos
• House Greens with Balsamic Vinaigrette
• Sauteed Veggie Wrap
• Black Bean Hummus

We invite you to help raise funds, and your glass, while satisfying your tastebuds with Peace Ale, January 23rd through February 12th. Support local non-profits and celebrate responsibly.

Our dining room was full of eager Standing Stone Brewing fans, excitedly awaiting each beautiful dish to harmonize with each tasty beer during our six-course annual dinner. As each course was served, Larry and Eric took a moment to explain the flavor profiles of their creations and the characteristics that make for exquisite pairings.

If you missed this year’s dinner, here’s a recap of the flavor and fun:

Milk and Honey Ale with Feuillete de Poisson

I Love Oregon Ale with Warm Artichoke and Mizuna Salad

Amber Ale with Sushi Lasagna with Vodka Gravlox, Flying Fish Roe and Matchstick Ginger

Double IPA with Standing Stone Farm Black Angus Rib Eye and Chanterelles

Oatmeal Stout with Mont Blanc

Barley Wine with Caramel Chevre Crème Brulee

We captured lots of great moments this year, both in the dining room and behind the scenes. The colorful dishes coming from the kitchen and our guests’ happy faces made for some great pictures. We want to share a few of these photos and highlight this great night! You can also view our full photo album for more tasty snapshots.

For those of you who attended, thank you for joining us and we were thrilled to see everyone there! This is our favorite Standing Stone event of the year, and we couldn’t be happier to see lots of our regular customers and new faces as well.

Keep your eyes open on our event calendar for the next Standing Stone Beer Dinner on the horizon. Remember, you can always create your own food and beer pairing at the restaurant any time, too. Feel free to ask one of our servers or bartenders for suggested combinations, or get inspired to try your own. Cheers!

Lucas and Wesley (photo: Rachel Koning)

Customers who visited us last year may remember a handful of women with large, round bellies happily moving about the restaurant. Though it may have looked like they had their stomachs full of yummy Standing Stone beer and food, they were cheerfully bearing babies-to-be.

From November 2010 to November 2011, five Standing Stone couples welcomed their new little ones to Ashland, OR.

All of the moms and dads in each of the couples are, or have been, employees of our restaurant and brewery, making these babies 100% products Standing Stone! We so glad to have these new additions in our extended family.

Since we gave you a taste of this baby news on our Top 11 of 2011 post, we’d like to offer up close and personal introductions to our new Standing Stone half pints and their proud parents:

Lucia and mom, Sophie

Baby Samuel, born to Magda and Jose in November 2010

Baby Wesley, born to Rachel and Rob in February 2011

Baby Lucas, born to Alex and Danielle in March 2011

Baby Lucia, born to Eric and Sophie in July 2011

Baby Cohen, born to Ashley and Matt in September 2011

A big congratulations to all the happy families! We also want to pass on warm wishes to our customers with new babies, too. We’re proud and excited to have all these beautiful beings around the restaurant.

Be sure to wave “hi” if you catch a glimpse of any of these pint-sized bundles on your next visit or around town. Some of them are just learning to wave “hi” back, and they have irresistible smiles.

On a related note, stay tuned for news of Standing Stone farm animal babies coming soon.

Cohen (photo: Ashley Nunes)

Though our pasture puppies are quickly turning into full-grown dogs, we’ll have baby lambs and chicks on the way before long.

11.We remodeled and got a new neighbor

After months of work by Alex and the remodeling team, Emz Blendz and Hanson Howard Gallery settled into refreshed, functional spaces that preserve the character of our historic building. Phase two – creating additional office and kitchen space – continues.

10. Our beer took the national stage at SAVOR

The Brewers Association selected us for SAVOR, an exclusive craft beer and fine food event in Washington, DC. Attendees enjoyed – and raved about – Milk and Honey and other selections.

9. We amped up our events

Our summer “Music and Brews” series featured an increased array of bands across an extended season that made for great afternoons on our patio through October. We held our annual Pumpkins and Pints event on our new farmland with our biggest turnout ever. Thanks to all who helped create fun and community!

8. Employees got fitter together

Our RPM bike commuting program rolled into its second year with 35 participating employees. We fielded two teams in the Siskiyou Challenge Relay and earned the best costume prize. Supported by Standing Stone, server David Conley qualified for the XTerra triathlon national championships and represented us proudly. Server and yoga instructor Lindsay Holy continued to lead employees through fabulous classes. A group of SSBC employees is training for half marathon in May 2012.

7. Our sustainability efforts gained traction and inspired others

Other businesses started employee bike commuting programs and installed bike racks, motivated by our efforts. Our efforts gained notice including Oregon Sustainable Business’ Innovation award, the Ashland Conservation Commission’s Conservation Hero award, BTA’s Alice Award and a Silver Bicycle Friendly Business designation. We’re touched, and geared up to do more.

6. The Ashland Growers & Crafters Market moved to our street

We welcomed our favorite local farmers and food producers to Oak St for the weekly market, and launched a Saturday brunch in their honor. The market and our brunch will be back in the spring of 2012!

5. Brewmaster Larry Chase crafted a slate of fabulous specialty beers

Larry delivered a diversity of well-received specialty and seasonal beers, including I Heart Oregon, Jefferson Common, Indie Pilsner, NPK Ale, Hop Night, Chocolate Stout, Madrone Red, Benefit Bock and more.

4. Customers enjoyed Pints for a Purpose

We revamped our giving program (where we donate a portion of specialty beer sales to nonprofits) to invite non-profits to apply, then voted for recipients and held kickoff events to build community involvement. Thanks to all who enjoyed specialty beers (over 2,000 pints) to help us donate more than $900 across Rogue Valley Farm to School, AIFF and Mt Ashland Give a Kid a Lift.

3. There’s a garden on our roof

Seeking to bring our food production in house, we put a container garden on our roof. Customers enjoyed greens, tomatoes, tomatilloes, herbs and more harvested just steps from our kitchen.

2. New babies joined our family

Standing Stone couples Alex and Danielle, Eric and Sophie, Rachel and Rob, and Ashley and Matt became the proud parents of beautiful babies. We can’t get enough of them!

1. We started a farm!

Realizing a long held goal to farm, we signed a lease for 260 acres of City land, which is home to our cattle, egg laying and poultry chickens, sheep and sheepdogs. Our community joined us there for our Pumpkins and Pints event, and we’re planning more ways to welcome folks.

Thanks for helping make 2011 so fantastic. We look forward to an even better 2012 together!

Photo: M. Schweisguth

One of our sustainability goals is reaching zero net energy use at our restaurant and brewery. This means making sure the energy we make at Standing Stone Brewing is equal to or greater than what we take from utilities. This reduces emissions, increases energy independence and cuts operating costs.

Several years ago, we commissioned an audit to map out electricity and natural gas consumption, and develop a plan to reach zero net energy use. We’ve been making progress since then, including installing an Energy Management System (automates heat, light and other systems), putting solar panels on our roof and adding a heat exchanger (also known as waste heat recovery).

Heat exchangers transform “waste heat” emitted by appliances and building systems—like the warmth you feel behind your refrigerator—into fuel for other processes. By harnessing it, we avoid wasting this resource and reduce external energy needs. To share more about the process we asked co-owner Alex Amarotico, who set up the heat exchanger and spearheaded our zero net energy plan, to tell us about it.

What does a heat exchanger do?

We installed a water-cooled heat exchanger. This captures heat that’s produced by condensing units in refrigerant systems like our walk in cooler, walk in freezer and glycol chiller, and transfers it to our hot water heating system.

What are the main pieces and how does it work?

It has a stainless steel heat exchanger (made of many plates of thin stainless steel), valves that divert waste heat to the water-cooled heat, an exchanger for heating water (or our original air-cooled heat exchanger), circulators that push water through the heat exchanger, and a computerized control unit that monitors and controls system operations.

Why did you decide to install a heat exchanger?

The zero net energy use plan we commissioned showed this was one of the measures with the highest energy savings and cost efficiency. We’re prioritizing improvements by overall impact to make the most of our resources and generate savings to invest in additional pieces of the plan.

How much energy does it save?

It cuts about 10% of our energy use. Given the energy load of a typical brewery and restaurant, this is significant!

What’s next for SSBC’s energy conservation and renewables efforts?

We’re exploring ways to reuse waste cooking oil to make electricity or heat. We currently provide this to a biodiesel company but would love to close the loop, and process and reuse it in house.

Thank, Alex! If you’re intrigued and inspired, try a few simple tricks at home. If you have an oven that vents through one of your stove burners, plan ahead to cook on that burner when you’ll be baking. Steam veggies above a pot of pasta. If you have a cat or a laptop, keep them on your lap and turn down the thermostat down a few degrees, too (wink).

Feel free to ask for a peek at the accessible parts of our system the next time you visit our brewpub and restaurant, too.

These eco-friendly boards allow us to communicate a range of news, updates and offerings without using paper (and trees). And, they’re fun! They’ve also helped us discover hidden art talents among our staff and let employees express their creativity. Here’s  virtual tour of our gallery:

Since its unveiling two years ago, the Standing Stone Specials Board has become a favorite centerpiece for our customers. This three-tiered hanging chalkboard is colorfully bursting with daily food and drink specials, often boasting local ingredients from our Standing Stone Farm and neighboring farms.

If you’ve visited us during the past year, you’ve no doubt noticed the vibrant chalkboards on display in the front windows and dining room. These are “chalked-full” of information about upcoming events, specialty beers, and lots more. Our resident artist, Sienna Quinn, illustrates these, making them extra eye-catching. Check them out on your next visit, and see what’s happening around here.

To share the fun, we recently replaced our paper kids’ menus with reusable mini chalkboards! Now kids can create chalk art of their own at the table. It’s okay if adults want to try their hand and art and play. too.

We make all of our chalkboards and thought we’d share tips for those who want to try this at home.  We craft ours from repurposed wood, often using extra pieces from construction projects. We smear each board with two coats of chalkboard paint then rub the boards with chalk to prep them for use. Check out the chalkboard paint at your local hardware store and try making your own at home! They make great reusable message boards as an alternative to paper.

Keep an eye out for these fresh, new boards around the restaurant and brewery. And enjoy them while they last, because odds are, you won’t see the same one twice!