Stein Beer

This weekend was the 16th brewing of Stein Beer at Ellicottville Brewing Company in Ellicottville, NY. Twice a year the brewery, with the help of the local homebrewers, brews a batch of authentic stein beer using granite rocks. The day starts off by heating up the rocks while inside the brewery the grains are being mashed and lautered getting ready for the boil.

The large blocks of granite will break down with all the heat into a more manageable cobble size and once the brewer is ready for the boil it is time to remove them from the fire. Placing several rocks at a time into metal baskets for transport into the brewery.

 Once in the brewery the rocks are then lowered into the boil kettle. The intense heat of the rocks produce a lot of steam as soon as it touches the boiling wort (unfermented beer) and continues with rolling boil for around 5 minutes.

Once the boiling has stopped the rocks are remove and returned to the fire while another set is brought in. This process will take place for the next hour or more until it is time to cool the wort and begin fermentation.
After that its time to get together and sample various beers from other homebrewers and EBC.

I already can't wait for the spring edition!!!
On Sunday I decided to make some chips since we were just going to lounge around the house and watch football all day. Depending on how much you want to make i take a half and half mix of all-purpose and whole wheat flour and add different spices to taste. For this recipe it was 2 cups all-purpose and 2 cups whole. The spices i never really measure, and sometime i couldn't even tell you what i added. This time is was habenero, red pepper, chili powder, franks hot sauce and salt. Add 1-1/2 cups of water and 1/2 cup of olive oil then mix. Knead the dough until all ingredients are incorporated and cup into about 3/4 to 1 cup sized balls. Roll out each ball until they are thin, I bake these on stone so i place the baking stones into the oven and pre-heat at about 450 before hand, then place on the baking stone. I watch until the dough starts to bubble and then i flip them.

After i flip i wait until the tops are golden brown and i remove and let cool. After they are cool i break into pieces and enjoy with some nacho "cheese" dip.

They taste great, and you can make them to taste however you would like, oh not to mention better for you!