(San Marcos, CA) – Put two reigning World Beer Cup champions in the same brew kitchen and you’ve got something special, right? That is what craft beer drinkers get to decide now that Port Brewing has released a new beer nationwide called Hot Rocks Lager. The beer started showing up on shelves in the past week.

In January, Small Brewpub Champ and Bend Brewing Brewmaster, Tonya Cornett, traveled to San Marcos to brew a true “Stein Beer” recipe that she had developed (or so the label implies). There is an article about Brew Day with some photos of the hot rocks and brewing process over at My Beer Pix. This is the distribution version that some will see in stores.

According to Port/Lost Abbey Media Liaison, Sage Osterfeld, “A couple of weeks later Tomme went to Tonya’s and they brewed the same beer again, this time for tapping up at Bend. My understanding is that the Bend version is probably more caramel than the Port version as the ratio of rocks to beer was higher […] Tomme hasn’t decided whether this will be a one-off (a la Isabelle and Ne Goeien), or a new addition to the regular line-up. That will probably be determined by its reception in the market.”

The beer, at 6.5% ABV is among Port Brewing’s most sessionable beers to hit the retail market. Only Shark Bite Red, Ne Goeien Saison, and Moonlit Sessions Lager have lower ABV’s out of the bottled distribution beers.