Collaborations

New Belgium Ann-Francoise, a collab with Orval

New Belgium Ann-Francoise will officially round out the brewery’s Belgian collaboration series.

This final edition of a year-long Belgian-American collaborative series with Trappist brewery Orval. Specifically, Orval’s first female brewmaster Anne-Francoise Pypaert. The result – a Belgian strong dark ale, brewed Continue Reading →

Posted in Madtree Brewing Co., Cigar City Brewing, Headlines, Heavy Seas, Union Craft Brewing

Heavy Seas announces 2017 “Partner Ships” collaborations

In 2016, Baltimore, Maryland’s Heavy Seas Beer announced a new collaborative series they call “Partner Ships.”

The series kicked off in February with a red India pale ale, brewed with Maine Beer Company. That release was followed with an “aggressively hopped” doppelbock, aka Hoppelbock in May.

August saw A Rye Wit brewed with Athens, Georgia based Terrapin Beer Company, followed by this winter’s Imperial Brown IPA brewed with Stone Brewing.

That was 2016. 

Coming in 2017 are three more collaborations coming to the Heavy Seas Partner Ships Series. This first is in February with neighboring Union Craft Brewing.

In July, the Floridians of Cigar City Brewing (Gulf of Mexico waters) will collaborate with the brewery on Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

Rounding out the year will be Madtree Brewing out of Cincinnati, Ohio. (To keep them from feeling left out of the waterway association theme we arbitrarily started, their closest body of water is the Ohio River.)

Heavy Seas tells Beer Street Journal that the first release’s style  (with Union Craft Brewing) has been decided. The beer will be an 8.5% alcohol by volume old ale, brewed with locally based Domino Brown Sugar.

Hints of nuts, cocoa, molasses and dried fruits oat over a chewy, luscious body of English malt goodness. Inspired by the rich, warming brews of a bygone era, the addition of local Domino Brown Sugar and neighborly camaraderie helped us produce a true comfort ale that should kindle its own Baltimore nostalgia.

 

Each release will be available again in 22 ounce bottles.

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Stone Brewing Co., Headlines, Marble Brewing, Odell Brewing

Odell & Marble Brewing team up in Stone Megawheat Double IPA

Stone Megawheat Double IPA is a future collaborative release by the California based brewery.

This riff teams up Colorado’s Odell Brewing, Stone, and New Mexico’s Marble Brewing. The trio created a wheat laden,  “M” hop heavy, imperial IPA. “M” hops like Mandarina Bavaria, Motueka, and Mosaic. All that talk means a soft-on-your-palate beer with a ton of tangerine, orange, and citrus flavors.

Kick back and crank it up as we’ve done all the brewing.. the we being us and the special guest appearances of two heavy hitters in the indie craft beer industry: Colorado’s Odell and New Mexico’s Marble. Credited with 50 years of brewing chops, our trio built their wheat ale foundation on the classic “C” hops. Then, they rocked a pure hop triad of “M” hops to achieve a supercharged succession of orange, tangerine, lemon, lime, spice and dankness. The undulating riffs of Motueka, Mosaic, and Mandarina Bavaria hops slash through the wheat haze with equal footing, never playing over one another. The cacophony of flavor is what fans would expect ahead of a path that directly leads to the main stage… and then off the front of it, into the crowd!

Stone Megawheat Double IPA will be a 22 ounce bottle release, most likely in 2017. The brewery has not yet announced this beer.

Style: Imperial IPA
Hops: Mandarina Bavaria, Motueka, Mosaic

Availability: 22oz Bottles, Draft.
Debut: TBA

9% ABV

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Wicked Weed Brewing Co, Jester King Brewery

Wicked Weed Red Atrial, a Jester King collaboration sells out

Wicked Weed Red Atrial sounds like a legendary collaboration. It’s took about an hour to sell out.

Jester King Atrial Rubicite is one of the brewery’s most sought after fruited sour ales. Jester King adds Washington raspberries to the oak matured sour beer, and allowed to re-ferment to boast dryness.

Wicked Weed Red Angel is a red sour ale – the red coming from 1.5 pounds of raspberries per gallon. Easily one of the best in the series.

Wicked Weed Red Atrial is a 50/50 blend of Red Angel and Atrial Rubicite, taken a step further. Each brewery independently aged their base beer on 5 pounds per gallon of raspberries, then combined the two beers onto 4 pounds per gallon of fresh raspberries to re-ferment in puncheons for an additional two months.

Blenders and cellarmen from Wicked Weed and Jester King were tasting their most prestigious raspberry sour ales side by side, and the inevitable idea of a blend quickly emerged. Red Angel was combined in a snifter with Atrial Rubicite and the stunned silence of each taster confirm that this is a beer to bring to the people. This combination is more than the sum of its beautiful parts. Experience raspberry sour alchemy in Red Atrial.

Wicked Weed Red Atrial was a 500 milliliter bottle release, available at the Funkatorium in Asheville on November 26th.

Style: American Sour/Wild Ale (w/ Raspberries. Oak Aged)
Availability: 500ml Bottles

Debut: 11/26/16

6.4% ABV

 

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in New Belgium, Orval Brewery

New Belgium Ann-Francoise, a collab with Orval

New Belgium Ann-Francoise will officially round out the brewery’s Belgian collaboration series.

This final edition of a year-long Belgian-American collaborative series with Trappist brewery Orval. Specifically, Orval’s first female brewmaster Anne-Francoise Pypaert. The result – a Belgian strong dark ale, brewed with a few spices and specialty malt.

Spruce tips and Grains of Paradise highlight the base beer, that has been dry-hopped with French Sprisselspalt hops. The finishing flourish is a two week engagement with American toasted oak spirals.

New Belgium Ann-Francoise Spiced Dark Strong Ale is available in 12 ounce bottles and draft for a limited time.

Style: Belgian Strong Dark Ale (w/ Grains of Paradise, Spruce Tips. Oak Aged.)
Availabilty: 12oz Bottles, Draft.
Debut: November, 2016

9.5% ABV

 

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Heavy Seas, New Releases, Stone Brewing Co.

Heavy Seas Partner Ships Imperial Brown Ale, brewed with Stone debuts

Heavy Seas Partner Ships Imperial Brown Ale, the fourth in the brewery’s Partner Ships Series, has officially debuted.

Thus far there have been three collaborative releases. The first – a red IPA brewed with Maine Beer Company. That ode to hops was followed up by a collaboration with Hershey, Pennsylvania’s Troegs Brewing, and most recently, a rye witbier brewed with Terrapin.

The fourth release is brewed with one of California’s most well-known breweries, Stone. Brew day was back in October for this imperial brown IPA brewed with blackstrap molasses.

Brewed with Blackstrap Molasses in the kettle, chewy malt character supports layers of American hop mayhem (we are playing with Stone after all) – a burly, palate obliterating Imperial Brown IPA!

Heavy Seas Partner Ships Imperial Brown IPA will be available in 22 ounce bottles. Estimated release – November, 2016.

Style: Imperial IPA (w/ Blackstrap Molasses)
Hops: Centennial, Palisade, Citra, Chinook, Simcoe
Malts: 2-Row, UK Amber Malt, Brown Malt, Crystal

Availability: 22oz Bottles, Draft.
Debut: November, 2016

9% ABV

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Aeronaut Brewing Co., Don't Miss This

Aeronaut Brewing & indie band release a “beer can album”

Somerville, Massachusetts based Aeronaut Brewing has teamed up with indie band The Lights Out, on a different kind of collaboration.

The music-meets-light combo band has opted to not just collaborate on a beer with a brewery, but release a full studio album “on” the can. Let’s start with the beer and work backwards.

Aeronaut T.R.I.P. is the name of the beer – an imperial session India pale ale. Paradoxical? Yes. That’s exactly how the team wanted it. The Lights Out is really into the multiverse theory of the universe. It may sound a bit insane, but scientists postulate that shortly after the Big Bang formed the universe, space-time expanded at variable rates in different places. That gave rise to “bubble universes” that may/could function with their own separate laws of physics. The band’s philosophy is built off this idea.

The album explores the idea that our observable universe is one of many — a multiverse — where everything possible exists somewhere. It was inspired by the theory that each of us has infinite reflections of ourselves, living alternate lives. Each song on the album was written as a report back from another reality visited by The Lights Out.

Aeronaut T.R.I.P. is not session a session beer at all, but a 7.5% alcohol by volume IPA brewed with a hop perfect for this kind of collaboration – Galaxy.

As cool and trippy as all this sounds, the only way to get the album is to buy the beer. Apparently there are instructions printed on the can telling you how to obtain it. (We are assuming it’s not an iTunes link.) Aeronaut Brewing’s lineup is available around the Boston area.

Style: IPA
Hops: Galaxy

Availability: 16oz Cans
Debut: November, 2016

7.5% ABV

The Lights Out its all about light shows. Check their performance below.

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Firestone Walker Brewing, Coming Soon, Headlines

Firestone Walker XX Anniversary blends 5 beers, 250 barrels

Firestone Walker XX, the brewery’s coveted anniversary release, debuts in November, 2016.

The anniversary series started in 2005. Firestone Walker’s brewmaster Matt Brynildson already making a special beer for the brewery’s 10th anniversary, aka X, when a barrel broker named Tom Griffin tracked down Brynildson. You know how the rest turned out.

Now, 10 years later, the Firestone Walker Anniversary Series has become an more than just a beer, but a session of friends creating a one of kind celebration blend.

The brewery’s home of Paso Robles, California known for Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel producers, so Bryndilson invites dozens of local winemakers to help blend the final release. The 2016 blend is thanks to 17 winemakers, blending 5 different component beers that have been aging in over 250 oak barrels.

“There is just so much going on in this beer. It’s big and complex, with all of these different facets from our barrel-aged program that are so seamlessly integrated. We wanted to produce something really special for our 20th anniversary, and I think we did it.” – Brynildson

The final blend: 

Parabola – Russian imperial Stout, aged in new oak & bourbon barrels. 40% of Blend
Stickee Monkee – Belgian-style Quadrupel, aged in new oak & bourbon barrels. 20% of Blend
Velvet Merkin – Oatmeal Stout, aged in bourbon barrels. 17.5% of Blend
Bravo – Brown Ale aged in bourbon. 12.5% of Blend
Helldorado – Blonde barleywine aged in bourbon. 10% of blend

Firestone Walker XX Anniversary will be available in 22 ounce bottles across the brewery’s entire distribution network in November, 2016.

Style: American Strong Ale (Oak Aged. Barrel Aged. Bourbon.)
Availability: 22oz Bottles. Limited.
Debut: November, 2016

Ed note: The team for the final blend included these wineries

Scott Hawley – Torrin (Winning Blend)
Sherman Thacher and Daniel Callan – Thacher Winery
Matt Trevisan – Linne Calodo
Connor McMahon and Kyle Jury  – Booker
Terry and Natalie Hoage –TH Estate Wines
Russell From and Philip Muzzy – Herman Story
Molly Lonborg and Kevin Sass– Halter Ranch
Brock Waterman – Brochelle Vineyards
Justin Smith – Saxum Vineyards
Mark Adams – Ledge Vineyards
Neil Collins and Chelsea Franchi – Tablas Creek Vineyard

by Reid Ramsay