Collaborations

Posted in New Belgium, Headlines

Meet New Belgium Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, the next ice cream inspired beer

New Belgium Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough hits shelves by month’s end. This is the second ice cream inspired beer, and collaboration with the ubiquitous Ben & Jerry’s.

This time last year, New Belgium released the very first Ben & Jerry’s partnership release – Caramel Brownie Brown Ale. The beer was paired with a Ben & Jerry’s special release ice cream by the same name to pair along with it. The beer was good. So was the ice cream, if you could find it. We never did unfortunately.

Things are different in 2016 with New Belgium Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ale. If you didn’t know, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough is B&J’s number one selling ice cream flavor. It is also the most readily available flavor. See where we are going with this? Unless you live on your own island, there is a beer and ice cream pairing in your future.

Now, about this beer. Please never expect a beer to taste exactly like the food that inspired it. Most are flavor interpretations. Go in with that expection, and you’ll have so much more fun with beer.  The base for this Cookie Dough is a blonde ale, brewed with cocoa nibs, brown sugar and vanilla beans. The flavor dotes more on the “dough” aspect of the ice cream, rather than the full-on richness of the dessert. Great by itself, and even better if you calorically spluge on the ice cream as well. Go ahead. No judgement here.

A portion of the proceeds from the New Belgium Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ale will be donated to Protect Our Winters, a non-profit organization that raises awareness of climate change.

The brewery’s Folly Packs will see the beer first, followed by 6-packs going into November, 2016.

Style: Blonde Ale (w/ Cocoa Nibs, Vanilla Beans, Brown Sugar.)
Availability: 12oz Bottles, Draft. One-Time Release
Debut: Late October, 2016

6% ABV

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Wicked Weed Brewing Co, Don't Miss This, New Releases

Wicked Weed Metatropics a collaboration with Trois Dames debuts

Wicked Weed Metatropics, a collaboration with Switzerland based Trois Dames, debuts in bottles.

Collaborations have been frequent from Wicked Weed lately. The brewery released “Juiceless” a collaboration with Georgia’s Creature Comforts (an IPA brewed with zero fruit). Additionally, a beer geek panic inducing collaboration with Jester King is on the horizon.

Wicked Weed Metatropics might be the complete opposite of everything that the Juiceless collaboration actually is. Why? this India pale ale boasts a healthy dose of tropical fruits – pineapple, grapefruit, passionfruit, and mango. Wicked Weed throws out words like meta, and deconstructed, in the description.

Wicked Weed Metatropics is a collaboration beer that flips current IPA methodology on it’s head. Wicked Weed and Trois Dames love using hops to produce an equatorial, citrusy character, but decided to deconstruct this process to forge something new. This beer employs real pineapple, passionfruit, mango and grapefruit to emulate tropical hop flavors. The addition of Brettanomyces wild yeast takes this beer to new heights of meta refreshment.

Wicked Weed Metatropics is a 500 milliliter bottle release, as well as draft. Limited distribution starts the week of October 17th.

Style: American Wild Ale (w/ Mango, Grapefruit, Passionfruit, Pineapple.)
Availability: 500ml Bottles

Debut: Mid-October, 2016

6.2% ABV

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Deschutes Brewing, Headlines

Deschutes and Hair of the Dog team up again in Collage 2

Hair of the Dog finds themselves in the collaborative spirit since again in Deschutes Collage 2.

The first edition – Collage #1, debuted in May of 2012. The result of the two pacific northwest powerhouse breweries was incredible. Hair of the Dog blended their Fred and Adam beers, while Deschutes contributed Stoic and The Dissident. So much character packed in a 12 ounce bottle.

The brewing world will soon see the second in the series, another 100% barrel-aged ale. This second edition blends Deschutes The Abyss (100% aged in Pinot Noir barrels) and The Stoic (100% Pinot Noir Barrel-Aged) and Hair of the Dog Fred (aged in American oak and rye whiskey barrels) and Doggie Claws (100% aged in cognac barrels).

Deschutes Brewery and Hair of the Dog Brewing Company bring you another artistic collage of cask-aging alchemy. This encore collaboration delivers notes of vanilla, caramel and molasses with roasted accents and complex malt character.

Deschutes Collage #2 will be a 22 ounce bottle release in October in very, very limited quantities.

Style: American Strong Ale (Barrel Aged)
Availability: 22oz Bottles.
Debut: October, 2016

14.3% ABV, 19 IBUs

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Creature Comforts, Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co., Coming Soon

Creature Comforts Transmission, a collaboration with Arizona Wilderness

Creature Comforts Transmission is a new collaboration debuts later this month, brewed with Gilbert, Arizona based Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co.

The base beer is a saison, brewed with ingredients local to each brewery. Lisbon lemons and Arizona sweet oranges were grown locally by The Farm at Agritopia, and provided by Arizona Wilderness.

Creature Comforts added honey from Booger Hill Bee Company, based in Danielsville, Georgia. The bottle has been condtioning for the past four months with Creature’s mixed culture blend of yeast and bacteria.

Those interested in bottles will find them on a special Creature Comforts Transmission tour at the brewery in Athens, Georgia on September 29th, 2016.

Style: Saison (w/ Lemons, Oranges, Honey.)
Hops: Lemondrop, Mandarin Bavaria
Availability: 750ml Bottles

Debut: 9/29/16

5.6% ABV

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co., Don't Miss This, New Releases

Brewed with waffles. Arizona Wilderness & Tired Hands team up.

This weekend, Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co. debuted a new beer collaboration – a dream for breakfast food lovers and brunchers alike. Pour another cup of coffee and read on.

Arizona Wilderness Leggo my Ego, a collaboration with Tired Hands, is brewed with waffles. Despite what the name suggests, the brewing team used waffles from Phoenix, Arizona local Welcome Chicken & Donuts. Note in the pic above, the a hop back full of said waffles. The wort was run through the stacks of waffles on the way to the fermenter.

Leggo my Ego, an Imperial IPA,  is brewed with maple syrup, lactose milk sugar, and biscuit malt. Hops for the interested – Belma and Simcoe.

Arizona Wilderness packaged Leggo My Ego in 32 ounce crowlers, available starting Saturday.

Add this to a list of epic, or soon to be epic breakfast themed foods, like Founders Breakfast Stout, and upcoming Dogfish Head Beer for Breakfast.

Is there any limit to what we can do with breakfast food? Let’s hope not.

Image: Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co.

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in 21st Amendment Brewing, Seasonal Return

21st Amendment Marooned On Hog Island is back in the can lineup

21st Amendment Marooned on Hog Island, the brewery’s oyster stout, is back in the lineup once again.

The California based brewery creates a stout brewed with rolled oats and chocolate malt, plus 200 pounds of Sweetwater oyster shells from Hog Island Oyster Company.

““More than just a fun tale of a like-minded collaboration, this oyster stout is also deep rooted as a traditional style produced in England, where oysters are plentiful and there is not shortage of stout on that island nation. Marooned on Hog Island is our new world interpretation, created with our neighbors at Hog Island Oyster Company just north of the Golden Gate Bridge in Tomales Bay, and it is nothing short of spectacular,” – Nico Freccia, co-founder

Hog Island Oyster Company was started by two passionate guys John Finger and Terry Sawyer, much like 21st Amendment was. The salinity in the brine and the calcium of the shells give this beer a slightly salty touch to this stout

The new San Leandro brewery expansion allowed 21st Amendment Marooned on Hog Island to be re-brewed for the first time since 2012.

Style: Stout (w/ Oysters)
Hops: Magnum, Willamette
Malts: Crystal, Carafa, Chocolate, Rolled Oats

Availability: 12 oz Cans, Draft. Seasonal.
Distribution: CA, OR, WA, AK, ID, MN, OH, ME, NH, VT, RI, MA, NY, NJ, DC, CT, DE, MD, PA, VA, GA, FL, NV, NC, SC or IL.

Latest Return: September, 2016

7.9% ABV

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Wicked Weed Brewing Co, Creature Comforts, Headlines, New Releases

Wicked Weed Juiceless, a Creature Comforts collaboration debuts this weekend

Wicked Weed Juiceless, a collaboration with Athens, Georgia based Creature Comforts, debuts August 27th.

Collectively, the two breweries have bragging rights as they each brew some of the most popular India pale ales in the southeast. (See Wicked Weed Pernicious and Creature Comforts Tropicalia.) Both are known for being hoppy, juicy, and downright decadent IPAs.

RELATED: Creature Comforts teams up with Arizona Wilderness

Here in mid-2016, fruited IPAs are all the rage. The fruited subset of the most popular style in the craft brewing segment has made the biggest sales gains over past 18 months according the Brewer’s Association. When it comes to Wicked Weed Juiceless, the breweries tout “cracking the juicy code” without using actual fruit. They have created a juicy IPA without juice. It’s “Juiceless.”

How are they doing it? They are using the biggest, most fruit-forward hops around. If the label artwork is any indication, you’ll find hoppy pineapple notes.

Wicked Weed and Creature Comforts love the citrusy, crisp, hoppy flavor of fruited IPAs, but we wanted to put a unique twist on this delicious style. For this collaboration beer, we cracked the juicy code without using any fruit. Is it hoppy? Of course. Smooth? Certainly. Juicy? THE JUICIEST. Made with fruit? Absolutely not. All the fruit flavor, all from the hops. This beer IS what it ISN’T

Wicked Weed Juiceless will be a 16.9 ounce bottle offering, bottled by Wicked Weed in Asheville. The first bottles will be available alongside to most recent return of White Angel this weekend. Distribution to follow the first week of September.

Style: IPA
Availability: 16.9oz Bottles
Debut: 8/27/16

7.7% ABV

by Reid Ramsay