Collaborations

Posted in Half Acre Brewing, Don't Miss This, Other Half Brewing

Half Acre Rainbow Never Ends, an Other Half collab

Half Acre Rainbow Never Ends, a collaboration with New York’s Other Half Brewing, releases this month.

Earlier this year, Half Acre started distributing (in limited quantities) to New York City. One of the Chicago based brewery’s close friends in the Big Apple is   Other Half. If know know anything about beer at all, that means – collaboration.

Half Acre Rainbow Never Ends is an imperial IPA dubbed “a frankenstein of empiricism”. Allow us to explain. The hoppy dankness of this IPA comes form Idaho 7, Equinox, and Citra hops. The malt bill features oats, rice syrup soilds; fermented with a blend of American ale yeast and German kolsch yeast.

Chicago folks will get a shot of this beer on July 15th in 22 ounce bottles and draft. The New York release will be announced shortly.

Style: Imperial IPA
Hops: Idaho 7, Citra, Equinox
Malts: Oats, Rice Syrup

Availability: 22oz Bottles, Draft
Debut: 7/15/16

8.5% ABV

Image: Half Acre Beer

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Heavy Seas, Headlines, Terrapin Beer Company

Heavy Seas Partner Ships Rye Wit, a collaboration with Terrapin

Heavy Seas Partner Ships Rye Wit, a collaboration with Athens, Georgia based Terrapin Beer Co. is coming this August.

First off, let me tell you Terrapin’s co-founder and brewmaster “Spike” Bucowski loves brewing with rye. Examples – Terrapin Rye Pale, Terrapin Rye Cubed, even the Terrapin/Left Hand Terra-ryezd from 2009. Don’t be surprised that this new collaboration has rye in it.

Heavy Seas Partner Ships Rye Wit is actually a barrel-aged rye wit, aged in white wine barrels for sixteen weeks. The added wine nuance to this beer is fairly unique for the style.

With aromas of light fruit, spice, and citrus, balanced by a spicy malt backbone, the third installment in the Partner Ships series is sure to delight the senses.

Look for Heavy Seas Partner Ships Rye Wit to hit shelves in August in 22 ounce bottles and draft for a limited time.

Style: Rye Beer/Witbier (Wine Barrel Aged)
Hops: Cascade, Amarillo
Malts: 2-Row, Wheat, Rye, Biscuit

Availability: 22oz Bottles, Draft
Debut: August, 2016

6% ABV, 20 IBUs

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Half Acre Brewing, Seasonal Return, Short's Brewing

Half Acre Freedom of ’78 makes a July return

Half Acre Freedom of ’78 was brought out of retirement last year, after the recipe took 5 years off.

The beer – originally brewed at Short’s Brewing in Michigan, is an India pale ale, brewed with guava. Incidentally, Half Acre touts this beer as “outlandish and crushable, channeling the effect of Ween on the brain.”

Freedom’s label depicts the brewery family crowded a porch in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood. The house has a very special brewery history:

Our owner and his wife lived there first, then our head brewer and the woman who would become his wife, then another brewer and his wife and now a couple that met at Half Acre and got married. When they move out, someone else will sign the lease and continue the custom, making sure to preserve the Half Acre lineage.

Half Acre Freedom of ’78 is now available on draft and in 22 ounce bottles.

Style: IPA (w/ Guava)
Availability: 22oz Bottles, Draft. Limited release.
Latest Return: 7/1/16

7% ABV

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Trillium Brewing, Don't Miss This, Other Half Brewing

Trillium Swagger Like a Hundred Thousand Trillion, with Other Half

Trillium Swagger Like a Hundred Thousand Trillion, a collaboration with New York’s Other Half, debuts today. Recent collaborations with Other Half include two with Athens, Georgia’s Creature Comforts Brewery.

Trillium Swagger Like a Hundred Thousand Trillion is an India Pale Ale, aged on mango, peaches, and apricot.

Cans of the collaboration are on sale today at Trillium’s Canton, Massachusetts location starting today.

Style: IPA (w/ Peaches, Mango, Apricots)
Availability: 16oz Cans, Draft.
Debut: 6/24/16

6.2% ABV

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Crooked Stave, Don't Miss This

Crooked Stave Totem, a musical collab with The Motet

Crooked Stave Totem Wild Ale debuts this summer, a collaboration with musical group The Motet.

The Motet hails from Boulder, Colorado – a six-piece group whose sound incorporates elements of funk, jazz, folk, and world music. (You can thank iTunes for the assist on that description.)

As for Crooked Stave Totem, the wild ale is a specialty blend of wild ales from the brewery’s sacred barrel cellar. Plus berries. Wild ales a crazy good with berries.

Totem is inspired by the oak barrels we hold scared at our brewery. Stacked to the ceiling, they elevate the natural wild beers we brew. This limited edition bottling will only be available through Summer, 2016 in celebration of The Motet’s new Totem and their headlining show at Red Rocks on July 22nd.

Crooked Stave Totem will be available in 12.7 ounce bottles throughout the summer.

Style: American Wild Ale (w/ Berries. Oak Aged.)
Availability: 12.7oz Bottles
Debut: June, 2016

5% ABV

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Other Half Brewing, Creature Comforts, Don't Miss This

Other Half Grits & Greens, another Creature Comforts collab

For those of you keeping track of Creature Comforts, or all things collaboration for that matter, here’s one more for your radar. Other Half Grits & Greens.

You might recall Creature Comforts King’s Ransom, a collaboration with Brooklyn, New York’s Other Half Brewing. That beer was released at Creature Comforts in Athens, Georgia back in April.

This weekend, another Creature Comforts/ Other Half collaboration has been released, this time in New York – Other Half Grits & Greens. This release is a pilsner, the first ever by the young brewery.

Grits & Greens features Georgia grits (if you don’t know what grits are, watch My Cousin Vinnie), and hopped with Wakatu, Wai-iti, and Nelson Sauvin hops.

The collaboration was released over the weekend in 16 ounce cans. Happy hunting.

Style: Pilsner (w/ Grits)
Hops: Wakatu, Wai-iti, Nelson Sauvin

Availability: 16oz Cans. Brewery release
Debut: 6/4/16

5.9% ABV

Image via Other Half Brewing

by Reid Ramsay
Posted in Firestone Walker Brewing, Headlines, Russian River Brewing

Firestone Walker & Russian River finally collaborate

Firestone Walker has teamed up with Russian River to create a new draft offering – STiVO.

As the name suggests, STiVO is a mashup of pilsners they both produce – Firestone Walker Pivo and Russian River STS.

This release is 10 years in the making, born out of mutual respect for each other’s breweries. Brewmaster Matt Brynildson regularly advised Russian River’s Vinnie and Natalie Ciluruzo as they were building their brewery. Brynildson conversely called upon the Ciluruzos when Firestone Walker built their barrelhouse.  The great friendship was born out of

This beer has 10 years in the making,” said Brewmaster Matt Brynildson. “Vinnie and I respect each other immensely as brewers, but more important, we’re good friends.”

For years, fans have been calling for a Firestone Walker/Russian River collaboration. It all came down to finally making something that really just fit at the right time. What might take fans by surprise is that the final collaboration is not an over the top hoppy beer (like you slammed together Pliny the Elder and Double Jack).

Neither brewery started out brewing pilsners, but have come to love the style overtime.

STiVO is a blend of both breweries water and malt philosophies that compliment this light style, with a collaborative approach to hopping. The two breweries basically split the hops down the middle, using Pivo’s German Saphir hops, and STS’s Alsatian Aramis hops. The end result is a new age Pilsner.

STiVO will debut at the Firestone Walker Invitational on June 4th. Draft will be making its way around the U.S. In Firestone Walker’s markets shortly after.

Style: Pilsner
Availability: Draft only
Release: June, 2016

6.3% ABV

by Reid Ramsay