Topic Archives: Collaborations
Blackberry Smoke band has their own beer thanks to New Realm
Music collaborations are nothing new in craft beer but that doesn’t make each one unique. This is an either way it’s cool statement – New Realm Brewing is releasing a beer with the band Blackberry Smoke. If you know the band, you’re already excited. If you’re not there yet, their music is in the tv show Yellowstone. In yet?
This collaboration comes from a mutual friendship between the band and New Realm Brewing that started back in high school. Here are New Realm, fresh cans of New Realm Blackberry Smoke Lager are being signed by Brit Turner, drummer. He greets me with a smile and a beard that literally says musican or craft brewer.
Blackberry Smoke, a rock/blues/country band formed in Atlanta, Georgia 21 years ago. “The best way to celebrate your 21st is with a beer!” Turner jokes. “But really though, it’s the best way I can see. it.” He always hoped there would be a full scale band inspired beer, but getting one is harder than you think. Brewery capacity and distribution is a complicated thing. Turner says there was a small scale “Smoke” beer made in North Carolina a few years ago, that was available at one of their sold out shows. The band hoped the rest would be available in distribution later. Their rabid music and beer-loving fans managed to drink it all that night and there was none left over.
“We knew a few of the New Realm Brewing folks as far back as high school,’ Turner says. We have basically have our own record label situation and making a beer with a craft brewer really made sense to us,” he adds. Blackberry Smoke started a year before the first iPod, a few years before YouTube and more than a decade before Spotify. “Our only choice was to tour,” say Turner. Craft beer has that “out of the garage” feel to it like a lot of rock bands.
In preparation for Blackberry Smoke Lager, Turner sat down for a tasting session with brewmaster and co-founder Mitch Steele. “A lager just makes sense,” Steele tells me. “We made it with a touch of pilsner malt on top of 2-Row, so there’s a little bit of Europe in this lager.” It’s crazy how many bands we’ve interviewed lean towards the lighter side of beer like a pilsner or lager. Almost every time their reasoning is that they want to drink a few on stage and still be able to play.
Over the course of a few hours with the band, Turner’s excitement was solely focused on what this beer means to their fans. Steele and Turner designed it with them in mind. “They got us where we are, and we wanted to do something for them,” Turner says. “I’m more excited to see them drink it then I am to have it.”
Mitch Steele himself is a guitarist and music fan, making it easy to put a little extra musical passion into it. Both brewing and music require emotion and passion if you want it to be good. New Realm Blackberry Smoke is about both.
Two decades ago Blackberry Smoke got together and started playing in bars. Not long after, they were performing with Guns N’ Roses, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Eric Church, ZZ Top, and Zach Brown Band.
Honestly, to Turner and the rest of the band, this might be more exciting.
New Realm Blackberry Smoke Lager is available in 16-ounce cans and draft where ever New Realm is sold.
Style: Lager
Availability: 16oz Cans, Draft.
Debut: Late May, 2022
4.5% ABV
Ukrainian brewer releases recipes for international collaboration
Last week, Pravda Brewery, located in Lviv, Ukraine shifted from making beer to Molotov cocktails. As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues, the brewery has opened up their recipes and artwork to the world’s craft brewers.
Pravda Brewery has made available the recipes and artwork of their award winning beers. The recipes include – Syla (Belgian tripel), Frau Ribbentrop (Belgian witbier), From San to Don (Ukrainian imperial stout) and Putin Huylo (a dry hopped strong ale). Incidentally, that beer name translates to Putin is a Dick.
“Brewing in Lviv now sounds like a non-priority,” the company wrote on its website. “The city is bracing for a fight. Alcohol is forbidden, and we once in a lifetime support it. But brewing now – like giving birth or a marriage – is hope. Beer takes several weeks to be ready. We hope we win by then.”
Pravda Brewery hopes that a few of America’s nearly 10,000 breweries will brew some of Pravda’s beers. All the brewery asks if they do, they would make donations to their relief fund efforts.
“As peaceful craft brewers, we want to return to the normal life asap and enjoy brewing and drinking. But first we must kick the cockroaches out of our land. No more Gulags, Holodomors and oppression. It’s a decisive moment for Ukraine, Europe and democracies of the world.
Soon will win this war and have a good beer. The Beer of Victory,” the post on their website ended.
As of March 10th, the Russia invasion of Ukraine is now in its 15 day. According to Reuters, the death toll is more than 13,000, with 100 billion in property damage.
Lviv, the home to Pravda Brewing is in western Ukraine near the border of Poland. The city has become a transit point for refugees fleeing the fighting.
Second Self Totally Twobular Beermosa Sour is coming 2/22 at 2:22pm
Second Self Totally Twobular, the brewery’s 7th Anniversary beer debuts on February 22nd.
The Atlanta-based brewery created a Beermosa-style (juice and beer) sour India pale ale and added fresh peaches. The release is a collaboration with BottleShare, a non-profit organization supporting the craft beer industry.
Second Self hosts their 7th Anniversary party on February 26th.
Style: IPA (w/ Peaches)
Availability: 16oz Cans, Draft. Limited Release.
Debut: 2/22/22, at 2:22pm
6.22% ABV
Wild Heaven Terminus Tripel
Champion Brewing creates a beer to pair with Duke’s Mayo
I grew up on Duke’s Mayo, which was highly unlikely considering I lived in state that was completely devoid of Duke’s. To this day I couldn’t tell you what mayo my friends ate growing up, but I’m sure it was something with a tangy zip, or some crap like that. We would vacation to see family a few times of year, whether upstate South Carolina, or Charleston and my father would stock up on Duke’s. We’d drive back north with a trunk full of mayo, and Beanie Weenies to get through another few months.(The pimento cheese was always a short term delicacy.) Later he would have family members ship it.
Either way. My southern born and raised family however, was and still is – a Duke’s Mayonnaise family.
Charlottesville, Virginia based Champion Brewing Company has just introduced a new lager, meant to be paired with a southern sandwich favorite – A Duke’s heavy BLT.
The beer is a 5.1% ABV vienna lager perfectly named Family Recipe, brewed with Vienna malt, Magnum and Saaz hops. While I haven’t had the beer, I can tell you a BLT, with crispy bacon, lettuce as cold as the fridge, topped with Duke’s on white bread washed down with a crisp lager is a thing of beauty in the humid southern summer heat. Champion Brewing only uses Duke’s Mayonnaise in their restaurants for a reason.
When I told my father about this collaboration he literally stopped speaking mid conversation and wanted to know where to get it. The irony now is that he can get all the Duke’s he wants, but not the beer. Life can be so cruel.
Champion Family Recipe debuts this week Champion’s Tap House, Champion Grill, and Champion Ice House. The brewery will also be pouring Family Recipe at the Duke’s Mayo Classic games this year in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Doubleheader features East Carolina University versus Appalachian State University and UGA opening against Clemson.
Additionally, Family Recipe is shipping 16-ounce cans across Virginia and North Carolina for a limited time.
Style: Vienna Lager
Hops: Saaz, Magnum
Malts: Vienna
Availability: 16oz Cans, Draft. Limited Release
Debut: 8/20/21
5.1% ABV
Nick Offerman & Lagavulin unveil a Guinness cask finished whisky
Actor Nick Offerman, Lagavulin Whiskey, and Guinness are debuting a new partnership ahead of Father’s Day 2021. A combination of single malt whisky and beer – Meet Lagavulin Offerman Edition: Guinness Cask Finish.
Offerman and Lagavulin began a partnership back in 2014. Offerman, probably most famously known as Ron Swanson on the tv show Parks and Rec, was often seen drinking Lagavulin Whisky and rare steaks throughout the show. Swanson (Offerman) even visited the distillery in Scotland in Season 6.
Created with Offerman’s father Ric in mind, Lagavulin took an 11 year Islay Single Malt and aged it for 4 months in Guinness casks from the brewery’s Open Gate Brewery in Maryland. The resulting flavor is describing as ‘sweet peat’ – combining the intense peat and charred wood notes of the Lagavulin with the roasted coffee, dark chocolate, and sweet caramel notes from the Guinness casks.
Offerman’s entire Lagavulin: My Tales of Whisky, including a new episode for this new collaboration is available on YouTube.
Lagavulin Offerman Edition: Guinness Cask Finish will be available in 750-milliliter bottles at select retailers starting in May, $79.99 each.
Ecliptic Chuckanut Vienna-Style Lager
Ecliptic Chuckanut Vienna-Style Lager
