Dogfish Head and Portsmouth Brewing have collaborated to create “Fru-it Gru-it.” A gruit medeval is a beer style that uses herbs and spices prior to the widespread use of hops. You know Dogfish is involved, so it’s going to Continue Reading →
Nøgne Ø & Terrapin Brewing will be collaborating this coming February. Spike Buckowski & Dustin Watts of Terrapin are planning to fly over to Norway in the winter to create this collaboration ale. Right now the only details about this beer — Spike wants to Continue Reading →
Iron Hill Brewing & Flying Fish Brewing are teaming up to make a new (Jersey) collaboration. The beer is called Iron Fish, obviously a mashup of the 2 breweries names. Iron Fish will be a Belgian style Black IPA, released Continue Reading →
Stillwater Artisanal Ales has another collaboration with Mikkeller on the way. This badass label is for Rauchstar Scandinavian Ale, a smoke beer. After Mikkel Borg and Brian Stillwater met at a festival in the Netherlands, they collaborated on “Two Gypsies Continue Reading →
[Update] – Label now available. Beer arriving soon.
Any day now on the debut of this collaboration – Spike & Jerome’s Ale. In February, Terrapin travelled to Jura, Switzerland and collaborated with Brasserie Franches Montagnes. (Actually, they were already on a European beer Continue Reading →
Shipping now is the 2nd edition in Sierra Nevada Brewing’s Ovila series. 3 beers in total, Ovila is a monastic collaboration with the monks of the Abbey Of New Clairvaux, in California. Edition #1 was the Dubbel. Saison is next, Continue Reading →
Stinging Nettles, Yarrow, Lavender, & Bog Myrtle. Oh yeah, and Peaches
Dogfish Head and Portsmouth Brewing have collaborated to create “Fru-it Gru-it.” A gruit medeval is a beer style that uses herbs and spices prior to the widespread use of hops. You know Dogfish is involved, so it’s going to contain some interesting ingredients. Both Delaware and New England ingredients (from the home of Portsmouth.) So what?
The base beer is an amber porter, with peaches from Fifer Farms in Delaware, Stinging Nettles, Yarrow, Lavender, and Bog Myrtle. Malts include North American 2-Row, European Pils, C-60, C-120, Carafa II DH, Chocolate Malt, Black Malt, Roasted Barley, Aromatic, Flaked Barley
…For this collaboration beer, Tod and Sam decided it was best to use some old ingredients and some new ingredients that would uniquely reflect the terroir of both New England and Delaware. The base beer for their ‘Fru-it Gru-it’ is an amber porter. During the boil, 30# of Delaware peaches from Fifer Farms near Dover will be introduced to the brew kettle. In addition to the stone fruit, an assortment of lavender, stinging nettles, yarrow and bog myrtle. The nettles came from Tods backyard in Maine while the rest of the herbs were sourced from either New Hampshire or Vermont. A further 30# of peaches will be added to the fermenter before the wort is mixed with brewers yeast.
Nøgne Ø & Terrapin Brewing will be collaborating this coming February. Spike Buckowski & Dustin Watts of Terrapin are planning to fly over to Norway in the winter to create this collaboration ale. Right now the only details about this beer — Spike wants to use rye malt.
Per Owen Ogletree, Brewtopia:
Kjetil from Nøgne Ø – “I like rye a lot too. We use it in six or eight of our beers. Up to this point, we have only used pale rye malt, but recently we received our first shipment of crystal rye malt, which we plan to use in our main Christmas ale for this season. I guess Nøgne Ø’s signature is that we are somewhat “mid-Atlantic” in our profile — conservative British and Belgian grains, and liberal use of American hops. In Norway we are considered to be extremely hop oriented. In the US our beers are considered fairly malty.”
Iron Hill Brewing & Flying Fish Brewing are teaming up to make a new (Jersey) collaboration. The beer is called Iron Fish, obviously a mashup of the 2 breweries names. Iron Fish will be a Belgian style Black IPA, released to the public on Saturday August 27th.
[Editors note: Iron Hill got started in my hometown of Newark, Delaware in 1996. It was one of the first places I ever had a taste of “good” beer. They have since expanded to multiple brewpubs in the northeast.]
Press Release
(Maple Shade, NJ) — On Wednesday, July 27 from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m., two of the top brewers in New Jersey, Chris LaPierre of Iron Hill and Casey Hughes of Flying Fish, will join forces at Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant (124 East Kings Highway, 856-273-0300) to create Iron Fish, a Belgian black IPA sure to be known as one of the Garden State’s finest ales. This special collaborative beer will be released to the public on Saturday, August 27, and is a major brewing event that brings two renowned brewers together for a common goal: creating a flagship beer for the state they’re proud to call home.
“At Iron Hill, we’re proud to call Maple Shade our home, and I can’t wait to partner with Casey to create this tribute to all that’s good about New Jersey brewing,” says LaPierre. Adds Hughes, “Chris and I have wanted to create a special beer together for a long time, so Iron Fish is going to be very special — and only brewed in limited quantities, so be sure to experience it right away!”
Since opening, South Jersey magazine has awarded Iron Hill Maple Shade two “Best of the Best Awards” for Best Bar 2009 and Best Midnight Snack 2010. Visitors of OpenTable.com gave Iron Hill their coveted Diner’s Choice Awards for top ten Kid-Friendly Restaurant and Vibrant Bar Scene. Founded by home brewers Mark Edelson and Kevin Finn and restaurateur Kevin Davies in Newark, DE in 1996, Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant is the region’s fastest-growing restaurant group, blossoming from one restaurant and brewery to eight locations across the mid-Atlantic. A ninth location, in Chestnut Hill, PA, will open later this year.
Flying Fish was the world’s first ‘virtual’ microbrewery, establishing an Internet presence as early as 1995. That presence helped to generate press interest and woo investors to the fledgling brewery, which would not open for business until late 1996. Today, owner Gene Muller, head brewer Casey Hughes and their team oversee four full-time styles, as well as a variety of seasonal beers. Their brews have been featured at the Great British Beer Festival, Oregon Brewers Festival and Canada’s Biere de Mondial Festival. They have won medals at the Great American Beer Festival, Real Ale Festival and the World Beer Championships, and are the only New Jersey brewery featured in Best American Beers. Flying Fish was also named “Local Hero: Beverage Artisan of 2009” by Edible Jersey magazine.
For more information about Iron Fish or any of Flying Fish’s beers, please visit them online at www.flyingfish.com and www.exitseries.com, or call (856) 489-0061.
For more information about Iron Fish or Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant, or to make a reservation at any of their locations, please visit www.ironhillbrewery.com. You can also follow them on Twitter (@IronhillNJ) and follow Brewer LaPierre on his blog http://ironhillbrewery.com/blog/mapleshade/.
Stillwater Artisanal Ales has another collaboration with Mikkeller on the way. This badass label is for Rauchstar Scandinavian Ale, a smoke beer. After Mikkel Borg and Brian Stillwater met at a festival in the Netherlands, they collaborated on “Two Gypsies Our Side” saison. Neither brewer has their own brewery.
Availability: 16.9 oz bottles
9.4% ABV
Stillwater is adding another beer the Import Series, typically brewed in Belgium. Deprived is #5 – a Scandinavian Farmhouse Ale. Brewed at Fano Bryghus – Fano, Denmark. Other Import series beers include: Of Love & Regret, A Saison Darkly, Jaded, and Rule of Thirds.
The newest Stone collaboration “Chocolate Cherry Stout” with Troeg’s Brewing and homebrewers Jason Fields and Kevin Sheppard hits shelves July 25th…
Escondido, CA | July 20, 2011 — Stone Brewing Co. is rolling out yet another collaboration beer, with the “Jason Fields & Kevin Sheppard / Tröegs / Stone Cherry Chocolate Stout” due to hit shelves on July 25.
San Diego homebrewing duo Jason Fields and Kevin Sheppard submitted their Cherry Chocolate Stout for this year’s Stone March Madness Homebrew Competition and AHA Rally, taking top honors out of 40 entries that were judged. As a result, they earned the opportunity to make a dramatically scaled up version with Brewmaster Mitch Steele on the 120-barrel Stone Brewing Co. system.
“We didn’t have any expectations going in,” explains Jason. “We’d just entered the competition just to get some feedback and notes on our beer.” Kevin adds, “The fact that we did win was absolutely surreal.”
“There were A LOT of really good beers that day,” recounts Mitch, one of the judges at the competition. “With each entry, we asked ourselves two simple questions: 1) ‘Is this a really creative beer?’ and 2) ‘Is this a really good beer?’ This one totally fit the bill.”
Once the beer was decided on, an additional brewer had to be selected to complete the collaboration. Deciding to bring in John Trogner, Head Brewer of Pennsylvania’s famed Tröegs Brewing Co., was a no-brainer. “We make a holiday beer called Mad Elf, which uses a ridiculous amount of cherries,” explains John. “Plus, we’ve done a lot of brewing with chocolate. So I’m guessing that had something to do with why I was asked to pitch in.”
The rich, smooth stout was brewed in late April, with a blend of dark-roasted specialty malts, Callebaut chocolate liquor, vanilla beans, and 9000 pounds of dark and tart cherries. “Seeing how much the recipe was blown up to brew it on this system is amazing,” Jason chimes in. “And getting to work with everybody… it’s been so cool.”
“Collaboration beers are a big part of showing what our industry is about,” concludes John. “And it’s a lot like homebrewing: you think up an idea, invite your friends over, and brew it. There aren’t many other industries that can work that way, and I think it says a lot about what we do.” Jason Fields & Kevin Sheppard / Tröegs / Stone
Cherry Chocolate Stout
Single 12-oz bottles (Suggested retail price: $2.49-$3.49)
Available in: AK AZ CA CO DE FL IL KY MA MD MN NC NJ NM NY OH OR PA SC TX VA VT WA
7.3% abv, 37 IBUs
2448 cases produced
Tasting Notes from Brewmaster Mitch Steele
“The taste is that of a very smooth stout, with an intense tart cherry beginning and a cocoa smoothness dominating throughout the palate. The tartness from the cherries balances out the smooth sweetness, and the addition of cacao and vanilla beans add intricate layers of chocolate and vanilla to the flavor profile. Definitely a beer to savor slowly and evaluate as it warms and changes in your glass.”
ABOUT STONE BREWING CO.
Stone Brewing Co. was founded in 1996 by Steve Wagner and Greg Koch in North County San Diego, CA. It is the 14th largest craft brewery in the United States and has been named “All-Time Top Brewery on Planet Earth” by BeerAdvocate magazine – TWICE! A recently announced $26.6M expansion plan (that includes a hotel among other lofty ventures) is underway, as are developments to become the first American craft brewery to open a brewhouse in Europe. Visitstonebrew.com for more information.
ABOUT TRÖEGS BREWING CO.
Founded by brothers Chris and John Trogner in 1996, Tröegs Brewery is a small, family-owned specialty brewery. Located in Central Pennsylvania, Tröegs beers are distributed in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, New York, Ohio and Massachusetts. Tröegs Brewery, currently located in Harrisburg, PA is open for tours and tastings every Saturday. Visit http://www.troegs.com to see what else is brewing.
[Update] – Label now available. Beer arriving soon.
Any day now on the debut of this collaboration – Spike & Jerome’s Ale. In February, Terrapin travelled to Jura, Switzerland and collaborated with Brasserie Franches Montagnes. (Actually, they were already on a European beer tour.) In the cold of winter, the two breweries created a rye based barleywine.
The barleywine — “Spike & Jerome’s Ale” is actually derived from 20% rye, 80% malted barley. The beer has been aging in rum barrels in Switzerland. S & J was expected by the end of June, but now any day.
Availability: 330ml swing top bottles BFM bottles (July). Draft (Late June). Limited to 20 kegs, 300 cases of bottles.
10% ABV
Other Terrapin News:
Reunion Beer 2011 with Shmaltz Brewing will be brewed in July, debuts August, 2011.
4th Edition of Left Hand/Terrapin Midnight Project will be brewed this July also in Athens, GA. Peach beer!
Side Project #16 — Flux Capacitor slated for winter 2011. A strong ale. Target ABV 12.1% ABV (1.21 gigawatts!) 88.8 IBUs (Miles an hour!) and full of Biff “Tannins
Also, recently the Terrapin & Heavy Seas family suffered a loss of a loved one. A senseless tragedy that makes me sick to my stomach. My thoughts are with them during this difficult time.
Shipping now is the 2nd edition in Sierra Nevada Brewing’sOvila series. 3 beers in total, Ovila is a monastic collaboration with the monks of the Abbey Of New Clairvaux, in California. Edition #1 was the Dubbel. Saison is next, and a relief from the heat.
Label:
A collaboration between Sierra Nevada Brewing Co and the monks at the Abbey of New Clairvaux, Ovila Abbey Saison brings the centuries-old monastery brewing tradition to America.
Ovila Abbey Saison is complex and contemplative – but also refreshingly dry and drinkable. With early and spicy aromas, this rustic Saison has notes of green grass and a faint citrus tang. The body is light and layered with fruit and spice accents and a dry peppery finish.
A portion of proceeds from this ale goes toward the restoration of the historic Santa Maria de Ovila chapter house on the grounds of the Abbey of New Clairvaux. This medieval building stood for nearly eight centuries in Spain. William Randolph Hearst purchased the monastery in 1931 and planned to use the stone for a castle even grander than his famous San Simeon. Although Heart’s plans crumbed, these historic stones will rise again in a California Cistercian abbey.
Style: Saison
Taste Expectations: A light bodied saison with hints of grass & light fruits. Peppery & light spices, finishing slightly dry. Refreshing.
Availability: 750ml bottles, Corked & Caged. Draft. 1 time collaboration.
