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When in Portland recently, I picked up my first (well designed) bottles from Crux Fermentation in Bend, Oregon. Here, is my review of the Double Cross, a strong Belgian dark….
Here is the description from the Crux website, “Crux’s interpretation of a Strong Dark Belgian Ale is a blend of Belgium malts, Belgium dark candi sugar, Oregon Sterling hops and Yakima Delta hops for flavors that are deceptively sweet and innocent.”
from Draft Magazine
On a stormy night in 2008, three brewmasters devised an evil plan to take over the world. Okay, not really, but they named the inspired beer of their collaboration, a Belgian Strong Dark Ale, Collaborative Evil.
They each brewed the base beer at their own breweries, and the rule was that each brewer had to add a unique ingredient to distinguish it from the other two. The founders, Zac Triemert of Lucky Bucket Brewing Co., Matt Van Wyk formerly of Flossmor Station Brewing Co. and now at Oakshire Brewing Co., and Todd Ashman of Fifty Fifty Brewing, hoped to enter the beers in the Great American Beer Festival. Two of the three made it.
So this year, the Collaborative Evil effort has expanded to nine breweries and the new base beer style is a Belgian Strong Pale Ale. This has presented some interesting challenges for the brewers, since they have to find nine unique ingredients instead of just three.
We wish them the best of luck in their quest for the GABF.
The new participants are: Valley Brewing Co., Sacramento Brewing Co., Fat Head’s Brewery and Saloon, Oakshire Brewing Co., Silver Peak Brewery, and Speakeasy Ales & Lagers.