Tag: Collaboration

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Review – Devil’s Tale – Coronado & Devil’s Backbone

Devil’s Backbone has been busy on the West Coast.  Maybe (just maybe) they are planning a future distribution to SoCal but at least we are getting 1/2 of their ideas via Ninkasi and now Coronado Brewing.

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Where the Ninkasi team-up was an offbeat style, the Coronado is a straight up San Diego Pale ale, aka IPA. It pours a medium yellow color. Has a Pilsner look to it. The aroma has a bit of cat pee and mango to it. But that shouldn’t dissuade you because this is a nice light IPA. Dare I say session IPA? Not much of a malt presence here. Kind of light and almost too watery. But the grape accented finish works here and pulls it back from the brink.

If this beer was branded as an IPL, I would give it more favorable marks. Or call it an XPA. It’s nice and could pair well with citrus chicken or whitefish. On its own, it is a little too little for me.

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Oregon Collaboration Review # 2 – Ninkasi & Devil’s Backbone

Since you would have to go to great distance to get a Devil’s Backbone beer, it was with great anticipation that I saw that they had collaborated with Ninkasi on a beer.

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Now let’s see what it tastes like…which is easier said than done. This is an odd duck of a beer. It’s labeled as an imperial rye but only is 7.7%. Maybe that is imperial by rye standards. The aroma is a combo of sawdust and caramel but the taste is quite dry and bitter. There is a tiny bit of candied orange peel bitterness in there as well. The alcohol level does show which is odd for this level of ABV. What gets me is the rye bread note. It makes this really toasty and I don’t quite know if it works as a whole.

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Oregon Collaboration Review # 1 – Pfriem & HPB

Hood River to Highland Park.  That is quite the distance for a collaboration but when the brewers at each have known each other for a long, long time then the miles don’t matter.

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And now we have the pFriem Spaceship Pale Ale that is dosed with the German Huell Melon hops. Bob Kunz at Highland Park brewed with Josh of pFriem for this hoppy addition to the HPB family.

The pFriem Spaceship has an orange oil essence aroma while the taste toggles between cereal and orange (skin and essence). Overall this light orange/yellow beer is probably more in the hoppy XPA realm than pale ale. I just wish I had a pFriem pale to do a side by side comparison.

Beacause I am greedy.

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Thought it Was Orange

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I am going through a bit of a phase where I am in search of traditional solid examples of styles.  I enjoy the creative impulse that brewers are following but it seems to be a bit aggressive at times.  Maybe a plain Wit won’t sell even with the combined might of Terrapin and New Belgium but why make a Dark Wit, then add rye, then “Imperialize” it and then barrel age it?  Seems over the top to me.  The Rye Wit sounds better to me.

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WilCastle

Once in a while, the bigger players in the beer industry make a good commercial. Just Google Anna Kendrick + Beer for one such example. Usually though, it is for bad beer. Maybe both boxes can be ticked off in this example though.

Newcastle is starting a collaboration series across Europe. They are starting with Caledonian for a Scotch Ale and have noted beer geek and home brewer and Stone fan, Wil Wheaton to pitch the beer.

…and….

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Long Name. Really Long Name.

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Not a huge fan of the artwork on the Jester King labels but I have to admit the liquid within is usually pretty tasty and I like the chutzpah of the extremely long name. Which translates from German to English as, “collaboration beer with Czech hops, wild yeast, and bacteria”.  The partner in this farmhouse beer is Live Oak from Austin, known for their German/Czech beers.  And I also like that this was brewed in one brewery and the yeast added in another.  I know how hard logistics can be with beer so the fact that they added this extra step is pretty cool.  And as I mention, repeatedly, I hope to see bottles in LA if Texas doesn’t buy it all up.

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Breakside + Toro Bravo =

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Maybe it is because I will be going up to Portland soon, or that Breakside won gold in the IPA category at the Great American Beer Festival but I really want to try this beer.

Oh right, that’s why this made my mouth water, Toro Bravo.  Potatoes Bravo and their Melon Salad are awesome.  I am a big fan of restaurant and brewer collaborations.  I think it kicks more ideas loose because there is a shared vocabulary but still there are major differences between chef and brewer.

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Review – Craftylicious from Widmer & Gigantic

I was so busy reading the label of this 30 Years – 30 Beers collaboration between Widmer and Gigantic that I didn’t research the beer itself before taking a sip.

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Boy, was I surprised because this is a tart and super fruity beer. I saw hoppy on the label and expected IPA but got a sour instead. Once that initial shock wore off, I was quite taken with this beer. Grapefruit pith, mango and fruit punch. Loads of acidity here too. The aroma carries no hint of it. Just barnyard funk. Twice I was lulled into thinking something else was coming.

Whatever position you hold in the craft v crafty debate, this beer should be tasted to be believed. Really top notch.

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# 4

Boulevard-Ommegang-Collaboration-No-4-Saison

Ommegang brewmaster Phil Leinhart is the latest to join Steven Pauwels the brewmaster at Boulevard for a collaborative brew. And befitting the Belgian background of these two Belgian owned breweries they have gone the Saison route.  They brewed up a batch of wort wand split it into two fermentors. One had Boulevard’s primary Belgian yeast strain pitched into it, and the other got Ommegang’s house yeast strain. Then the two now different beers were blended into one, Collaboration No. 4. Oh and some sweet orange peel, lemon peel, coriander and grains of paradise were added in which is very wit-ish.  Maybe it’s a new hybrid? SaiWit. Witson?

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Review – Maillard’s Odyssey from Bell’s Brewery & Sierra Nevada

I will be reviewing ALL 13 of the special Sierra Nevada Beer Camp collaborations this month.  I had my non-drinking wife randomly select the order and the next beer on the docket is from Bell’s Brewery, Maillard’s Odyssey.

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I think I have a contender for favorite. The MO pours similar to the previous Double Latte. A very dark brown with an espresso head. But then it veers off as I get a crazy mix of flavors. Coffee. Chocolate. Fig. And even a bracing dose of hops.

And it is very zippy. Not viscous or syrupy at all. At the end I start getting a slight burnt char flavor that just stacks on top of the rest to form a really interesting brew. This beer and the New Glarus were the most anticipated in my mind because we don’t get them here in LA and this works great.

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