If you are going to collaborate with Moonlight Brewing, ya’ just gotta choose a style that will incorporate dark malts. And if you are going to collaborate with Societe Brewing, you better hop it up.
So, obviously…
Obvious Choice
Bourbon Buddies
Collaboration is not just for breweries, Broken Barrel, who I have written about on this very blog and this month the L.A. whiskey maker has released a new whiskey with the Los Angeles Distillery.
Here are the details…
“These 5.5 year single barrels culminate the five years the two whiskey brands have known each other, and also mark the five years since Seth bought his first barrel of whiskey to tinker with. The team selected three wheated single barrels – all partnered with Total Wine California where these limited edition releases will go next week.”
It Really Does
I am quite surprised that this beer name hasn’t been used way more, especially here in Los Angeles, I guess that travel from the Santa Clarita area to NoHo can generate it for sure.
Traffic Sucks is the first collaboration between Lucky Luke and Lawless. It “is a snappy hop forward lager. Brewed with Strata hops, this golden clear lager is bursting with passion fruit, apricot and strawberry notes along with hints of the hop plant’s party animal cousin (we’ll let you figure that one out).”
Smoggy Stereo
Smog City is going Kiwi with their friends at Stereo Brewing Company with Hāpi Mirumiru, a New Zealand-style IPA with three New Zealand hop varietals.
Long Beach to Anaheim
Fresh off a collaboration with Three Weavers to the North, Trademark Brewing has gone south to IPA with Unsung Brewing in Anaheim.
Don’t quite like the purple / green combo on the label but I hope to see cans of this in L.A.
Bears on Waves
If you wanted to build an IPA dream team, starting with Beachwood Brewing and Firestone Walker would be a solid choice.
I like the old travel to the Golden State bear on the label as well.
Review – 2 Fremont Collaborations
Fremont Brewing of Seattle (and Earth) has a pretty solid reputation and thankfully we get a bit of their beers here in L.A. Specifically a couple of IPA collaborations with sone equally well-known breweries…
Let’s start with Specific Void the ominous sounding IPA with Burial Beer Co.. Even the NW Fremont bird on the label has a museum exhibit quality to it.
This smells very NW to me. Pine backed by a slight fruit note. Very precisely targeted. Little banana on the taste. More malt than hops initially. Has a soft quality to it. Tastes closer to a Belgian Pale Ale to me and not in a bad way.
The next partner is Bale Breaker who also farm hops, so why not put those hops into a Cold IPA, Cultivision. Bird seems a little less goth on this label. Great aroma here. Quite earthy and dank to start. Very crisp. A bright yellow color to this one. Grassy overall.
I would take the Cultivision over Specific Void based just on crispness alone.
NamiPA
For the fourth year running, Pizza Port has combo’d with Pure Project on a beer and for 2022 that beer is Nami. An IPA, which you probably already guessed. What struck me was how pretty the label was, that Japanese inspired blue ocean is very cool.
OG
Here is another collaboration beer alert – OG IPA from Kern River Brewing teamed with L.A’s El Segundo Brewing .
The details – “The goal was to wind back the clock to before things got Hazy and celebrate the California IPA before it became known as “West Coast”. Maybe we are just old-fashioned, but we still feel out about the beers people were making decades ago and raise a glass to those O.G. HOP INNOVATORS. with Citra, Centennial and Amarillo hops; piney and dank with lemony citrus notes.”
Straw-barb Pastry
I think I have reached my upper limit of beers with “friends” in the name but I do want to see more of the strawberry-rhubarb combo. You win some and you lose some.
Ogopogo Brewing has San Gabriel Valley’d with Hop Secret Brewing for this new pastry sour.