Collaboration Season: Part I - USA

There are two big events in the brewer's calendars for May each year, both known as CBC. First is the Craft Brewer's Conference. Organised by the Brewers Association, CBC is the biggest and the best industry event for brewpubs and packaging breweries around the world, it visits a different city every year, 2016 being in Philadelphia with around 14,000 people in attendance. Next up, and infamous for craft beer fans around the world, is Mikkeller's Copenhagen Beer Celebration. If you're a brewery who cares about beer you want to be pouring at this festival, and you want to take the strongest lineup of beers you can think of. If you're a beer fan, you're guaranteed to be drinking some of the best beer in the world from some of the most exciting breweries on the planet. While it's invaluable for us to attend the Craft Brewer's Conference, and an honour to be serve our beer at Copenhagen Beer Celebration, both also offer great opportunities for us to visit and host other breweries. Collaborations give us the chance to share knowledge, brew great beers and, let's be honest, hang out and drink beer with some awesome people. So that's why at this time of year we get to talk about a few exciting collaboration brews. To kick things off, here are some State-Side creations.

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Amigos Británicos (Collaboration with Casita Cerveceria) Darron made the trip out to Hill Farmstead in Vermont to meet up with a certain Ryan Witter-Merithew (anyone remember him?). They were joined by Logan of Beavertown Brewery to brew a 6% honey,lime and chilli saison fermented in oak puncheons. [gallery ids="3792,3801,3802,3803"] Here's the official description from Casita Cerveceria: "Going out and then falling asleep on the tube, late night kebabs, football (not the NFL), taking a break for tea and banter at work, using Nandos to cure a hangover and pints, pints, pints! This is why you need to find yourself a British mate or five. Amigos Británicos is a collab with two of our brewing bruvs from our time in the UK - Siren Craft Brew and Beavertown Brewery."

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Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout (Collaboration with Other Half Brewing) Next Darron made the 7 hour drive to New York. Andy and Markus joined him in Brooklyn to visit Other Half, widely regarded as brewing some of the best beer on the US East Coast right now. [gallery ids="3794,3795,3796,3798,3800"] Despite Other Half probably being best known for their IPAs, we've bonded with them over our mutual love for Stouts, particularly of the imperial and/or barrel aged variety. So we've combined our individual approaches and created something thick, rich and full of flavour which has gone straight into bourbon barrels. The beer will be finished off with some vanilla pods and cacao nibs directly into the barrels and will released later on this year when it's tasting its best, all in bottles from the Other Half Tap Room.

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Tune in next week for details of some UK-Side collaborations we've been working on with the likes of Cloudwater, Hoppin' Frog and a special guest.