What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love and Understanding: Interrogating Collaborative Beers
In a recent post fellow Hoppress writer Mario Rubio noted that “collaboration is the new barrel-aging.” Indeed, collaborative brewing seems to be the next big thing in the craft beer industry. Breweries large and small, foreign and domestic, are combining their collective know-how to create brews ranging in style from barleywines to Belgians to browns, with an assortment of sours tossed on like salad dressing. Everyone is doing it. Dogfish Head has teamed with Sierra Nevada. Brooklyn brewed with Schneider & Sohn. Sam Adams recently announced that they will work with Weihenstephaner. Stone, De Proef, Bells, Nøgne Ø, Allagash, Urthel, it’s almost easier these days to name breweries that have paired with others than it is to find those that haven’t.
So far as I can determine the collaborative craze began in 2006 when Avery and Russian River created Collaboration Not Litigation. You can read 
the whole story here, but basically the origin of this beer went something like this. Two Brewers. Two Friends. Two beers. Same name. Same markets. Litigate? Hell no! Blend! The impetus for the collaboration was clear. For these two brewer friends it was better to work together than battle it out in the courts. The blended result is a beer that’s quite possibly greater than the sum of its parts.
And it didn’t end there. This initial collaboration led to others. Close friendship and a communal beer tour of Belgium (during which I’m told “a ton of sour beer was consumed”) led Avery and Cilurzo to team with Rob Tod from Allagash, Tomme Arthur of Lost Abbey, and Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione to create Isabelle Proximus. For this conjointly created lambic style beer, a simple base was aged in barrels from each brewery’s barrel-aging program with their distinctive wild yeast and bacteria cultures. The beers from each barrel were blended by the brewers to achieve the final product. Via the barrels and the bacteria, a bit of character from each brewery made its way into the final beer. In both of these cases the end product literally could not have been made without the collective process.
But there are beers in which the reasons for and results of the collaboration are not so clear. My example case here is Special Holiday Ale from Stone, Nønge Ø, and Jolly Pumpkin. While this was a beautiful beer, after finishing the bottle I found myself wondering exactly why it had necessitated collaboration. What had collaboration had brought? From whence had it sprung? While it was certainly possible that there were relationships to which I wasn’t privy (how dare they keep me out of the loop), I knew of no previous connection between the breweries. And the beer itself showed none of the character that I associate with the products of those breweries on their own. There was no “little bit of each brewery” kind of thing happening. So why the collaboration? It was only with a bit of digging that I was able to uncover the story of chance meetings at a Tokyo bar, extended email exchanges about recipe formulation, and ingredients indigenous to each brewer’s home region.
But the Special Holiday Ale got me thinking. Actually it was that beer along with the sheer number of other collaborative brews appearing on store shelves that did it. Why this sudden interest in collaboration? Is it a gimmick to boost sales? Store owners tell me that these beers are great for getting people in the door and they are often quite a bit more expensive than other beers from the same breweries. Or is there more to it than that? What’s in it for the brewers? What’s in it for the breweries? And perhaps most importantly, what’s in it for the consumer?
I started by going to the source. I put those very questions to a number of brewers who have participated in collaborative brews. Every brewer to a man (and one woman) spoke of these collaborations as an extension of the camaraderie that exists in the craft brewing world. According to Jim Ebel of Two Brothers Brewing Company in Illinois, “The brewing community is tight-knit and friendly, and I think collaboration brews have developed out that. There is a lot of mutual respect among brewers, and it’s natural that they should want to work together and create something special.” Adam Avery elaborated, “There is a brotherhood in the craft industry. I don’t know if it is the same in other industries. While we are competitors we are also friends and we work together to try and capture a greater overall market share. So the industry itself is like a collaboration and the collaborative beers in many ways reflect that.” Allagash’s Jason Perkins underscored the friendship factor saying, “A lot of the collaborations are happening between breweries that already have some connection, where the brewers are already good friends.”
Okay, I get that. It’s fun to play with your friends. But is that it? There’s nothing more to it than that? According to Vinnie Cilurzo, owner/brewmaster at Russian River, there is. “I think learning is the best part of doing these beers”, he said, “as one brewer can learn something from another brewer’s contribution to the beer.” Jim Ebel illuminated further, “There are a LOT of different opinions, ideas and methods used in brewing. It constantly amazes me how many different ways there are to accomplish the same thing in the brewery. Collaboration brews allow brewers to work together and learn different, new and maybe better ways to do things. When we collaborate with European brewers, it is even more pronounced. American craft brewers have such modern, well-built equipment; many of our overseas brethren are overwhelmed when they visit the States. So they may learn about some new equipment, and we have the chance to learn a beer style’s history and authentic brewing practices.”
Learning is good. Friendship is good. But what about those instances where the previous relationship between the brewers is not so deep or clear-cut? What about my nagging suspicion that this is all really just a marketing gimmick, a cheeky promotional ploy? Here I think results may vary by project, but according to Adam Avery, “As a brewer you also have to ask what the reason for the collaboration is. It can’t just be a marketing gimmick. There has to be something more there.” But isn’t the market fanfare these beers get good for the brewery? Jason Perkins responded, “For the brewery as a business there is certainly an increase in exposure from a press point of view. It’s always good to get the word out there about the brewery. But working with others and learning techniques or ingredients or whatever opens us up to making great beers that we might not have made on our own.” And what of my desire for the “little bit of each brewery” thing? Perkins continued, “A question we are always asking ourselves is how do we make the collaboration work? It’s great to be able to capture some of the character of each brewery in the final product, whether it’s a yeast strain, a technique, or just a spirit. That’s certainly a goal. But I won’t be disappointed if that doesn’t happen. Getting a great beer is really what matters.”
I do like great beer. And that leads me to the final piece of my exploration into collaboration, the consumer. What’s in it for us? Perhaps no brewer addressed this more succinctly than Adam Avery who said, “For the consumer they get a chance to try some really wacked-out stuff.” For greater subtlety I turned to Urthel brewmaster Hildegard Van Ostaden who gave this more nuanced take, “It is very exciting tasting collaboration brews, because in most cases different styles are combined. And who can resist that?” Another consumer benefit expressed by multiple brewers was that collaborative beers give consumers access to breweries that may not be otherwise available their particular markets. Jason Perkins offered this final thought, “Craft beer consumers are intelligent. They expect a lot and we always have to be pushing standards to meet expectations. They want something new and different. Collaboration is another way of providing that.”
Ah yes, the expectations of the craft beer consumer. American beer fans have become increasingly demanding in the last few years, in some cases perhaps unreasonably so. And therein lies the one potential pitfall of collaboration that my diligent research uncovered. Many of the consumers I talked to expressed apprehension about their own reaction to these beers. “I sometimes feel like I have an unreasonably high expectation of them.” said Twin Cities beer lover Nick Johannes. “I’m expecting the ‘second coming’ of beer. Two breweries? Must be twice as good!” And as Sean Brush, an employee at the Four Firkins Beer Store sees it, “The only problem with collaboration beers is that the consumer is expecting something earth shattering, a beer that transcends anything either brewery has done in the past.” And how often does that really happen? I mean, it’s only beer. Right? Perhaps we as consumers (me included) need to chill out and adopt Sean’s approach to collaborative beer appreciation. “For me it’s just fun to see what these talented brewers come up with.” Or to restate Jason Perkins brilliant observation, “Getting a great beer is really what matters.” Isn’t that the truth.
http://www.stonebrew.com/collab/default.asp
DeProef Brewmasters Series Russian River, Allagash, bell’s
Stone, Jolly Pumpkin, Nonge O
Life & Limb/Limb & Life
Doing collaborative beers is fun to begin with as it affords the brewer the ability to work with friends and learn from friends. I think learning is the best part of doing these beers as one brewer can learn something from another brewer’s contribution to the beer. It could be the use of a different malt or hop or even just a different technique. I think from a consumer standpoint it gives them another choice and at that it is a new beer that might be a collaboration between a favorite brewer or two.
I hope this helps,
Vinnie
Hi Michael,
Thanks for your mail. Doing collaboration brews, I believe is a benefit for everybody. I like doing them because when brewers work together I believe the most creative beers are made. Especially if different beercultures are combined. Everybody learns new stuff about brewing great beers. For the consumer I believe it is very exciting tasting collaboration brews, because in the most cases different styles are combined. And who can resist that?
Paché
Hildegard
Hi Michael. Here’s what I have to say:
The brewing community is tight-knit and friendly, and I think collaboration brews have developed out that. There is a lot of mutual respect among brewers, and it’s natural that they should want to work together and create something special. After all, we all try to create special beers so our consumers have something special to celebrate, share or just treat themselves.
There is also a LOT of different opinions, ideas and methods used in brewing. It constantly amazes me how many different ways there are to accomplish the same thing in the brewery. Collaboration brews allow brewers to work together and learn different, new and maybe better ways of do things. It’s a great learning experience. When we collaborate with European brewers, it is even more pronounced. American craft brewers have such modern, well-built equipment; many of our overseas brethren are overwhelmed when they come visit the States. So they may learn about some new equipment, and we may have the chance to learn a beer style’s history and authentic brewing practices. I think it also helps root us in our connections to the European styles we all tinker with over here.
With all this fun and learning we get to enjoy, our consumers get the best perk out of the whole arrangement. They often get authentic, rarely brewed styles at home-market prices, ie: often collaboration brews are made close to the markets where they’re sold, so no crazy shipping and currency exchange rate concerns. Often consumers can also get a glimpse into a brewery that may not be available in their market. I know here in Illinois we get collaboration brews from Avery and Russian River, even though Russian River isn’t available here.
Overall they’re fun, informative and create excitement. What could be better?
Jim Ebel
Adam Avery
There is a brotherhood in the craft industry. I don’t know if it is the same in other industries, but while we are competitors we are also friends and we work together to try and capture a greater market share. So the industry itself is like a collaboration and the collaborative beers in many ways reflect that. For me working collaboratively with other brewers has been an opportunity to share with brothers in the industry and to create something with some of my best friends. For the consumer they get a chance to try some really wacked out stuff. Most of the collaborative beers are one-offs. Collaboration Not Litigation was intended to be that but it just got traction so we produce one batch every year. Mostly the brewers in collaborations end up trying out some interesting things. People get to drink the results of that.
But you also have to ask what the reason for the collaboration is. The collaboration has to be born of friendship. It can’t just be a marketing gimmick. There has to be something more there.
Collaboration Not Litigation – We decided we wanted to do this collaboration so I went to Vinnie’s place in Santa Rosa and we just started testing blends with different percentages of each beer. We find that when we blend these two beers it creates something very different from each individually. There is a sour note that comes out leading a lot of people to think there’s brett in there. There isn’t. It’s just something about the way these two beers work together.
Isabelle Proximus – Tomme Arthur, Rob Tod, Adam Avery, Vinnie Cilurzo, Sam Calagione all took a trip to Belgium and drank a ton of sour beer. They decided upon returning that they wanted to do a collaborative sour beer. They brewed a lambic base of wheat and 2-row and fermented it at 80 degrees with the port brewing house lager yeast. Each brewer contributed barrels and house strains from their wild and barrel aged programs. The beers fermented out with these strains and were then blended into a single beer. Five great friends all brewing together with something unique to each brewery.
Black Saison – Avery and Mountain Sun share a wall in their building. Always thought they should brew a beer together. Tasmanian Pepper Berries. The beer was formulated over the course of a few pints in the Avery Tasting Room by all the Mt. Sun and Avery brewers. All ideas were written down and then chatted about. Final recipe was written based on a 100% group consensus. Both Avery and Mt. Sun shifted their production calendars a bit so that every brewer on both staffs could enjoy brewing the beer together. Again, many more beers were drank.
Jason Perkins – Allagash
The deProef collaboration came together at the suggestion of an importer Allan Shapiro. He sold some of the deProef beers and wanted to get the brewery together with some brewers in the US. He called us. It was one of the first collaborations in the country. We jumped at it because it was an opportunity to work with someone who has a lot of technical expertise in a brewery that is normally pretty closed-door. From a financial standpoint we got nothing. It was just a cool opportunity and a trip to Belgium. We knew that DeProef had this house character that we were anxious to get into the beer. We also have a house strain of brett that we isolated here at the brewery that we sent over there. We were aiming to get some of the house character of each brewery into the beer and I think we succeeded. The collaboration was almost all email.
We are considering some other collaborations in the future. A question we are asking ourselves is how do we make them work? It’s great to be able to capture some of the character of each brewery in the final product, whether it’s a yeast strain, a technique, or just a spirit. That’s certainly a goal. But I won’t be disappointed if that doesn’t happen. Getting a great beer is really what matters. We did another collaboration with Destruiss. That came together in literally two weeks because they just happened to be in the US for something else. It was really like a couple of homebrewers getting together on the weekend and saying, “so what do you want to do?”
Really collaborations are just a cool opportunity. It’s a chance to take advantage of the openness that exists in the brewing industry. There are so many cool people out there and good friends. I think you will find that a lot of the collaborations are happening between breweries that already have some connection where the brewers are already good friends.
For the brewery as a business there is certainly an increase in exposure from a press point of view. It’s always good to get the word out there about the brewery. But also, working with others and learning techniques or ingredients or whatever just opens us up to making great beers that we might not have made on our own.
For the consumer collaborations bring together really creative minds to create a great product. Craft beer consumers are intelligent. They expect a lot and we always have to be pushing standards to meet expectations. They want something new and different. This is another way of providing that.
“I enjoy them because some of the time the collaboration will be with a brewer you can’t get in this market – although, I sometimes feel like I have an unreasonably high expectation of them. Two breweries? Must be twice as good!” Nick Johannes
"That more and more breweries are doing collaborations makes sense- the American craft beer scene is so unique in that its one of few industries where people are trading secrets and giving away recipes to the public. To collaborate on a shared idea just seems natural. The only problem I see with collaboration beers is that the consumer is expecting something earth shattering, a beer that transcends anything either brewery has done in the past. For me its just fun to see what these talented brewers come up with. Maybe the best thing about these collaborations is that the consumer gets to see brewers from different traditions and countries coming together to create something unique, like the Schneider-Brooklyn Hopfenweisse." – Sean Brush
In a recent post fellow Hoppress writer Mario Rubio noted that “collaboration is the new barrel-aging.” Indeed, collaborative brewing seems to be the next big thing in the craft beer industry. Breweries large and small, foreign and domestic are combining their collective know-how to create brews ranging in style from barleywines to Belgians to browns, with an assortment of sours tossed on like salad dressing. Everyone is doing it. Dogfish Head has teamed with Sierra Nevada. Brooklyn brewed with Schneider & Sohn. Sam Adams recently announced that they will work with Weihenstephaner. Stone, De Proef, Bells, Nøgne Ø, Allagash, Urthel, it’s almost easier these days to name breweries that have paired with others than it is to find those that haven’t.
So far as I can determine the collaborative craze began in 2006 when Avery and Russian River created Collaboration Not Litigation. You can read the whole story here, but basically the origin of this beer went something like this. Two Brewers. Two Friends. Two beers. Same name. Same markets. Litigate? Hell no! Blend! The impetus for the collaboration was clear. For these two friends it was better to work together than battle it out in the courts. The blended result is a beer that’s quite possibly greater than the sum of its parts.
And it didn’t end there. This initial collaboration led to others. Close friendship and a communal beer tour of Belgium (during which I’m told “a ton of sour beer was consumed”) led Avery and Cilurzo to team with Rob Tod from Allagash, Tomme Arthur of Lost Abbey, and Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione to create Isabelle Proximus. For this conjointly created lambic style beer, a simple base was aged in barrels from each brewery’s barrel-aging program with their distinctive yeast and bacteria cultures. The beers from each barrel were blended by the brewers to achieve the final product. Via the barrels and the bacteria, a bit of character from each brewery made its way into the final beer. In both of these cases the end product literally would not have been possible without the collective process.
But there are beers in which the reasons for and results of the collaboration are not so clear. My example case here is Special Holiday Ale from Stone, Nønge Ø, and Jolly Pumpkin. While this was a beautiful beer, after finishing the bottle I found myself wondering exactly why it had necessitated collaboration. What had collaboration had brought? From whence had it sprung? While it was certainly possible that there were relationships to which I wasn’t privy (how dare they keep me out of the loop), I knew of no previous connection between the breweries. And the beer itself showed none of the character that I associate with the products of those breweries on their own. There was no “little bit of each brewery” kind of thing happening. So why the collaboration? It was only with a bit of digging that I was able to uncover the story of chance meetings at a Tokyo bar, extended email exchanges about recipe formulation, and ingredients indigenous to each brewer’s home region.
But the Special Holiday Ale got me thinking. Actually it was that beer along with the sheer number of other collaborative brews appearing on store shelves that did it. Why this sudden interest in collaboration? Is it a gimmick to boost sales? Store owners tell me that these beers are great for getting people in the door and they are often quite a bit more expensive than other beers from the same breweries. Or is there more to it than that? What’s in it for the brewers? What’s in it for the breweries? And perhaps most importantly, what’s in it for the consumer?
I started by going to the source. I put those very questions to a number of brewers who have participated in collaborative brews. Every brewer to a man (and one woman) spoke of these collaborations as an extension of the camaraderie that exists in the craft brewing world. According to Jim Ebel of Two Brothers Brewing Company in Illinois, “The brewing community is tight-knit and friendly, and I think collaboration brews have developed out that. There is a lot of mutual respect among brewers, and it’s natural that they should want to work together and create something special.” Adam Avery elaborated, “There is a brotherhood in the craft industry. I don’t know if it is the same in other industries. While we are competitors we are also friends and we work together to try and capture a greater overall market share. So the industry itself is like a collaboration and the collaborative beers in many ways reflect that.” Allagash’s Jason Perkins underscored the friendship factor saying, “A lot of the collaborations are happening between breweries that already have some connection, where the brewers are already good friends.”
Okay, I get that. It’s fun to play with your friends. But is that it? There’s nothing more to it than that? According to Vinnie Cilurzo, owner/brewermaster at Russian River, there is. “I think learning is the best part of doing these beers, as one brewer can learn something from another brewer’s contribution to the beer.” Jim Ebel illuminated further, “There are a LOT of different opinions, ideas and methods used in brewing. It constantly amazes me how many different ways there are to accomplish the same thing in the brewery. Collaboration brews allow brewers to work together and learn different, new and maybe better ways of do things. When we collaborate with European brewers, it is even more pronounced. American craft brewers have such modern, well-built equipment; many of our overseas brethren are overwhelmed when they visit the States. So they may learn about some new equipment, and we have the chance to learn a beer style’s history and authentic brewing practices.”
Learning is good. Friendship is good. But what about those instances where the previous relationship between the brewers is not so deep or clear-cut? What about my nagging suspicion that this is all really just a marketing gimmick, a cheeky promotional ploy? Here I think results may vary by project, but according to Adam Avery, “As a brewer you also have to ask what the reason for the collaboration is. It can’t just be a marketing gimmick. There has to be something more there.” But isn’t the market fanfare these beers get good for the brewery? Jason Perkins responded, “For the brewery as a business there is certainly an increase in exposure from a press point of view. It’s always good to get the word out there about the brewery. But working with others and learning techniques or ingredients or whatever opens us up to making great beers that we might not have made on our own.” And what of my desire for the “little bit of each brewery” thing? Perkins continued, “A question we are always asking ourselves is how do we make them work? It’s great to be able to capture some of the character of each brewery in the final product, whether it’s a yeast strain, a technique, or just a spirit. That’s certainly a goal. But I won’t be disappointed if that doesn’t happen. Getting a great beer is really what matters.”
I do like great beer. And that leads me to the final piece of my exploration into collaboration, the consumer. What’s in it for us? Perhaps no brewer addressed this more succinctly than Adam Avery who said, “For the consumer they get a chance to try some really wacked out stuff.” For greater subtlety I turned to Urthel brewmaster Hildegard Van Ostaden who gave this more nuanced take, “It is very exciting tasting collaboration brews, because in most cases different styles are combined. And who can resist that?” Another consumer benefit expressed by multiple brewers was that collaborative beers give consumers access to breweries that may not be otherwise available in particular markets. Jason Perkins offered this final thought, “Craft beer consumers are intelligent. They expect a lot and we always have to be pushing standards to meet expectations. They want something new and different. Collaboration is another way of providing that.”
Ah yes, the expectations of the craft beer consumer. American beer fans have become increasingly demanding in the last few years, in some cases perhaps unreasonably so. And therein lies the one potential pitfall of collaboration that my diligent research uncovered. Many of the consumers I talked to expressed apprehension about their own reaction to these beers. “I sometimes feel like I have an unreasonably high expectation of them.” said Nick Johannes. “I’m expecting the ‘second coming’ of beer. Two breweries? Must be twice as good!” And as Sean Brush, an employee at the Four Firkins Beer store sees it, “The only problem with collaboration beers is that the consumer is expecting something earth shattering, a beer that transcends anything either brewery has done in the past.” And how often does that really happen? I mean, it’s only beer. Right? Perhaps we as consumers (me included) need to chill out and adopt Sean’s approach to collaborative beer appreciation. “For me it’s just fun to see what these talented brewers come up with.” Or to restate Jason Perkins brilliant observation, “Getting a great beer is really what matters.”
[...] [...]
[...] here and abroad as well as consumers to get to the bottom of the trend. Read the results in my latest article at the Ratebeer.com Hoppress. [...]
This analogy works for me:
You should think of craft brewers like jazz musicians improvising. The basic tune is the same, but it’s about each individual musicians’ take on it. So if you put a couple of individuals together and let them jam, you’ll get a different result than if you heard them individually. Not necessarily better, but different. And in some cases it will be a lot better than than just the sum of the individual parts. Staying in this line of thought; there is no end to the recordings of jam sessions I’ve heard, where I’ve had immense expectations on account of the individual musicians playing, and yet I’ve been disappointed. But then, every now and then, a magic session occurs, where everything is taken to another level and new dimensions are added to the music.
To me, it’s the same thing when craft brewers do collaborative brews. They have a good time in each others company, they often learn something from each other, and they have some of their own common practises challenged and are thus forced to either qualify their own position or change it.
In some cases the project doesn’t work, in some it does.
And what does the consumer get? That’s an easy one; the consumer gets evolution and development.
[...] couple of weeks ago I wrote about collaborative beers on my Hoppress blog over at Ratebeer. While somewhat suspicious and critical of this trend in brewing, I remain [...]
[...] My friend, local beer blogger and Certified Cicerone Michael Agnew recently wrote a very nice article on the ever growing trend. So with his words in mind I will do my best not to allow my expectations [...]