Brewing Diplomacy
Two of the Isabelle Proximus brewers, Adam Avery and Vinnie Cilurzo—from Avery Brewing and Russian River respectively—also collaborated on a beer to resolve a dispute. In a classic example of brewers acting differently than most industries, the pair discovered that each brewed a beer called “Salvation.” At that point, they didn’t know one another, but Avery approached Cilurzo at the Great American Beer Festival and, realizing they were in different markets, the issue was settled. “I’m cool if you’re cool,” they concluded.
After that, they became friends and decided one evening in 2004, after several pints at Russian River’s brewpub, to brew a collaborative version of their two Salvations. Natalie Cilurzo, Vinnie’s wife and business partner, suggested the name: Collaboration, Not Litigation Ale for the new beer. It took two more years for the beer to be brewed, and it debuted in December of 2006. Having proved very popular, a second batch was released in February of this year.
Vinnie Cilurzo, from Russian River Brewing, has also been involved in several other joint efforts, including taking a keg of 21st Amendment Brewery’s popular Watermelon Wheat, spiked with Brettanomyces, and aged it for several years on oak to create Watermelon Funk. But by far his favorite collaboration came when Agostino Arioli—who started Birrificio Italiano, Italy’s third microbrewery, in 1996—came to Santa Rosa, CA, to brew La Fleurette, one of Arioli’s more unusual beers and a brew quite unlike anything Russian River had ever done.
The story of Agostino’s La Fleurette is a romantic tale. Seven years ago, he met a girl and fell in love. Awash with the emotions of new love, he set out to create something that would be “a celebration beer of personal happiness.” So he started experimenting and after a year of trial and error was satisfied with the beer, released commercially as La Fleurette. To the kettle he adds turbinado raw sugar and orange blossom honey, but he also adds black pepper because, as Agostino puts it, “love is also spicy.” At the end of the boil he dry hops—or rather, dry-flowers—the beer with both roses and violets. After that, elderberry concentrate is added, more for color than flavor.
Working on that beer, Cilurzo said, “reminded me not to forget my roots, and to never forget you can do whatever you want.” La Fleurette was such “a crazy recipe that it reminded me of my homebrewing days when you could do that kind of beer on a small scale. It’s the kind of beer that would normally have me thinking, ‘There’s no way you could do that on a commercial scale,’ yet that’s exactly what La Fleurette is. I love that beer because it’s so full of flavor and yet only 4.5 percent ABV.”
In addition to Isablle Proximus, Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione has also done his fair share of other collaborations, beginning with one on his honeymoon, though he considers that one “unofficial.” While in Paris with his then-bride Mariah, Calagione discovered a brewpub downtown, one of the Brasserie Frogs. They invited him to brew an English mild with them.
Calagione has also brewed in the Czech Republic at Herrold, and made a traditional Danish gruit recipe from the fifteenth century with Anders Kissmeyers of Nørrebro Bryghus in Denmark. The beer, called Old Odense Ale, is made with star anise, blackthorn berries, maple syrup, other herbs and no hops. Calagione also just recently returned from Rome where he collaborated on an Imperial pilsner, called My Antonia, with Leonardo di Vincenzo of Birra del Borgo. Early next year, yet another collaboration is planned with Nick Floyd, of Three Floyds, to brew a big, dark beer aged on Palo Santo wood to be named Wooden (It Be Nice).
Allagash Brewing, in Portland, ME, yet another Isabelle Proximus participant, and the second Brewmaster’s Collaborator at De Proef, has also recently co-brewed with the four owners of Belgian brewery De Struise—Urbain Coutteau, Carlo Grootaert, Phil Driessens and Peter Bruin. The beer, an 8.2 percent ABV blonde that’s 35 IBUs (with Cascade and Amarillo hops), and made with cane sugar and honey, is called Fedeltá, which is Italian for fidelity. De Struise also recently brewed their Black Albert at Portsmouth Brewery in New Hampshire, with an eye toward blending the result with Portsmouth’s award-winning Kate the Great.
Three-Way Brews
Stone Brewing in Escondido (near San Diego), CA, just released their first bottled collaboration beer. The project involved Stone Brewing; Mikkel Bjergsø, from Mikkeller in Denmark; and Peter Zien, from AleSmith Brewing in San Diego and was called, appropriately, Stone-Mikkeller-Alesmith Belgian-Style Triple Ale. Stone decided on a slightly different approach to collaborating, with three brewers participating. The philosophy of three was simply that with two, there’s the possibility that one brewer’s ideas could dominate, but with three there’s a more even distribution of philosophies, making it a more democratic brew.
Their second collaboration, which only recently took place, involved Stone; Ron Jeffries from Jolly Pumpkin in Dexter, MI; and Kjetil Jikiun, from Nøgne Ø in Grimstad, Norway. For this beer, loosely referred to as a holiday beer, each brewer brought local ingredients from his part of the world: Michigan chestnuts, Norwegian juniper berries and freshly picked California sage (essentially a wet sage beer), along with rye and oats. A third is currently being planned with James Watt of Scotland’s BrewDog Brewery.
The 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco, CA, recently launched their own collaboration project, dubbed “The Brewer Outreach Program.” The first of these took place a few months ago when Mitch Steele, head brewer at Stone Brewing, made a west coast IPA with British malts with Shaun O’Sullivan and Jesse Houck, the brewers at 21st Amendment.
O’Sullivan explains his program: “I just like the idea of people coming in and doing what they do and giving them an opportunity to brew on a pub system, and afford larger brewers a way to brew little one-off beers.” Next up is Gabe Fletcher, from Midnight Sun in Alaska, followed by Chuck Silva, from Green Flash Brewing in San Diego. Midnight Sun, meanwhile, did a collaboration with brewer Ben Love (then at Pelican Pub & Brewery; now at Hopworks Urban Brewery in Portland, OR) that they called Conspiracy, a Belgian-style black beer.
Mitch Steele, meanwhile, last year brewed that same IPA at the Shepherd Neame brewery, as part of a project organized by the JD Wetherspoon pub chain, which operates 700 pubs throughout England. They invited four brewers from around the world to brew real ales at English breweries for the JD Wetherspoon International Beer festival, and then served all four beers at a three-week long festival at all 700 pubs.
Steele, who saw first hand while a brewer at Anheuser-Busch how secrecy and a lack of openness can grip a company, noticed this same tendency in the English brewers he observed. While the brewers at Shepherd Neame were taken aback by the amount of hops he called for in his beer, they eventually became excited by the prospect of the final beer. But at the opening day of the festival, Steele noticed that it was not consumers who were slow to embrace hoppy American beers, but other brewers, who seemed so set in their ways that they didn’t even want to try his beer.
Earlier this year, JD Wetherspoon hosted four brewers invited by for the 2008 festival: Richard Anderson, from Australia’s Barons Brewery; Matt Brynildson, from California’s Firestone Walker Brewing; Toshi Ishii, from Japan’s Yo Ho Brewery (who coincidentally has done a collaboration with Norway’s Nøgne Ø, who in turn has collaborated with Dugges Ale & Porterbryggeri of Sweden); and Mikkel Bjergsø, from Denmark’s Mikkeller (who’s also done collaborations with BrewDog, De Proef, De Struise, Nøgne Ø and Three Floyds).
Brynildson brewed at the historic Marston’s Brewery in Burton-on-Trent. Marston’s is the only remaining English brewery using the Burton Union brewing system, and Firestone Walker, using a modified Burton Union system, may be the only other brewery in the world using one. Though Marston’s system wouldn’t allow Brynildson to dry hop using the same method he normally does, or use the amount of hops he originally wanted to use, the experience was still a very positive one. “Being in that historic brewery was just amazing.” He brewed a California Pale Ale with Cascade and Centennial hops.
Unsurprisingly, Brynildson’s experience mirrored Mitch Steele’s the previous year, with consumers and even retailers acknowledging that they wanted to try big, hoppy American-style beers, while it was primarily the English brewers who clung to strict traditional style interpretations.
