Top Shelf Thursday: July 2013, Collaboration

It was almost a decade ago that Russian River Brewing's Vinnie Cilurzo & Avery Brewing's Adam Avery, friends & compatriots in the craft brewing world, came to realize both of their portfolios contained a beer with the name Salvation.  What to do?  They could have issued cease & desist letters or pursued trademark infringement lawsuits, as others have done.  But no!  In the good will to which every brewer hopefully aspires, they put their heads & beers together, blending the two & dubbing the new creation 'Collaboration Not Litigation Ale'.  This may not have been the first inter-brewer collaboration, but it was a landmark in promoting craft beer's culture as one of camaraderie.  This month's Top Shelf Thursday was all about collaboration, showcasing beers that have resulted from two or more brewers (or other creative entities) getting together & saying 'Let's do this'.
 
Gypsy brewers Evil Twin & Omnipollo obviously had some fun devising Russian Roulette, the first beer of the evening.  Russian Roulette is actually *two* beers - an American IPA & a black IPA - though you never know which one is in the bottle til you 'bust the cap' & pour (both received some good reviews, by the way).  
 
Each of these beers gave folks something to talk about, least of which was Manneken-Penn, brewed for Philadelphia Beer Week by Brasserie de la Senne, Weyerbacher, & Monk's Cafe proprietor Tom Peters.  Manneken-Penn is an abbey-style 'Belgo-American' dubbel made with oats, molasses, & American & European hops, whose label depicts an illustration of Philadelphia City Hall, with the statue of William Penn replaced by Manneken-Pis, filling the city with...something?  Laughs were had, remarks made.
 
A few Top Shelf Thursday veterans caught our first 'encore' beer: Brux Domesticated Wild Ale from Sierra Nevada & Russian River.  Also poured at the very first tasting back in September, this Belgian-style pale gets a secondary fermentation with brettanomyces bruxellensis, giving the beer a dry, slightly funky character, as well as its name.  Sierra Nevada had another showing with their Ovila Belgian-style Golden Ale, brewed to aid the fundraising effort of the Abbey of New Clairvaux in Vina, California.  This strong, golden ale hit all the right marks, with fruit & honey notes, a dry ending & a moderate alcohol presence backing it up.

Dogfish Head teamed with hip-hop producer Dan the Automator for Positive Contact, a strong Belgian-style wheat.  Never sticking to style, the Dogfish/Dan (Dogomator?) combo spun this beer with a strong cidery flavor from the addition of Fuji apples, threw in some farro & cilantro, & gave it a kick of cayenne in the finish.

Mouths watered for La Petite Mort, from Central Waters & Local Option.  This weizenbock put off big caramel & banana notes, accentuated by its time spent in bourbon barrels.  The Belgian yeast strain got a little lost in translation, though the crowd had a fun time trying to decipher the phrase ‘Scheiss Bier kann todlich sein’ on the label.  Go on, give it a try.

We stepped into a snug pair of Clown Shoes next, first with their collab with Brash Brewing, a ‘double double brown ale’ dubbed Pimp.  Pimp was made by blending Clown Shoes’ Brown Angel with a Belgian brown brewed by Brash, giving off big, roasty coffee & chocolate notes.  Clown Shoes also paired up with Rochester’s Three Heads Brewing, blending Eagle Claw Fist imperial amber with Three Heads’ Loopy oatmeal red to birth Third Party Candidate.  Named for Three Heads’ Geoff Dale & his tongue-in-cheek presidential bid, Third Party Candidate’s label features its namesake giving his own kind of victory sign.

A dark horse in more ways than one, Outblack, from De Struise Brouwers & Stillwater Artisanal Ales, surprised folks with its rich profile of dark fruit, molasses, & minty spiciness.  A cross between a Belgian strong dark ale & a black IPA, this beer seemed to benefit from a bit of ‘aging’ in our stock room. 

The piece de resistance for many was the Conflux No. 1 (Collage) from Oregon breweries Deschutes & Hair of the Dog.  Befitting its name, Collage is a blend of Deschutes’ beers The Stoic, a quadruple, & The Dissident, an ‘imperial’ Flanders-style red aged on cherries, with Hair of the Dog’s Fred, an American strong ale, & Adam, an ‘old-world’ style dark ale with a little smokiness.  This four-beer blend is then aged in no fewer than seven barrels: rye whiskey, cognac, sherry, pinot noir, bourbon, new American oak, & new Oregon oak.  Strong & super complex, Collage delivered movements of cherry, port, smoke, leather, oaky tannins, bourbon, caramel – one well-attuned attendee even picked up some dill!  This is one bold, creative beer that really shows how collaboration can yield a finished product that’s more than the sum of its parts.  Here’s to the partnership that continues to drive craft beer in America & abroad, & to many more collaborations!