It appears that collaborative beers are all the rage in the craft beer scene right now. However, brewers have been sharing knowledge since for many decades. As a homebrewer, the amount of knowledge shared on the Internet, by homebrewing clubs, and amongst friends is truly impressive. Have a question during a brew day? Just hop on to a MoreBeer forum and someone may answer your question within minutes. On a professional level, I understand that brewers share everything from techniques to lessons learned.
Jay Brooks wrote in a 2009 issue of All About Beer:
When all the small breweries combined brewed such a tiny fraction of the total beer sold, nobody worried about market share, competition or trade secrets. Brewers in the craft industry were simply very open with one another, freely offering each other help, and freely asking for it, too, in a way that earlier generations and larger businesses wouldn’t dream of doing.
Last month’s Beer Blogging Friday event, The Session #39, focused on the recent phenomenon of collaboration. If you missed it, we checked in with a collaborative post. If you are interested in more than lame rhymes, I encourage you to check out some of our peers’ takes on the topic.
Day 4
May 20, 2010
Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen-Weisse, Brooklyn version (Brooklyn, NY)
Website/Bottle Information:
“This brew is the result of the long friendship of Brooklyn brewmaster Garrett Oliver and Schneider brewmaster Hans-Peter Drexler. Garrett had always admired the delicate balance of flavors in Schneider Weisse, while Hans-Peter had long enjoyed the effusive hop character of Brooklyn East India Pale Ale and BLAST! Garrett's concept for the collaboration was that each brewmaster would brew essentially the same pale, hoppy weissbock in the other's brewery, but with different hopping to reflect the local hop flavor.
Dry-hopped with American Amarillo and Palisade.”
Serving: 1 Pint, 9.4 fl.oz. (750 mL) Bottle
Style: Weizenbock
ABV: 8.5%
He Said:
I approached this beer without prejudice. I had not read much about it or researched the history. In fact, before I opened it was the first I had heard the story told on the label. This is a very good looking bottle, by the way. It was heavy and even had a small punt. It is highly carbonated and pours like champagne with a huge fluffy head. The aroma was fruity with citrus notes from the hops. This was a little unexpected for a wheat beer. The flavor was a little sweet with fruity and slightly floral esters present. I love the hop aroma of the beer. The dry hopping gave the beer a wonderful aroma without making the finish too bitter. This Hopfen-Weisse is one of Brooklyn’s best offerings. Nice collaboration!
She Said:
My first whiff and sip resulted in the same experience: Citrus. The beer was reminiscent of that citrusy-orange Mr. Clean smell after cleaning the kitchen, but you know, in a good way. Hopfen-Weisse is like orange rind meets hops in a bottle of golden deliciousness. I would order another round of this one, but SirRon tells me there is only one more in storage. I preferred this beer cold when the carbonation was present. The warmer the beer gets, the more of a bite you get at the back of your tongue from the hoppiness. I'm giving this 3½ hops out of 5.
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