Collaborative Brewing
I’m not allowed out very often. And on the rare occasion where I take a day off, our temperamental bottling machine has a habit of throwing a tantrum until I come back to soothe her with whispered sweet nothings. (I really wish that was a joke. I’ve started learning Italian to better communicate with her.)
So it was with trembling hope and anticipation that I wound up partially organising a collaboration brew with the extremely cool kids at Electric Bear Brewing down in Bath. I last met up with their Office Manager, Laurie Ketchen, at their taproom after the annual Charles Faram HopWalk, and over a few beers we bounced back and forth the idea of doing a couple of collaborations – one in Bath, one up here on Arran.
Collaborations are strange beasties; I can’t think of another industry where you would welcome a rival company into your shop to make something together, all in the spirit of learning from each other and having a bit of fun. (Maybe Coca Cola will invite John Pepsi over some day to make a slightly different carbonated sugar water drink, and at last the world will know peace.) And to the best of my knowledge, Arran Brewery has never done a collaboration with another brewery before now, so it was an honour to be able to lead one with a brewery we respect so much!
After a few emails back and forth arguing about which style of beer to brew, we settled on a Red Rye IPA for this leg of the collaboration, made with specialty German RedX Malt, hopped up to the nth degree with Amarillo, Centennial & Mosaic for an old school dry & bitter punch; and, excitingly, this beer is going to be certifiably Gluten Free – something we’ve been very keen to try out in-house, but haven’t had the opportunity to do so.
As for the return leg of the collaboration, we’re going to do something a bit more in our wheelhouse: a traditional Wee Heavy/Scotch Ale. It’s only right that those English lads learn how to make one up here in Scotland!
I’d like to thank the guys at Electric Bear for looking after me (double thanks for the pizza!), especially to Martyn and Alex for tolerating me for a full brew day and providing me with lifesaving coffee. Absolutely buzzing to taste the beer when it’s ready – hopefully you all are, too!