How do you feel about collaborating with other breweries, and do you have anything in the works?
Where to start? Our first collaboration was with The Bruery. We made a beer called Marron Acidifie, which is an Imperial Oude Bruin. We just released it. It took us over a year to get it where we wanted it to be.
The next collaboration was with Grassroots from Fano, Denmark and Hill Farmstead in Vermont. We called the beers Either and Or. They are double black India ales with Ty Ty honey and aged on medium toast Spanish cedar. We used hop extract in the kettle for Or and used hop pellets in the kettle for Either. The base malt on Or was Pils malt and the base malt on Either was 2-row. It allowed us to see the differences that these raw materials made on the final product. I am flying to Denmark in May to make either Neither or Nor. Those will be the return collaborations. It is a pre-prohibition double IPA.
We also brewed a collaboration with St. Somewhere out of Tarpon Springs, Florida. Bob, the head brewer, is known for his saisons. He uses a mutated biere de garde strain in conjunction with brettanomyces bruxellensis to create very complex beers. We made a beer called Vu Ja De, which is a dark farmhouse ale with elderberry flowers, hibiscus, lemon leaves and a secondary fermentation on black currants. The return will be brewed the last week of April. It is going to be a Belgian pale ale with all Citra hops with grapefruit and lemon peel. It will be called Deja Vu.
We brewed a collaboration with Mikkel from Denmark earlier this year. It yielded 3 different beers. One was called Dirac which was our half of the collaboration. The other was called Bohr, which was Mikkel’s half of the collaboration. The two beers were also blended and then aged in rum barrels. We call this one NielsBohrium. The base beers are imperial sweet stouts that saw a secondary fermentation on raisins. The blend is an imperial rum raisin sweet stout. The return collaboration with Mikkel is going to be brewed in Copenhagen in May. It will be a Belgian quad hopped with Citra and Simcoe then aged in Grand Marnier barrels with papaya and mango and Brett clausenii.
We are also in the midst of working out a collaboration with Nebraska Brewing. It will be a very big blonde Belgian Quad or Trippel aged in Chardonnay barrels.
What’s the key to successfully pairing food with beer?
Contrast or compliment is generally the way that I pair beer with food. I break down the components of the food in my head and then I determine which beer I should select based upon my mood at the time.
If you could only fill your glass with one more beer, what would be in it and how come?
IPA because it is my favorite style of beer. I love the crispness of IPA’s and the hop bitterness. I could drink IPA for the rest of my life and never want for any other beer.
What food would you pair with it, if any?
I wouldn’t pair it with anything. I feel like it stands alone and I enjoy IPA without pairing it with food but if I had to pair it with food, I would put it with a mixed greens salad with red bartlett pears, gorgonzola, caramelized pecans and a citrus vinaigrette dressing. Nothing too heavy. I want to have another beer after I’m finished eating.
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