Craft brewers’ friendships spawn Beer Collaboration Festival

Published 1:30 am Friday, August 18, 2017

When it comes to the craft beer community, competition is a dirty word.

Sure, brewers love to sell a lot of beer and beating out fellow brewers for medals is fun. And, to be fair, there is quite a rivalry between craft brewers and a certain mega-brewer that has been buying up some of their friends. But the craft beer community is unique in that friendships between brewers are intertwined throughout the industry.

The annual Washington Beer Collaboration Festival shines a light on these friendships. Bringing together more than 50 breweries in pairs of two, the Collaboration Festival gives craft brewers an excuse to put their heads together on a recipe and brew at each other’s facilities.

Before John Carruthers helped open Snohomish’s Lost Canoe Brewing, he’d stop by Monroe’s Dreadnought Brewing and talk with owner and head brewer Steve Huskey about beer and the brewing process. So for Huskey when the thought came up about who to collaborate with on a beer for the festival, it was simple.

“I received help from established brewers like Black Raven’s Beaux Bowman and Ray Pitts from Old Rock Brewing,” Huskey said. “They helped build us up. I felt like working with John and Lost Canoe was a way to give back to the same brewing community that helped us.”

The beer the two came up with is a hazy IPA in the mold of a beer Huskey brewed with Greater Everett Brewing League home brewer Dennis Nagy called Green Manalishi. Named after a Judas Priest song, the beer was a hazy IPA made with Mosaic and Citra hops.

The beer Huskey and Carruthers came up with is a bit different. They decided to pick the hops out of a hat. Brewed with Columbus, Cascade and Centennial hops, and then dry hopped with the same hops and double dry hopped with seven pounds of Citra, the Dreadnought Canoe is more of a session IPA with strong notes of fruit and pine.

Here’s a look at six other beer partnerships involving Snohomish County brewers:

Foggy Noggin and Mac &Jacks: Jim Jamison of Bothell’s Foggy Noggin Brewing teamed up with one of the largest craft brewers in the state, Mac &Jack’s Brewing, to create a beer that mixes the old and the new. You Say Old, I Say New pale ale mixes old world English malts and yeast with modern-day American hops, Eureka and 07270. The beer was brewed twice, once on Mac &Jack’s large system and once on Jamison’s tiny half-barrel system. Both versions will be on tap at the festival and at the release party at Foggy Noggin Brewing from 3 to 8 p.m. Aug. 18.

Skookum and Three Magnets: Two of the best young IPA brewers in the state recently got together to make — what else? — an IPA. Skookum Brewery’s Hollis Wood teamed up with Jeff Stokes, head brewer at Olympia’s Three Magnets Brewing, to brew Skookum Puffs, an IPA made with five different hops and a variety of puffed rice, including wild, Jasmine and flaked. The beer was brewed at both breweries, with the version brewed at Skookum — under a different name, Puff, Pass — that will be pouring at the Collaboration Festival.

At Large and Whitewall: Before At Large Brewing moved into its new taproom on the Everett waterfront, it called Marysville home. While in Marysville, At Large’s Jim Weisweaver and Karen Larsen got to know Whitewall Brewing’s owners and brewers, Sean Wallner and Aaron Wight. The three brewers, along with At Large assistant brewer Dan Custer, brewed a hoppy pilsner called Backseat Gunman. The beer, which was lagered, is brewed with Skagit Valley Malting violetta pilsner malt and spelt malt and Saaz hops, and dry hopped with German Huell Melon hops, giving the beer a crisp, fruity flavor with a touch of pepper. Besides being at this weekend’s festival, the beer is on tap at the breweries.

Middleton and Sound to Summit: When Middleton Brewing’s Geoff Middleton and Sound to Summit’s Grady Warnock get together to collaborate on not one but two beers, it’s anyone’s guess what’s going end up in the glass. These two idiosyncratic brewers didn’t disappoint this year. The two brewed two different beers: Forty-Two-Five, a tribute to Everett’s area code (425), is an American malt liquor lager brewed with 3.5-pounds of peach “O” candies per barrel. They also brewed Once You Go Blackberry, an imperial wheat beer brewed with 30 pounds of blackberries per barrel.

Crucible and Postdoc: Everett’s Crucible Brewing teamed up with Redmond’s Postdoc Brewing to make Double Plum Sour, a high-alcohol kettle sour made with 400 pounds of plums. Clocking in at 8 percent ABV, the Double Plum is a tart, wheat-based sour with a purplish hue and aromas of plums and citrus.

Scuttlebutt and Diamond Knot: After teaming up on a Thai-inspired beer for last year’s Collaboration Festival, these two Snohomish County craft brewing stalwarts have teamed up to make another. This time they’re going dark. Thai Me Down — last year’s beer was called Thai Me Up — is a brown ale made with lager yeast and infused with ginger and chilies. The beer starts out with a slight flavor of ginger and chocolate, with a nice heat from the peppers finishing it.

Washington Beer’s Collaboration Festival

The Washington Beer Commission is hosting the 2017 Collaboration Festival from noon to 6 p.m. Aug. 19 at South Lake Union’s Discovery Center, 101 Westlake Ave. N., Seattle. The festival will feature 27 unique collaboration beer from more than 50 Washington breweries, including At Large Brewing, Whitewall Brewing, Scuttlebutt Brewing and Diamond Knot. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.washingtonbeer.com/festivals.