Brewery collaborations the good and the bad

Super Friends may have been the best collab ever. Most collabs, though, seem to be less fine than the beers made by the individuals involved. I rarely get excited about collabs anymore, they now seem more like marketing than the promise of greatness.

 

It just seems like the price rises in proportion to the number of brewers involved. There have been some great collabs, but I'm always left wondering what was the actual extent of each party's involvement, and did it really add anything to the mix?

Personally I don't feel like the large trend towards collaborations has had a positive effect on the beer world. It drives up prices, contributes to the increasingly powerful hype/scarcity aspect of this hobby and too often fails to deliver when all is said and done.

 

Mostly overrated and usually boring.

 

Best: Fort George, Block 15, and Boneyard - 2014 3-Way IPA

 

I haven't been impressed that much, really. Latest I've had was a collaboration from Other Half and Stillwater (Rockstar Farmer, a saison/farmhouse), and I thought it was pretty average.

Gose Gone Wild is pretty f'in sweet though.

 

I have mixed feelings on this one. First off, I have no idea on what a "collaboration" really means. It probably is whatever the collaborators want it to mean and usually they don't give much in the way of details. Share a common recipe? Traded some tips and techniques? Sourced the same ingedients from the same suppliers at the same time and brewed in both places? Brewed the same style at the same time? Use the same stainless steel valves in the brewhouse? Some variation of the above?

For example, MN-based Schell's and the German Gold Ochsen Brewery in '14 brewed the same style (a Doppelbock) at the same time with local ingredients. Sounds like a winnner to me, especially if it came in a mixed pack to compare side by side. At least the Schells was good, but evidently the German brewery had little to no USA distribution which rather missed the point.

A few years ago, we got very excited about a Beer Camp Across America offering which had SN and New Glarus! That one was a British Bitter and was "meh". I'd love to hear Dan Carey's take on that one.

"Todd the Axeman" from Surly is an outstanding DIPA with a mention of a Danish brewery and implied collaboration and not another word.

Maybe the respective web sites would have more details, but not not always.

 

Couple good ones
OH/TH Oat Overdose
Victory/Stone/DFH Saison du Buff (may be in the minority here)

Underwhelmed by
Lawsons/Otter Creek collabs
Horal Megablend

 

I think the best collaboration beer I've ever had was Blakkr from Surly, Three Floyd's and Real Ale. The complexity of that beer was amazing.
I really don't have any that come to mind in terms of it being bad. Definitely more good than bad with the ones I have had.

 

Collabs aren't something I specifically seek out but I've had a couple of truly enjoyable ones along the way:

Short's/Half Acre - Freedom of '78
Siren Craft/Cigar City - Caribbean Chocolate Cake
Sierra Nevada/Brauhaus Riegele - 2015 Oktoberfest

 

That SN collab on the O-fest was pretty killer if you ask me... I'd buy it year round

 

Michelangelo had assistants but no collaborators. I'd rather experience individual takes on the subject.

 

Marketing gimmick to sell based on multiple name brands.

 

I'm not sure that for a collaboration to be successful, the whole must exceed the sum of parts but I do think it should improve upon what either could do on its own. Recently, Carton has collaborated with Other Half (All Orange Everything), Barrier (SS-C.R.E.A.M.), and Green Flash and Alpine (Ron's Steam Bock Haircut) and all three are very good!

 

Sierra Nevada/Riegele Oktoberfest was awesome.
Zwei/Equinox IPL was confusing

 

I dont have a worst but I have a best. Geyser Gose by Evil Twin and Two Roads. I could easily say its my top 3 favorite Gose.

 

I've generally been underwhelmed by collaborations and the few I have enjoyed tended to be a bit pricier than comparable beers by the breweries, notable exception being Saison du Buff. That said, I don't think I've had any that I would classify as "worst". I did pick up a beer camp variety back this year. With the variety offered it shouldn't be hard to get my money's worth here.