What's your take on beer collaborations?

Great idea for a thread @19etz55 !

I'm going to come down solidly in the middle of the road. The overall idea of them seems to create buzz and a general sense of community, so that's a plus. But the beers themselves...nothing to write home about; and that's to be expected, because you can usually tell that they haven't undergone the recipe tweaking prior to release that makes the truly special beers stand out.

 

I totally agree with the exception of some of the Sierra Nevada collaborative efforts in recent years, those have been pretty fantastic.

 

If anything, craft collaborations tend to be a bit lacking since they typically are quick sketches as opposed to a beer that’s been honed over time. Beyond that, most collaborations aren’t much different than any other beer. The only ones that feel really special are the ones that are excuses to brew something less commercial than a more standard offering.

 

Oh yeah, for sure. But I also get the sense that they're hardly taking a slapdash approach to the whole project.

 

Agreed . . . Wouldn't expect anything less.

 

I'm middle of the road too as @TongoRad had stated. They do create some suspense, but they are usually mediocre. I will say that a bunch of Central PA breweries did a tropical double IPA a couple years ago and that was fantastic!

 

Almost word for word for what I would have replied. Underwhelming is a great descriptor in my frequent experiences.

 

BeerAdvocate's top-rated "American IPA," Todd the Axe Man, is (or perhaps more accurately "originally was") a collaboration beer between Surly and Amager.

 

Kind of like "sit ins" at concert/ festival, in theory you think band x is great, artist y is a great singer or guitar player too... but then it comes down to it and they just play Crossroads or Let It Be, unrehearsed and at half speed, and you're left thinking I'd rather see these guys or gals, back to back, not all at once.

The beer collab equivalent is they drink a bunch of beer (and probably smoke a bunch of joints) and brew a slightly altered version of one of their beers, and throw a bunch of adjuncts in that they picked up when grabbing munchies at the grocery store.

 

I find that good partner breweries usually produce good to very good collaborations. However, I find it rare that collaboration beers are as good as the best beers produced by the breweries on their own.

 

Can't think of a collab that I liked, but for some reason I'd like to get my hands on some Oskar Blues/Cigar City Bamburana. But is it a collab if one brewery owns the other?

 

This.

And what @TongoRad said, about it being supposed to create a buzz.

 

Mostly, I'm whelmed. Seems like few are terrible and few are awesome. Shrug.

 

OK

A few are one offs that are rarely rivaled.

The Alpine- New Belgium Super IPA remains a top 10 beer for me.

The majority like the SN collab packs are a solid average but wonderful in their breadth and execution. Not sure why everything has got to be best ever.

 

Most, not all, collaborations aren't that good. Not just beer but in anything. An individual vision executed properly always yields the best results.

 

Exactly. I've always said John Lennon and Paul McCartney brought out the worst in each other. Gimme "Temporary Secretary," baby!