What's your take on beer collaborations?

I wrote most, not all. Then you linked the worst song ever next to Imagine.

 

Most of the collaboration beers I’ve had have been very good and interesting, though occasionally not as good as certain beers from the individual breweries alone.

 

Let me add to that -

Unlike others, I'm never really disappointed in collaborations, but this is due to how I approach them. I never think: great brewer + great brewer = really great beer. Instead, I think: great brewer + great brewer = decent chances of good beer.

The Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest collaborations mentioned in this thread tend to be much more interesting than your average collaboration. Whereas many collaborations just come across as interchangeable collaborative marketing on a 16oz can, the Sierra beers feel like a collaboration across cultures... and have more to give as a result.

 

I agree with @TangoRad. Collaborations are harmless but fun and maybe someone beside Sierra Nevada will hit a home run.

 

I went with good, though I can't really think of any collabs I've had that have really blown me away and made me think "wow this is what a beer from these (however many) breweries should taste like." I just won't put any effort into getting collabs.

I will say though, the Sierra Nevada ones might be the exception for me though. Especially the Oktoberfest.

 

I always look forward to the Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest collab. Beyond that. I'm not really looking for them too much.

 

That's sort of like when people complain about how someone's first two albums were great, and then they really fell off. Well yeah, they had their who life up to the first album to come up with the songs for the first album. The second album might have had some good tunes that didn't make album 1, or now that their making a living in music, have time to flesh out. By album 3 they're starting from zero since they've already used up everything they came up with from Age 0 to age "xx", whenever the second album came out. There are people who continue to make good albums, but that's why even good artists, run out of material by album 3 (and the money which makes them lazy).

Does it surprise you the recipe they came up with in a matter of days, isn't as good as the recipes that they came up with over the course of their entire life? Those recipes must have been pretty good if they make it to the potential-collaborator stage in the first place. Being a good brewer is about making the same thing over and over, only rarely do people like the Evil Twin guy build a business on hundreds of recipes (and he's not really a brewer, he is more of a recipe artist).

 

This is my general feeling as well. Those Oktoberfest collabs are amazing.

 

Waiting for a beer collab that goes like some album collabs: dismantled because of creative differences

Middle of the road here

 

I don’t know. How do you blame Lennon for Wings?

 

Collabs to me are fun "what if?" beers that typically underwhelm the hype of seeing two good breweries on one label. Last collab I had was Boulevard #6 with FW, and while I had and loved all the base beers, the end result was a good but lesser product. I've learned to temper expectations on collaborations.

 

Couldn't think of a decent one, until remembered that I recently had a 2016 Deschutes/Hair Of The Dog Collage 2 and it was pretty decent. They basically combined some of their better beers of several dark styles;

• Deschutes The Abyss (100% aged in Pinot barrels)
• Deschutes The Stoic (100% aged in Pinot barrels)
• Hair of the Dog Fred (aged in American oak and rye whiskey barrels)
• Hair of the Dog Doggie Claws (100% aged in cognac barrels).

I still preferred Abyss by itself

 

I originally voted for "Poor" but then changed my vote to "Not so good" when I remembered Sierra Nevada's Oktoberfest collaborations. They are probably the only collabs that I have really enjoyed, but even a couple of those (like the one with Mahrs) kind of missed the mark for me. Hill Farmstead's collab with Brasserie de Blaugies, La Vermontoise, is another good one that comes to mind. Most others I have had have been average at best.

 

Beer Camp

 

@Prince Casual

Even really good artists run out of material by album three?

That's a very questionable take.

 

Best I’ve had by far , and wish it would get brewed again....

More brown than black IPA

That was a great beer.

Most collabs are nothing amazing,paying for hype, large bottle format on many and just because they can charge more.

Enjoy

 

If you’d asked me this 5 years ago then generally speaking I would say below average.

However these days there’s a new breed of collaboration which I think can often be tasty, but only because they tend to be between two breweries, both of which share the same narrow focus, making a slight variation of a beer/beers they make solo anyway

 

Interestingly, the only two great collabs I've had (and would buy again) are collabs with Alvarado St, one with Other Half (Slice Joint) and one with Burgeon (can't remember the name). In nearly every other case (including two I tried this past weekend), the whole tends to be less than the sum of its parts.

 

I agree with you about Sierra Nevada, I love their Oktoberfest collaborations...

 

That's not what I meant, and I don't think that's what I said.

*Many* artists have one hit, or one hit album, and they disappear., way more than artists who have several or dozens of hits. My point being they had their whole life to come up with that one album with 4 good tunes, or even just their one hit (wonder). Of course the good artists, who put in the work, and are skilled and talented, can write tons of great material.

In the context of brewing collaboration, it would be like (in 1968) asking the Beatles and the Rolling Stones to show up to a studio, with no prior communication, and come up with a hit single in 8hrs. They both released hits in the last 3 months. They both will even record something great in the next 6 months. And the song they come up with *might* become a hit just because the radio plays it BECAUSE it's The Beatles + Rolling Stones, regardless of it's quality or not.

In a collaboration beer they usually aren't doing a pilot run, they aren't tweaking the recipe when they scale up. They are probably doing it "in one take." It's an unfiltered look at how good the brewery is turning recipe into batch#1. It's not going to be as dialed in as something they've brewed dozens/ hundreds/ thousands of times. That's all I was getting at.