Kyle Hollingsworth is well versed in the art of the sit in. The jazz-and-funk-centric keyboard player is known for his improvisational chops and often welcomes special guests to the stage with his bands, The String Cheese Incident and the Kyle Hollingsworth Band. He hosts an all-star funk jam with friend George Porter, Jr., a founding member of The Meters, each winter in Boulder, Colorado, where Kyle lives with his wife and young daughter and pops up regularly at local shows to sit in with friends.
He’s also a multi-year veteran of Jam Cruise, a floating festival at sea, where he has established himself as something of an artist-at-large—jamming with everyone from folksy Nikki Bluhm and the Gramblers to fusion-saxophonist Karl Denson and Nigerian musician Femi Kuti.
“Although our styles might be very different, we all speak the same language of music,” Kyle says of how he approaches collaborating with fellow musicians. “We might hang out for a bit and find a few touch points that we have in common, then the important thing is to start with solid base and riff and explore on top of that foundation.
“It’s all about balance, while allowing the freedom to be creative and not hesitating to take a risk,” he says. “You have to leave the door open for the magic to come in.”
Kyle takes the same approach with his brewing. Whether he’s brewing in his backyard with buddy Bruce Payne and neighbor John Hernandez on their Ruby Street Brewing homebrew rig—a recent collective purchase—or “sitting in” with professional brewers to make a one-off batch or develop a new production beer, as he increasingly does, Kyle enjoys seeking out collaborative experiences that stoke his creativity and expand his brewing chops.
Most recently Kyle put his head together with hard-rock guitarist Kerri Kelli and the team at Stone Brewing Co. to create Kyle Hollingsworth/Keri Kelli/Stone Collective Distortion IPA. The beer, a Double IPA spiced with coriander and elderberry, is set for national release this spring as part of Stone’s limited edition Collaboration Beers (see “Collaboration Beers” below).
“It’s not necessarily a beer that we would come up with on our own, but having three people involved in coming up with the concept and recipe really lends itself to a creative, collaborative effort that’s truly a blend of brewing philosophies,” says Stone Brewing’s Brewmaster Mitch Steele. “It’s also a neat way to bring in ingredients and procedures that we normally wouldn’t use.”
Two years ago, Kyle partnered with Boulder Beer Company to create Hoopla, a voluminously dry-hopped yet sessionable pale ale. He’s also working with Ska Brewing Co. to create a collaborative beer to help commemorate a run of shows in southwestern Colorado and his new solo album, which is slated for a fall release.
“I love learning from the masters and being part of the creative process with these guys and seeing how their minds work,” Kyle says. “I’ve definitely taken some of their tricks to my homebrew setup.”
Taking a cue from his experience with Stone Brewing, Kyle has started using less bittering hops in the boil in favor of a massive hops addition in the whirlpool for an added flavor boost with lots of aroma. Most recently, he brewed a Belgian-style Trippel with his homebrewing buddies in honor of his birthday and spiced it with additions of coriander and orange peel. Not all of his recipes are as successful as others, but each teaches him something new about the brewing process and, most often, there’s a payoff for taking a risk.
“I’m very happy with the beers I make, but I enjoy the process more—particularly the creativity and experimentation,” Kyle says.
“Sometimes I’ll crack open one of my homebrews with a buddy and they’ll say, ‘That’s awesome, Dude, but you should really stick to playing music.’ That’s why I’m glad to work with the pros.”
Collaboration Beers
As is inherent with most creative projects—and especially when collaborating with other brewers on a new recipe—there’s an exciting element of the unknown that adds spice to an otherwise straightforward process. Collaboration breeds creativity. This is the gestalt behind Stone Brewing Co.’s acclaimed series of Collaboration Beers, which pairs two guest brewers with the Stone Brewing’s brew team to see what kind of magic they can make. Past examples include
- Aleman/Two Brothers/Stone DayMan Coffee IPA
- Robert Masterson & Ryan Reschan/Rip Current/Stone R&R Coconut IPA
- 10 Barrel/Bluejacket/Stone Suede Imperial Porter
Set for release this spring is Kyle Hollingsworth/Keri Kelli/Stone Collective Distortion IPA. It is brewed in collaboration with keyboardist and homebrewer Kyle Hollingsworth, hard-rock guitarist Keri Kelli, and Stone Brewing’s Brewmaster Mitch Steele.
The collaboration among Kyle, Keri, and Mitch began with a chain of emails. They landed on the IPA style pretty quickly, and Keri—best known for playing in Alice Cooper’s band and as the owner of Aces & Ales beer bar in Las Vegas—insisted that “‘it has to be a double; it has to go to 11[% ABV],’” Kyle says.
With the base beer set, the two musicians thought about ways to add a signature riff. They decided to experiment with herb additions, and Mitch prepared a flight of Stone IPAs spiced with coriander, bugwort, rosemary, elderberry, chamomile, and other compounds commonly used in European beers before hops became the spice of choice. They settled on additions of elderberry, which has an earthy quality, and coriander, which adds a bright citrus element.
“We weren’t expecting to like it, but it was just wonderful,” Mitch says.
In typical Stone Brewing style, they used one bittering hops—in this case, Nugget—with a massive flavoring addition in the whirlpool that included Calypso and Comet, along with the spice additions. They decided to dry-hop the beer with Vic’s Secret, a relatively new hop strain from Australia.
Munich malt and Simpsons Golden Naked Oats provided the fermentables along with a biscuit, oatmeal-type character that helps to smooth out the beer, says Mitch.
The finished brew is balanced by a strong malt complexity, he says, “but really the highlight is the blend of coriander and elderberry with Vic’s Secret hops. Overall, there’s a spicy, citrusy, herbal thing going on that’s really pleasant and well blended.”
In true rock ‘n’ roll fashion, the trio held a jam session in the brewery with other Stone brewers and staff after they finished up their brew session.
