The much anticipated Beer Camp Across America variety pack includes a beer brewed by neighbors Sierra Nevada Brewing Company and Oskar Blues Brewery that will soon be brewing in Mills River, North Carolina, and Brevard, North Carolina, respectively. CANfusion, a beer that nods to both Oskar Blues’ large scale production of craft lager and Sierra Nevada’s popular Ruthless Rye IPA, is a canned bock beer brewed with rye in its grain bill. “It’s going to be a rye-laced, hop-jolted dopplebock. We can imagine where your attention will be for all twelve ounces,” Oskar Blues spokesperson Chad Melis said of the beer before it was brewed.
Oskar Blues brewers Noah Tuttle (head brewer in Brevard, North Carolina) and Tim Matthews (lead brewer in Longmont, Colorado) recently traveled to Sierra Nevada in Chico, California, to brew CANfusion, one of two canned beers in the Beer Camp Across America twelve-pack.
“In true Oskar Blues form, we immediately started thinking big and hoppy and landed on brewing a dry-hopped rye bock. We want that malty, low bitterness, lager character of a traditional bock while providing fun flavors and intense mouth feel. So we loaded up on malted rye, red wheat, and copious amounts of Australian Ella for the dry hopping,” says Noah Tuttle. “The spiciness of rye enhances the complexity of many beers. As beer lovers continue to search out new flavors, brewing with malted rye has increased in popularity, for sure.”
Oskar Blues in Brevard, North Carolina, has been open since December 2013, and the taproom is open seven days a week. Sierra Nevada will celebrate its grand opening in Mills River on August 3, when the Beer Camp Across America traveling festival concludes.