Collaboration beers are a hallmark of craft brewing.
Take two or more talented brewers from potentially competing breweries, bring them together to brainstorm ideas and combine their talents, and, more often than not, we—the drinking public—are treated to an inventive new taste sensation that likely would not have arisen from any single brewer’s kettle. Everyone wins.
Brewers “probably get the most out of it, in a lot of ways,” says New Belgium spokesman Bryan Simpson. “In the sense that there’s a mutual exchange of ideas and a flourish of creativity that comes from both parties bringing their strong suits. You often get a one-plus-one-equals-three type equation out of that.”