This year’s Little Summer Beer Bash may have passed, but the memory lingers on in the form of six collaboration brews from hosts Verdant Brewing Co.
In total, Verdant worked on four collaborations with six different breweries, and this week they released the first two.
First up is a beer brewed with Uchu Brewing, from Japan, and Finback, from New York City. Uchu’s pouring station was extremely busy during both Little Summer Beer Bash sessions, and it was the first one to sell out. Masa, the brewery’s owner, brought along what must have been the most photographed beer of the event: a wild Atom Mango Smoothie Sour.
Finback, meanwhile, are maestros of the fruited IPA, so, with this in mind, the first collaboration is a 6.5% ABV NEIPA combining hops that consistently taste of mango with a hefty dose of mango puree. There’s also mango extract.
The second collaboration features West Coast experts Stoup and Bale Breaker, hailing from Seattle. The Verdant team discovered them during a trip to the Yakima harvest in September last year.
So the beer is a West Coast IPA, of course, coming in at 7% ABV. “We settled on pilsner grist paired with smooth yet punchy bitterness from Mosaic, alongside a generous addition of beautiful hops cold side,” say Verdant. “We also gave it the hop-dipped treatment with Mosaic Incognito to maximise flavour.”
