Ask someone who works for a brewery what their favorite part of the beer industry is and nine times out of ten they’ll say, “the people.” There’s a collaborative environment that’s hard to find in any other industry. When a new brewery starts up, the established breweries are often helping — loaning equipment, ingredients, expertise or even brewing space to the new comers.
In few situations is this more apparent than in collaboration beers, when two breweries combine their creative energies, talents, time and hard work to create something together. Competition be damned.
That’s why when Upland Brewing and Revolution Brewing announced they would be teaming up for a collaboration called REVVED-UP, we jumped at the chance to tag along. For the next few months, we’ll be hanging out with brewery owners, brewers, roasters, sales reps, and other beer industry folk, to give a behind-the-scenes look at the collaboration process. At the end, we’ll throw a huge party where you can come taste REVVED-UP for yourself and hangout with the makers. Sign up for our EMAIL NEWSLETTER for an invitation.
Trust us when we say you’re going to want one.
Day 1: Brewers In A Conference Room
It’s noon on a Monday, it’s -2 degrees and I’m sitting at a conference table in a white walled room that could be any conference table in any room in Chicago save for one detail: there’s a brewery downstairs. I’m in a room with brewers, roasters, sales people, QC staff and production managers from Upland Brewing, Revolution Brewing and Dark Matter Coffee talking about beer, coffee, creativity and parties.
What we have already is an idea: a collaboration where each brewery makes a different beer that shares the same ingredient. Upland will brew and bottle a blonde ale and Revolution will do the same with a brown ale. Both will use the same coffee from Chicago roasters, Dark Matter Coffee. Both will be called REVVED-UP, a collision of the two brewery’s names. What we need to do today is decide on the one shared ingredient: the coffee.
Patrick Lynch, a brewer at Upland, passes around samples of a test batch he’d brewed. One growler is filled with his first attempts at the base beer, a blonde ale, and the other with that same base beer with the addition of a cold brew coffee. Patrick explains his choices, “I wanted enough body to support the coffee flavors so I added a lot of oats which gave it a creamy mouthfeel and some slightly roasted malts that won’t impart much color but will give a slightly roasted base to the beer.”
Everyone agrees the beer is headed in the right direction.
When pressed, Patrick explains that he’d just grabbed a generic dark roast coffee from the grocery store to see what flavors it would contribute but he hopes that the Dark Matter blend we chose today will impart a more floral, fruity character. That’s when things get nerdy.
Jessie Diaz (Founder) and Aaron Campos (Director of Coffee) start talking through the roasts they’ve brought and what they’ve done for coffee beers in the past. They talk about barrel aging coffee. They talk about collaborations with bands, musical icons and other breweries. They talk about fermentation. And then they pass around a ziplock bag with the word “Cascara” scribbled in sharpie. It’s packed with dried leaves.
The Dark Matter team explains. Cascara means “husk or “peel” in Spanish and are the dried skins of the coffee cherries. Generally a by-product of the coffee making process, they’re typically thrown away, but in this case, could be used in a similar manner to tea leaves. This sparks a discussion. The bag is passed around, smelled, inspected, and at the end, the room settles on a unique approach: why not experiment with a blend of cold brew coffee and the dried coffee fruits?
A date in is set for the launch party (April 1st) and we work backwards from there to choose two brew dates. One at Upland’s Bloomington brewery and one at Revolution. Both teams will be at both brew days. Good times are promised.
The conversation starts to move to what kind of launch party we’re going to throw when it’s all over. Someone mentions a frat house. Laughter fills the room. But wait, for real, what if it’s at a frat house? Someone calls the meeting to a close and we all head down to the bar.
I catch up with Upland brewer Patrick Lynch for a quick recap of the day’s events.
Lakeshore Beverage: How did the collaboration come about in the first place?
Patrick Lynch: Joe, who’s the director of operations at Revolution used to work at Upland and that’s kind of the human connection between the two breweries. That and every time I come to Chicago, this is one of the breweries I’ve been hanging out at. We all respect each other and wanted to get together and do something together. That’s where it came from.
Lakeshore Beverage: A lot of today’s conversation revolved around the shared ingredient both breweries will be using. with Dark Matter
Patrick Lynch: It’s really cool working with the Dark Matter guys because they know so much about coffee. Going into it as a brewer I was like, “well, there’s dark roast and there’s light roast and there’s medium roast…” and it’s like they’re speaking a different language. Working with a combination of coffee beans and coffee fruits is really exciting to me. It’s something that I wouldn’t have been exposed to if it weren’t for the Dark Matter guys.
Lakeshore Beverage: What excites you about using the coffee fruits?
Patrick Lynch: The coffee fruits have a woody, tobacco character that I like. Steeping it in hot water should bring out some sweet cherry character which should nicely complement the more subtle notes of our blonde ale. The beer itself won’t have pretty strong flavors so we’re trying to find ways to bring out unique coffee flavors in a way that won’t be overpowering. the combination of fruit and beans should help achieve that.
Lakeshore Beverage: Tell me about the base beer you’ve been working on for the collaboration.
Patrick Lynch: It’s an exciting style for me because when I approach an ingredient I try not to do the same thing as everyone else. When people think of coffee the ingredient in stouts and porters almost exclusively, so adding it to a blonde beer should be an interesting experience. The beer has to have enough body and character to support the coffee flavors but can’t be so strong that it overwhelms the coffee. I wanted enough body to the beer to support the coffee flavors so I added a lot of oats which gave it a creamy mouthfeel and some lightly roasted malts for a slightly roasted base.
Lakeshore Beverage: What’s the next step in this process?
Patrick Lynch: Next we’re going to experiment with a few of the samples Dark Matter gave us. We’ll do some cold brews and figure out some flavors and aromas to figure out what coffee we want to use. Getting ready for an April release we’re going to have to order ingredients and get ready pretty soon. I’ve already done a 10 gallon test batch of the base beer I want to brew – so I have a good idea of what the beer will be. The next step is finalizing the coffee and then brewing the big batch.