The beer releases tomorrow (May 26) at each of the three breweries involved
Most collaboration beers are pretty straightforward. Two breweries decide that it would be fun to collaborate on a beer, then they share a couple of beers, throw around some ideas, learn a bit from each other, have a few laughs, and solidify a friendship. Voila, a collab beer is born. This one is a bit different.
“A tart ale with loads of fruit”
This is the story of a collaboration beer brewed by Bickersons Brewhouse (Renton), The Good Society Brewery (West Seattle), and Stemma Brewing (Bellingham). The seeds for the collaboration project were sown before any of the breweries were actually breweries, they just didn’t know it at the time. In 2018, these three not-yet breweries randomly attended a workshop in San Diego. Well, not exactly random.
The fates continued to align when the three breweries opened within seven months of each other. Then, before any of them had been open for a year, the pandemic struck. Recently, as the world began to start making its way back to normal, the plan was hatched to do a collaboration beer: Three Points Berry Smoothie.
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The beer is available starting on Wednesday, May 26th at each of the three breweries. It is a draft-only product. Three Points Berry Smoothie is described as “a tart ale with loads of fruit and lactose for a balance of sweetness and mouthfeel.” It was brewed with 130 pounds of berries: blackberry, blueberry, and raspberry. The collab team decided on a beer of this style because it represented something that none of the three breweries had done yet.
That workshop in San Diego? Well, apparently it worked. These three breweries are on my hotlist of breweries you need to visit. Heck, The Good Society Brewery even won a GABF gold medal its first year in existence! Pandemic be damned!
That workshop? Craft Beer and Brewing magazine regularly hosts a special workshop for soon-to-be breweries. It is the real deal, for serious players only. Not for the daydreamers. We’re talking about a workshop where attendees meet with bankers, lawyers, hop industry representatives, malt industry representatives, and other key players to really learn about the nitty-gritty that most people never even begin to think about when they imagine what it would be like to open a brewery.
When I say these three breweries are on my hotlist, which doesn’t actually exist, it’s because they are each doing really outstanding work and it’s likely that you didn’t have an opportunity to visit them before COVID shut down the world. Now, even though they are not exactly new, many of you can probably still think of them as new breweries.
Tomorrow, Three Points Berry Smoothie goes on tap. Sounds like a good excuse to go visit one of the three breweries involved — the only place you’ll find this beer.
For more news about recent beer releases, visit the Washington Beer Blog’s New Beer Releases page.
