Collaborative Evil 2010 with a Lucky Bucket twist

For several years now a group of brewers have been getting together and deciding on a style of beer to brew, to then go back to their breweries and put their own individual spin on it.  The end goal was to highlight the effect different ingredients and brewing techniques have on the final beer.  This year they strayed from the Belgian style ales they have done in the past and went with a Baltic Porter.  

This is a different collaboration compared to others that are out there that is for certain.  They agree on a style and basic recipe and then it is off to do their thing.  When it is complete they all bring it to GABF and enter their beers in the competition and serve them to the masses to highlight the similairities and more importantly the differences.  To me this is a really cool experiment and this year Zac Triemert from Lucky Bucket did something different then he has done in the past. 

We put all our brewers in one room, 6 current and ex-homebrewers, and made them collaborate on a recipe (it was a collaboration inside of a collaboration).  It was a neat process to watch. Then, to add a level difficulty, we made them brew the beer homebrew-style on our 15 gallon test batch system. Since we needed enough beer for the GABF and for sampling at our tasting room, they had to run that system a bunch of times. By the end, they were dying to start brewing on the 25 barrel system again. It made me laugh.

There are a couple things that stand out for me on this but the biggest thing is they brewed every last drop of this beer on a homebrew system at only 15gls at a time.  I am certain that not every batch was identical but I bet they got closer as they went a long.  After the brewing took place they must have been blended all together in a fermentor.  What I am not sure of is how they were fermented? Were they fermented in one batch and no yeast was pitched until the final brew was in, continuously feed on fermenting beer or separately?  Any way you look at it, it had to be a lot of work and timing.  I also would love to have seen the "collaboration" process between those 6 brewers to agree on one recipe.  So where can you get this years version from Lucky Bucket?

These guys ended up with a terrific recipe and a great beer. We look forward to sharing it. And the only place to get it will be in Denver for the GABF or in our brewery and tasting room the week following the GABF. 

Get out and get that beer tasted when it becomes available.  I hope to try all the versions at GABF this year and I will try to report on their differences.  As Zac told me this collaboration looks like it could be real interesting to see what effects different things have when they all start with the same basic recipe.

What I love about this collaboration is seeing how different brew systems, different brewers and different visions can take the same rough recipe and produce completely different beers.

Brewers/ Breweries involved:

Todd Ashman-  FiftyFifty Brewing Co., Truckee, CA
Zac Tremiert-  Lucky Bucket Brewing Co., La Vista, NE
Matt Van Wyk-  Oakshire Brewing Co., Eugene, OR
Brandon Wright- Silver Peak Restaurant and Brewery, Reno, NV
Bryan Shimkos- Flossmoor Station Brewing Co., Flossmoor, IL
Rodger Davis- Triple Rock Brewery, Berkeley, CA
Matt Cole- Fatheads Brewery and Saloon, Cleveland, OH
Jack Kephart-  Brew Kettle Production Works, Strongsville,OH