Unity in Community is what comes to mind when I think of collaboration. Iron Horse Brewery is one...
Unity in Community is what comes to mind when I think of collaboration. Iron Horse Brewery is one of 4 breweries in small town Ellensburg and it can sometimes get people worked up about which brewery is their favorite and create rivalries and pride in their brewery of choice like we are the Vikings vs. the Packers, without the cheese headgear or the face paint. What we find funny about that is Indie brewers are more likely to toast each other’s efforts rather than roast them. So it was no surprise to us when Greg proposed the idea of Battle of the Brewers, it seemed like the perfect chance to show people what the microbrewery ethos is all about. The Craft/Indie brewer community was built on helping each other and learning from one another so we can all succeed. When we approached our friends at Enchantment Brewing, Whipsaw Brewing, and Ellensburg Brewery jumped at the chance to work together on a collaborative beer. Then we decided to make things even more interesting and invite the four Upper County breweries in Kittitas County to make their own collab beer too. So the “ Battle of the Brews” was born. Both collab groups worked together to make a recipe of the same red ale style and both groups are geared up to compete in a blind taste testing at Eastern Washington Brewfest to see which collab would take home the super official/unofficial title and trophy to crown whoever wins the best collab beer makers in the county.
Lo-Co Collab is a “Bastardized Irish Red Ale” with a different specialty hop from every brewery involved including a new experimental hop (Charlie at Whipsaw) to round it all out. This beer is sure to please palates all over the Inland Northwest.
This Saturday June 3rd we will have a release party at Whipsaw Brewing to present our Lo-Co Collab beer and the Upper county breweries will have their release party at Dru Bru on Friday June 2nd. Even if you miss both of these release parties you can come try both of these collab beers at Eastern Washington Brewfest on Saturday June 10th from 2-6pm. We will have Doghouse Grill and Catering here, Lutong Pinoy, and at 4 pm you can hear The Wayside band in the beer garden playing country-northwestern originals and covers(www.waysideband.com).
We have 9 breweries from all over the 509 coming to pour their newest fermentations and get to know each other in the process.
Buy tickets here-
