A West Coast Collaboration

Last week we kicked off September with a collaboration brew with CONTAINER BREWING out of Vancouver.  Their Head Brewer, Dave, made the trek up here to enjoy a well-deserved vacation as well as fit in a brew with us.  

Container Brewing has a very well-rounded beer lineup as they tackle many different beer styles really well, so we were excited to brew with them. During the planning stages for our collaboration, we shared some beers back and forth to help the ideas flow.  We settled on a, dare we say, old school double IPA.  

 

Teamwork was required for mashing out this BIG beer!

 

Collab crew.

 

As beer lovers who have both cut our teeth on the West Coast, we all have a soft spot for those big, citrusy, resinous, almost abrasively bitter IPAs from the early 2000s.  What better way to celebrate a West Coast collaboration than by brewing a double IPA with some of the best, classic West Coast hops – Columbus, Centennial, Chinook, and Simcoe.

Let us introduce you to, PACIFIC SPIRIT, named for the regional park located in the very west of Vancouver, on the endowment lands of the University of British Columbia. This is where we (Marko and I) lived during our formative university days and where we ultimately started homebrewing for the first time.  Walks in Pacific Spirit Park were a daily occurrence, as we soaked in the goodness of the West Coast greenery, among the big Western Red Cedars, Douglas Fir and Western Hemlocks.

Being in the Yukon, we certainly miss those big trees, but certainly not the rain.  Only time will tell if we've been able to recreate that nostalgia for our West Coast days, with this special beer!

Pacific Spirit Double IPA is due in about two weeks!  Stay tuned to social media for final release date details.

 

Cheers to a West Coast collaboration.