Aside from the thousands of other things I love about the beer industry, collaboration rises to the top of the list. Whether it be something as simple as lending ingredients to a fellow brewery that has run dry, collaborating with other breweries on special beers, or reaching out to local homebrewers to create a beer, collaboration runs deep in the beer industry. The perfect example is The Bruery’s Bryeian Batch 1000.

The Bruery, based out of Orange County, CA recently held a homebrew contest to determine what they would brew for their 1000th batch of beer. The winners were Brian Pramov and Bryan Keas, two Denver residents who belong to the same homebrew club in Castle Rock, CO.  In July, Brian and Bryan were flown out to the Bruery to bring their recipes to life in large batch form. The result was a dark, hoppy rye ale called Bryeian Batch 1000.

Aside from the unique element that the recipe was dreamt up by two homebrewers is the added twist that the Bruery generally doesn’t dabble in hoppy beers. More traditionally known for barrel aged big beers like their white oak aged barleywine, White Chocolate, or their creative seasonals like Autumn Maple, a Beglian-style brown brewed with yams, brewing a hoppy ale was quite the deviation from their wheel house.

However, this dark hoppy rye boasts a subtly complex mix of light roasted flavor, a bit of citrus but just enough hops to make for a crisp clean finish. Bryeian Batch 1000 will only be available in California and Colorado, but we were able to try this fantastic beer last week at a special tasting event at Denver’s Star Bar. For those coming in town in October for the Super Bowl of beer fests, it will also be present in the Pro-Am competition booth during this year’s Great American Beer Festival.