2021 was a big year of collaborations for us. Over the last year we have put out over 50 beers in collaboration with some of our favourite craft breweries, producers, restaurants and venues. Some of these were returning favourites, but most of them were brand new for the year!
Like most of our beers, many of these were first released through Thornbridge Beer Club. Members of Beer Club were the first people to get their hands on Thieves Road or Bumpy Road, respectively the Azacca pale and DIPA we made with Amity Brew Co and Beak Brewery.
West Coast IPAs are something of our speciality, and we worked to make a number of them this year! We made Karabel with Basqueland Brewing, Dancing Horses with Track Brewing Co, Riffle with Burnt Mill Brewery and I Do Not Seek, I Find with Newtown Park Brewing Co.
Like most of the nation, we also love lager. Lagers we made this year include Hay Bale (an India PAle Lager made with Lakes Brew Co), Constance (a noble Pilsner made with Braybooke Beer Co) and Gelbvieh (a Kellerbier made with New Barns Brewery)
Our Never Ordinary collection showcases our special and unusual beers, and many of them were made with friends. This year we made Zingiber with Young Master Ales, an orange, ginger and star anise mixed fermentation sour. We also made Secret World with Saint Mars of the Desert, a Belgian style dopplebock.
Simple Things Fermentations have something of a history with us, as Phil Sissons their founder won the 2016 Great British Home Brew competition with Raindrops on Roses, a rose petal wit. We brought back this stunning beer this year, and collaborated with him again to make Whiskers on Kittens, a chocolate Dunkel Weisse.
For many of our collaborations this year, we had a sort of brewery exchange. We brewed one beer, and our friends brewed another. With Manchester brewery Squawk we brewed a pair of pales using the same malt grist, they brewed Condor using Northern Hemisphere hops and we brewed Dotterel with Southern Hemisphere hops. We joined forces with Deya Brewing Company to combine our signature beers to make Steady on the Jaips, a DIPA with an epic 9 varieties of hops, as well as a single hopped hazy simcoe pilsner. Rivington Brewing Co worked with us to make the table beer Paparahua and the American brown ale Boise Brown.
Sometimes, we went to our friends to brew with their kit instead. We went to Southwold juggernaut Adnams to make Nevermore, an India Porter that combined elements of their Ghost Ship and our Wild Raven. Siren Craft Brew worked with us to make Invisible Deck, a white stout, and we went to Cornwall to see Harbour Brewing about making the DIPA Scratching the Surface.
We strengthened our partnerships with local sports icons like Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield FC and Joe Root with our tie in beers The Wednesday Pale ale, 1857 pale ale and Root 66 English IPA. For the latter of which we donated its profits to Sheffield Children's Hospital Charity. Other charity beers of ours included Florence pale ale and I Love You Will U Marry Me strawberry blonde ale, which donated profits to NHS Charities Together and Mind.
We also worked with some fantastic restaurants and venues. Indian Street Food heroes Bundobust have recently opened their own brewery, so we had to come together to make cask hazy pale Impromptu Ladder Convention. Iconic Sheffield venue The Leadmill wanted their own perfect gig beer, so we came to their aid creating Leadmill IPA for them. We of course continued to work with London legends Brigadiers and Tonkotsu, creating their Fourth Rifles pale and Mikan Shimoda satsuma pale.
For some of the collaborations we made this year, the only way to drink them was to find them in a pub! Heart and Graft are a coffee roastery, and is also of the name of the coffee porter we made with their coffee. Beacon is a US Brown we made with Neptune Brewery, designed from its inception to be cask only. Mosaic and Azacca are a pair of fresh hopped session pales each using a single fresh hop from Yakima Chief, and they are only available on cask.
As you can see, we have worked with a lot of exciting people this year to make a lot of very good beer. We hope you got to try a couple of them on the way. We already have a long list of collaborations lined up for next year, so keep your eyes peeled for news!
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