In 2014, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company reached out to breweries across the country to brew collaboration brews as part of a mammoth undertaking called Beer Camp Across America. That program saw a dozen collaboration beers (including one with local business Ballast Point Brewing and Spirits) nationally released in six-packs and multiple beer fests featuring hundreds of craft breweries held throughout the nation. It was such a tremendous success that the company is rolling out a second edition of Beer Camp Across America. This time around, the company has reached out to brewers in six beery regions of the United States. Not surprisingly, Southern California is one of them and, as one would expect, the prowess of not one, but several San Diego County breweries were solicited—Oceanside’s Bagby Beer Company, San Marcos’ Port Brewing Company / The Lost Abbey and Kearny Mesa’s Societe Brewing Company. That trio was teamed with Los Angeles County interests Beachwood BBQ and Brewing and Smog City Brewing Company to create a beer that will be offered in this year’s Beer Camp Across America 12-pack.
I make my living as a storyteller, but the opportunity to peel back the tent door and let the Beer Campers themselves share insights from this world-class collaboration is too rich to pass up. Read on for more about this prestigious project.
Tomme Arthur | Director of Brewery Operations, The Lost Abbey
It was a pleasant surprise when we were contacted last fall about this opportunity. Working with Sierra Nevada on this was a lot like having the Vatican call up and ask if we’d like to participate in Easter Mass. How could we say no? The Beer Camp Across America program was such an amazing accomplishment when they first launched it. I wasn’t sure it was ever going to make a comeback, so I was very pleased at the opportunity it presented us when we were solicited to be a part of this new set of beers. All of the contributors to our beer are brewers that I admire and consider to be some of the very best in this great region for brewing. I’ve known [Beachwood BBQ brewmaster] Julian Shrago for 10-plus years now and trust him completely to lead this band of miscreants. In terms of the actual working process with Sierra Nevada, the level of interaction and staffing that it takes to pull off a project like this is mind-numbing. For every email we receive detailing the process, I am certain there have been multiple meetings that needed to take place ensuring everything keeps running on schedule. These guys are the pro’s pros of doing big great things for brewers and it’s always a pleasure to be around passionate employees who believe in such a great project. I believe we have an exceptional beer in the works and everyone who tastes it should see what happens when some bitchin’ brewers put their thinking caps on and agree on a solution to a simple request: What kind of beer do you want to make?
Jeff Bagby | Owner & Brewmaster, Bagby Beer Company
The beer is an American-style stout. Getting together with such a great group has been awesome. We all brewed the original pilot batch at Beachwood. After we all had a chance to taste it, the recipe was just slightly tweaked before we all joined up to brew another pilot batch at Sierra Nevada in Chico, Calif. That was quite an experience. We will be able to taste that batch very soon, and the main batch will be brewed and packaged later this year so that it can be combined with the other five beers for the 12-pack release, which will include two bottles of each beer brewed for this project.
Douglas Constantiner | Brewery Curator & Brewer, Societe Brewing Company
The brew-day up at Sierra Nevada was incredible and, without a doubt, the highlight of my career. Julian, Bagby, Tomme, [Smog City brewmaster] Jonathan Porter, [Societe co-founder and brewmaster] Travis Smith and I decided to brew a stout for this collaboration rather than an IPA in order to showcase our diversity as brewers. San Diego and Southern California’s fame for hoppy IPAs can, unfortunately, overshadow other styles we love to brew and drink…like stouts. The five breweries representing our region have won medals for stouts, so we thought it would be suiting to show the country that there’s more to Southern California than IPAs. It’s hard to put into words what it was like to sit down at a table with brewing legends like Bagby, Tomme and Julian to discuss the direction, process and recipe of this beer. And then to have Sierra Nevada bring it to life is beyond imaginable.
Tomme Arthur | Director of Brewery Operations, Port Brewing Company / The Lost Abbey
All told, it continues to be exciting each time we get together as we approach the next benchmark which will be the actual brewing on the big system of the beer for the release. At that point, the heavy lifting will be done and the chance to sit back and enjoy the release will be imminent. There will be no sadness, only joy knowing we were part of this great thing called Beer Camp Across America 2016.