Raleigh Mag Highlights Beer Collabs for NC Beer Month
From Raleigh Magazine...
“Crank Arm Brewing Company x The Cortez Seafood + Cocktail: Salty Spokes Smoked Oyster Stout
Adam Eckhardt, co-owner of Crank Arm Brewing Company, believes local beers made with local ingredients tell stories. With chef Oscar Diaz and owner Charlie Ibarra of The Cortez Seafood + Cocktail, Crank Arm has brewed its best story yet: a beer made with 100 percent North Carolina ingredients. The Salty Spokes, a smoked oyster stout, features malt sourced through Durham-based Epiphany Craft Malt; Lawton Points oysters harvested in the Newport River from Locals Seafood; hops from Pittsboro-based Farm Boy Farms; and yeast from White Labs Asheville. For this limited edition beer, 5 percent of the malt was smoked over pearwood, and a half bushel of oysters, added in whole during the last 15 minutes of the boiling process, imparts a trademark brininess, while the meat and shell’s calcium adds creaminess. “It’s got that smokiness and saltiness,” Eckhardt says. “There’s a liquid ham or bacon thing going on with that.” ...
Big Boss Brewing x Larry’s Beans: Honduras Coffee Lager
Founded in 2006, Big Boss Brewing has a long track record of local collaborations. “We’ve done things with restaurants, with local breweries and with local bands,” says Big Boss product manager Dave Rogers. “Whenever we get to do a collaboration, it just shows a mix of collaboration on every level: the concept, the product and how you present it afterwards.” One of Big Boss Brewing’s ongoing partnerships is with neighboring coffee roaster Larry’s Coffee. The brewing duo first collaborated on Aces & Ates, a strong winter stout infused with Ethiopian cold-pressed coffee. This month, Big Boss will release the Honduras Coffee Lager, a classic German-style lager infused with roasted and gently cracked Honduran coffee beans. The beans were selected during a coffee cupping at Larry’s Coffee, where a team tasted seven different kinds of brewed coffee. The Honduran beans were chosen for their nutty, fruity and smooth flavor to complement the light-style beer.
Trophy Brewing x Slingshot Co.: Upcoming Cascara Tea-Infused Brew
Trophy’s brewers collaborated with Jenny and Jonathan Bonchak of the coffee company Slingshot Co. to brew Slingshot, a best-selling winter coffee porter infused with Slingshot cold-brew. Trophy brewer Chris Powers says that the coffee lends notes of citrus and dark cherry to round out the dark beer’s flavor. Trophy’s next collaboration with Slingshot will feature a different kind of coffee product: cascara tea. “Cascara is the cherry on the outside of a coffee bean, but it’s got a much lighter, fruitier flavor with a cherry tobacco note to it,” Powers explains. “We reached out to [Slingshot] because we wanted to work through it with someone coming at it from a coffee background.” The beer style hasn’t been finalized, but they’re experimenting with using Slingshot cascara in an imperial stout, in which the cherry tobacco notes add a nuanced brightness to the dark style beer, or a Belgian Tripel, where its fruitiness plays off the ale’s malty sweetness.”