Two new Bluntrock collaborations are launched around the country today as part of Elusive Brewing’s 2024 Collabageddon series.
Collabageddon was founded by Elusive Brewing in 2017 and evolved from an idea that came about during a drinking session with Vibrant Forest team members.
“The idea is a simple one,” said an Elusive blog. “We bring together some great breweries (both old hands and new kids on the block) to brew a range of diverse beers that we launch all around the UK on the same night.
“Given the project is built around the idea of being collaborative, sharing, and learning, we created pairings to bring together two breweries per beer who usually brew quite different styles to each other, diversity being a key driver.”
Bluntrock has collaborated with Neighbourhood Brew Co, of Stockport, on an 8% ABV DIPA called Shapes, and with New Bristol Brewery on a 6% ABV Cornish blackberry and clotted cream sour.
Shapes features a mix of hops which hail from the Yakima Valley in the US. A mix of Calypso, Centennial, and Citra hops were added post-fermentation for flavours of flat peaches and fresh pine, gently rounded off with a minty bitterness. In the glass it has a deep, straw-coloured haze, and is bursting with aromas of sweet apricots and nectarines.
As for the sour… “Think of your mum’s best winter berry crumble, but in a beer,” says the brewer. “Smooth, cosy, and reminiscent of picking and eating blackberries along thorny hedgerows.”