\u201cIt\u2019s a very unique character that our industry has that most others don\u2019t have the privilege of possessing,\u201d he said. \u201cFor example, our brewers work together, sharing equipment, ingredients, ideas, education, knowledge \u2013 this happens all the time. I think it all stems from, you know, craft beer 25 to 30 years ago \u2013 it really took a lot of collaboration to make beers better, to make their businesses run more efficiently. And that\u2019s really what built the foundation for craft beer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The festival, on March 16, works like this: Two or more breweries work together to brew a beer. At least one of them must be a member of the Colorado Brewers Guild<\/a>, a nonprofit trade association that works with state legislators to promote Colorado\u2019s craft beer scene.<\/p>\n The day of the festival, Kurowski said, \u201cyou\u2019ll have the opportunity to try beers made by two or more breweries that were made just for this day. And \u2026 most of these beers will never be brewed again. Some of these are highly experimental, others are going to be very well-refined traditional beers.\u201d<\/p>\n At the 2019 Collaboration Festival, Durango will be represented by Ska Brewing Co.<\/a> and Steamworks Brewing Co. Twice, in the case of the former.<\/p>\n Ska participated in two collaborations this year. One is with Nyn\u00e4shamns \u00c5ngbryggeri, a brewery Ska has worked with before from Sweden, which happens to be Ska\u2019s second largest market<\/a>.<\/p>\n They made a rauch doppelbock, a strong, dark and smoked beer.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really light on hops for what these guys (Ska) normally do,\u201d said Andrew Colley, head brewer at Nyn\u00e4shamns \u00c5ngbryggeri<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have the malt doing the talking, and that\u2019s kind of what we pride ourselves on. It\u2019s a pretty malt-driven brewery that we do, and we\u2019re pretty fascinated with the German lagers and staying true to style with one of those \u2013 just making it brilliantly.\u201d<\/p>\n Ska\u2019s other collaboration is with Call to Arms Brewing Co.<\/a> of Denver.<\/p>\n Jon Cross, head brewer and co-owner of Call to Arms, worked with Ska\u2019s chief operating officer, Steve Breezely, at Avery Brewing Co. in Boulder before he started his new brewery. When it came time to find partners for the festival, the team-up came naturally.<\/p>\n For their collaboration, they chose to make a traditional Baltic porter. \u201cA nice, classic, Eastern European lager,\u201d Cross said.<\/p>\n Baltics are a style of beer that brewers love, but which generally don\u2019t appeal to the masses, Breezely said. So the festival provided a great opportunity to make one.<\/p>\n \u201cI think both of our breweries take a lot of pride in our lagers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The team prefers to think of its beer as the first-ever \u201cSlovakian tunnel beer.\u201d At some point in the correspondence between the two breweries, a link to a video<\/a> of a driver launching his BMW into the top of a tunnel in Podskalka, Slovakia, was shared. (Don\u2019t worry, the driver in the video was not seriously injured.) The team chose to name its beer in honor of the video \u2013 and before anybody writes in, team members realize that Slovakia is not a Baltic country.<\/p>\n Steamworks<\/a> has been collaborating with Aurora\u2019s Dry Dock Brewing<\/a> for as long as the Collaboration Festival has been going on. And are again this year \u2026 sort of.<\/p>\n In the lead up to the fest, Steamworks and Dry Dock never actually found the time to get together and make something. Instead, they plan to make two beers on their own and then split a booth in Denver, said Ken Martin, Steamworks\u2019 head brewer.<\/p>\n Martin describes his beer as \u201ca new twist on an American light lager.\u201d<\/p>\n The thin-bodied, lightweight beer is based in rice \u201cbecause it\u2019s fully fermentable and lightens up the beer by not adding any color at all,\u201d Martin said.<\/p>\n His counterpart at Dry Dock, Head Brewer Alan Simons, on the other hand, brewed a malt liquor based in corn syrup (which is traditional, despite what some Super Bowl commercial would have you believe).<\/p>\n Martin said the festival is all about camaraderie.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s fun for the brewers because we get to get out of our norm and get together and check out somebody else\u2019s operation,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s always a good share of knowledge when you get together with other brewers and you\u2019re actually making beer.\u201d<\/p>\n