Every great collaboration starts somewhere, and this one apparently started with two breweries standing in a hop field in Yakima, Washington, picking through lots like it was a particularly serious grocery run. The Establishment Brewing Company of Calgary and Irrational Brewing Company of Edmonton were both there for the annual harvest selection, and afterward, over a few beers comparing notes, they discovered they had independently chosen the exact same Citra and Mosaic lots. At that point there was really only one sensible move available to them, which was to stop comparing and start brewing together.
The result is a TDH West Coast IPA, coolpooled with Mosaic and Citra Cryo, dip-hopped on Mosaic Dynaboost, and then hit with three separate dry-hop additions of Mosaic, Citra, and Citra Cryo for good measure. That is, to be clear, an enormous amount of hopping, the sort of process that suggests two breweries trying very hard to out-hop each other while pretending it was a friendly collaboration all along. At 6.6% ABV, it delivers what they are calling sweet berry chronic, punchy citrus, and apricot jellies, which sounds less like a tasting note and more like a very good day at a farmers market.
Both breweries clearly know they made something special, because it is being released in extremely limited quantities, available at Establishment's Calgary taproom and at Irrational's home base in Edmonton. Establishment itself has a bit of a habit of turning ordinary occasions into events, this same week also launching a fruit-loaded imperial sour and gearing up for a half birthday party complete with three additional collab IPAs, tattoo artists, and DJs. It is not a brewery that does anything by halves, including apparently the concept of a birthday.
If cross-provincial hop shopping trips that spontaneously turn into full collaborations are the future of Canadian craft beer, then frankly the future looks extremely promising. Grab this one while the limited batch lasts, because a beer born from two breweries accidentally buying the same hops is the kind of happy accident worth celebrating properly.