Blue Mountains brewery Mountain Culture Beer Co has announced a collaboration with American craft brewery Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. As the first Australian brewery to team up with Sierra Nevada, Mountain Culture is celebrating the release of Summer Pale Ale.
The Summer Pale Ale recipe blends the breweries’ styles, combining Cascade hops, a Sierra Nevada signature made famous in their pale ales, with Citra and a blend of Mosaic, BRU-1 and Vic Secret for tropical, floral and citrus notes. For added depth of flavor, the malt bill has been bumped up to include pils, wheat and oats.
The new release sold out in an hour online, with stock still available through independent retailers and more beer in the pipeline.
“Sierra Nevada is the godfather of craft beer,” said DJ McCready, co-founder of Mountain Culture Co. “Ken Grossman founded the company in 1980 and is widely credited with single-handedly starting the craft beer movement.
“We are both independent, family-owned businesses. We’re both really committed to making craft beer better, but also making it accessible to new people,” he said.
“It’s a great honor to be working with them, and we think Aussies are going to love the pale ale we’ve created, and it really embodies the heart and soul of both breweries.”
The collaboration was born after Steve Grossman, Sierra Nevada ambassador and brother of brand founder Ken Grossman, got a taste of Mountain Culture while attending the Great Australian Beer Spectacular (GABS) festival earlier this year.
Sierra Nevada Brewmaster Scott Jennings said of the collaboration: “Ken heard about how amazing the beers are and what an incredible success story Mountain Culture has been in a short period of time.
“Ken came back to North Carolina and said, ‘I was just in Australia and there’s this brewery. They’re unbelievably good and they’re really shaking things up over there. We had to do a collaboration, we had to.
“We wanted to create something special that captures the essence of our companies and delivers what our fans have come to expect from us.
“It’s going to be absolutely delicious. We put a lot of thought into the recipe and put together what I think will be a little bit of the heart and soul of both of our breweries. I’m really looking forward to that first pint.
“We came together to make this beer,” McCready added. “It’s not going to be the craziest, weirdest beer out there – we’ve designed it to be something that’s really enjoyable and very drinkable – exactly what you want to reach for on a hot summer’s day.”
