BET Collab - Part1

As those of you who follow our social media will know, we find a lot of value in brewing collaborations and have made great efforts to ensure that brews like these find their way into our beer calendar every year. We have brewed with breweries both domestically and overseas as well as with chefs, beer bars, and even a newspaper. Our latest collaboration is also with a somewhat unexpected compatriot: one of Japan’s leading brewing equipment and ingredient companies.

BET was founded in 2007 and we have been indebted to the hard-working team of Markus Luczynski, Mitsunobu Moriya, and Sebastian Hohentanner for everything from tanks to malt to online beer tasting seminars. It was during the preparation for the seminar Sebastian hosted spotlighting Kyoto Brewing Co. that the idea for the collaboration started to take shape. He mentioned that he had a desire to resurrect a somewhat forgotten German ale called a Wiess (not the more common Weiss), something of a forerunner to Kolsch, the style most associated with Koln. While not a style we normally brew, the opportunity to brew something that would be not only new to Japan but in many ways recreating something that is now even hard to find in Germany seemed too good to pass up!

More details will follow, but unlike many of our beers that are influenced by the desire to combine aspects of different brewing traditions to create new hybrids, the theme of this beer was recreating a lost style in the most traditional way possible. All of the ingredients and how they are used are in line with classic traditions, meaning there were quite a few techniques we are trying out for the first time! Fermentation has just finished and as of now we are quite confident that we have both a unique and delicious beer in the making!