Eight craft beer brands from all around the San Francisco Bay Area have banded together to on a unique and innovative venture – the Band of Gypsies Collaboration Beer Project. As the name suggests, all the breweries involved, save for one (the host), are gypsy brewers.
The Brewers Association (BA) defines this type of brewery as a contract brewing company—essentially a business that hires another brewery to produce its beer. The contract brewing company is often responsible for recipe development and handles the marketing, sales and distribution of the beer.
“Not-owning a physical brewery doesn’t stop us [gypsy brewers] from being extremely passionate, innovative and community-minded,” notes Band of Gypsies ring leader, Ashley Routson of Bison Organic Beer. “Our mission is to work together to promote and celebrate each other, and educate the craft beer community on the world of gypsy brewing.”
Members of the Band of Gypsies Collaboration Beer Project include Bison Organic Beer, Calicraft Brewing Co., Highwater Brewing, Lucky Hand, Oakland Brewing Co., Pacific Brew Labs, Triple Voodoo & Uncommon Brewers (host). All of the breweries have headquarters and live in the Bay Area.
In honor of San Francisco Beer Week 2013, the Band of Gypsies is releasing its first collaboration beer, aptly named The Belgian Tramp – an organic Belgian Quad brewed with house-made candy sugar, California-grown Mission figs, raisins and dates. Boasting a hefty 10.5% abv., Belgian Tramp is sticky sweet and boozy with rich flavors of dark fruit, roasted malt and caramel, a moderate hop bitterness, and a smooth, dry finish.
“The opportunity to collaborate with this many great brewers doesn’t come around all that often. We had a lot of fun sitting down and bouncing ideas back and forth, trying to find the right expression for this collaboration,” Alec Stefansky, brewmaster of Uncommon Brewers, explains. “I think that the beer we landed upon does a fantastic job of showing what’s so exciting about the Bay Area’s brewing community, a fusion of old-world techniques and West Coast innovation.”
During San Francisco Beer Week 2013, the Band of Gypsies will be co-hosting a series of tap takeovers all over the Bay Area. Each event will spotlight The Belgian Tramp collaboration beer, as well as feature craft beers from each individual brewery’s portfolio. For a full schedule of events and updates about the Band of Gypsies Collaboration Beer Project, follow @GypsyBrewers on Twitter and Like the project on Facebook: http://facebook.com/gypsybrewers
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