When the Great Northern Brewing Company booked Kyle Hollingsworth for his upcoming August concert in Depot Park, the match was about more than just music.
As it turns out, Hollingsworth, a member of the band the String Cheese Incident, is quite the home-brewer. And the folks at Great Northern Brewing saw the opportunity for a collaboration to enhance the upcoming concert series.
“We thought he’d be sort of a natural fit,” Joe Barberis, head brewer, said.
The end result is Collaboration Brew, a pale ale flavored with Earl Grey tea, which gives the beer a citrusy, refreshing flavor to work with the summertime heat. It will be sold at the Aug. 4 and 5 concerts, which feature Hollingsworth and musician Keller Williams.
Williams appears on stage on Aug. 4, and Hollingsworth performs on Aug. 5.
The collaboration process was a long-distance affair, with phone discussions between the Whitefish brewers and Hollingsworth’s small backyard brewing system in Colorado.
After both sides agreed on the general idea of the beer – pale ale with Earl Grey – Hollingsworth made a test batch and reported his positive findings to the brewery. Once they got news that the tastes work well together, the Whitefish brewers got started with a 20-barrel batch, Barberis said.
They got 20 pounds of bulk Earl Grey tea leaves and put them in big mesh bag, essentially creating giant tea bags to steep in the whirlpool, Barberis said. The beer is still in the fermenting process, and the brewers have bergamot on hand to add at the end if the flavors need tweaking.
According to brewery spokesperson Jessica Lucey, the beer will only appear during the concerts, and possibly in the taprooms if any is left over. The idea for a collaboration beer is rooted in the uniqueness of the concert series, Lucey said.
“It’s kind of a different thing that we’re doing with the concerts so we thought we’d approach the beer,” she said.
The Aug. 4 and Aug. 5 concerts will feature beer gardens and food vendors. They are family friendly events, and children under 5 get in free. Both evenings’ shows are part of the brewery’s support of a future live-music venue at the Great Northern Veterans Peace Park.
Doors open at 2 p.m., and the concerts begin at 7 p.m.
For ticketing information, visit www.greatnorthernbrewing.com. For more information about Keller Williams, visit www.kellerwilliams.net; information about Kyle Hollingsworth can be found at www.kylehollingsworth.com.