E-Malt.com News article: USA, NY: Barrier Brewing Company and Ommegang Brewery release collaborative beer

Brewery Ommegang has partnered with Hurricane Sandy-damaged Barrier Brewing Company on Long Island, to create Barrier Relief Ale, a Belgian-style IPA, the company announced on December, 7.

Using Barrier’s recipe, Ommegang is brewing about 400 kegs of the collaboration ale. Barrier Relief Ale will be sold under the Ommegang label and distributed in Barrier’s market in NYC and the surrounding area. Profits will benefit Barrier as they restore their brewery.

“We’re rebuilding. We’ve reordered all of the equipment that we need to be operational again,” explained Barrier’s founder, Evan Klein. “The goal is to be up and running before the year is out.” The company was able to salvage some of its finished beer and currently has limited distribution near Oceanside, NY.

Sandy caused nearly $100,000 worth of damage to Barrier Brewing, which has been operating at their new location on Long Island’s South Shore for just four months.

Barrier’s Craig Frymark said the opportunity to work with Ommegang is a positive outcome of the storm. “Ommegang is a brewery we’ve always been inspired by and have admired and to actually be here on the ground making a beer with them is a really exciting thing.”

Ommegang began brewing Barrier Relief Ale on November, 28 during a visit from the Barrier team. Made with an astonishing 200 pounds of hops, the ale is being called “the hoppiest beer” ever brewed at Ommegang but the collaboration is in keeping with the innovative character of the craft brewing community.

“It was natural to offer a helping hand and foster the communal spirit of the industry,” Thorpe said. “The opportunity to brew a beer so outside our traditional style just made it intriguing to us.”

Brewery Ommegang opened in 1997 to craft-brew fine Belgian-style ales. The brewery creates six ales year-round, as well as an extensive and imaginative range of seasonal and specialty ales. The beers are distributed in 45 states and internationally.



12 December, 2012