Pirate Life's latest collaboration with Queenstown's Canyon Brewing is a hazy, 6.2% IPA. Available now in Australia (after an NZ release last month) 'The Lost Keg' is a tasty blend of our respective styles. PL Head Brewer, Lewy, touches on the partnership, the recipe, and the story behind the name...
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE THIS ÜBER JUICY BREW
Hey Lewy! So, why NZ's Canyon Brewing for our latest collab beer and why 'The Lost Keg'?!
Back in 2019, Chris Dickson from Smiths Craft Beer House in Queenstown invited us to brew a beer for their IPA competition. We obliged and made a beer, but it was lost in a sea of customs and freight delays and never made it to the event.
Jump forward to 2023 and the idea resurfaced. It made a lot of sense to pair up with a killer local brewery and produce the beer fresh in NZ right round the corner. The crew at Canyon Brewing are making great beer and their branding and ethos is a perfect fit for us so when Chris suggested the collab we both jumped at the opportunity.
PL Co-Founder, Red (who's now based out of NZ) helped brew the maiden batch in Queenstown - that's the beer we entered in the comp and it's now available at Canyon. This batch was brewed here in Port Adelaide using the same recipe, and we're stoked with how it's come up.
The recipe is a tasty blend of our respective styles. Can you tell us, what’s PL contributing and what’s coming from Canyon?
PL was responsible for the yeast strain, a new number from AEB called Fermoale new-e. The malt was a pretty collaborative decision with a focus on Gladfield NZ malts and the hop combo/selection was the work of Canyon head brewer Kit and came from a family-owned hop business named Clayton Hops.It’s come up pretty juicy, have you learnt anything from the collab that you’ll retain for upcoming brews?
For us the 100% NZ hop combo is a novel concept for an IPA. We usually use them in concert with the punchier US varieties, has certainly given me a bit more faith that NZ hops can carry a bigger beer all the way to the finish line.
Gotta love the can design, who came up with that?
That was created by Canyon's Marketing & Brand Manager, Mikaela, turns out she's a killer artist, too. The original idea was for each brewery to design a piece for the other's tin, but when Mikaela flicked that across, we insisted it feature on both. Funnily enough, we landed 'The Lost Keg' name after she completed the design, it was pretty cool how it all came together.
Cheers, Lewy.
Cheers.