Ska Brewing x Cannonball Creek Brewing make a West Coast Pilsner

Lagers: The Brewer's Breakfast

Lagers are known as the brewer’s beers. Brewers find them fun and challenging to make as they tend to be cleaner, crispier, and lower ABV. As Dave Bergen of Joyride Brewing said when talking about lagers, “It’s no secret that many brewers like to brew and drink lighter, more refreshing styles. Not only is it a technical challenge to brew, but provides a more quaffable option when sitting down after a brew shift.” And when Collaboration Fest is known as a brewers event, it should be obvious that there will be a lot of lagers. Some have made their way into the crazy ingredient category this year, while others are just beer flavored beers.

Lagers are bottom-fermented beers that are usually fermented colder than ales or Belgians.

Stories are told by the brewers.

Beer: Pub Pass Pistachio PilsnerPilsner

Story: Brad who is the Regional Director of Pub Pass is a fan of our Ponytail Pilsner. He wanted to amp it up and make a off-centric Pilsner that had a flavoring that begins with the letter P. So we decided on a Pistachio Pilsner.

Beer: přátelé pivaCzech Pilsner

Story: AJ the owner of Angry James Brewery in Silverthorne grew up down the road from where Locavore Beer works is located. AJ has been frequenting Locavore when visiting his parents in Littleton on weekends and holidays over the years. This past Christmas AJ was in there having a beer with the brewers at Locavore, and after a few tasty brews, and the conversation lubed, they thought ‘Hey! Let’s do a collab!’ The rest is history.

Beer: Monk By DayBelgian Pilsner

Story: Both breweries have a preference to make ‘beer flavored beer’ and wanted to experiment with Inland Islands Belgian lager strain. We used 100% Leopold floor malted pilsner malt and a variety of traditional noble hops. Also, OCC won our 1st annual Krispy King Lager competition and wanted to make a beer with them.

Beer: Stems & CapsAmerican Light Lager with Oyster Mushrooms

Story: We decided to collaborate with Mojave as they like to use unique ingredients in their beers. We brewed an American Light Lager using a local mushroom farmer and used 8lbs oyster mushroom blend. Adding a “vegas flare”, the beer will be served with a flavored mushroom rim.

Beer: Party’ovascularItalian Pilsner

Story: Being the “new guy” (or brewer) to the Roaring Fork Valley I jumped on the opportunity to get to know our longtime friends and OG RFV brewery Glenwood Canyon Brewpub. With the Collaboration Fest coming up we decided we would brew a beer to showcase at the festival. The team at GCBP was eager to brew an Italian Pilsner so that’s exactly what we did! We chose to highlight Tardif de Bourgogne from the Locher Family Farm located in the heart of the Tettnang hop-growing region.

Beer: Convoy LagerFranconian Lager

Story: La Cumbre’s Jeff Erway and Cellar West’s Zach Nichols are both big fans of small batch, German countryside lagers so we decided to draw on that inspiration. Similar to the rustic kellerbiers (fresh, unfiltered lager) from Franconia, Germany, this collaborative lager features premium Bavarian Pilsner & Vienna malts and Lórien hops. Deep golden-hued with bread-crust notes and hints of Spring wildflowers.

Beer: Gluten Tag / Gluten (Free) Tag (2 beers)Coffee Vienna Lager / Gluten-Free Coffee Vienna Lager

Story: A Colorado-based collaboration guaranteed to make a guten tag (good day)! Holidaily Brewing Company (Golden, CO), Phantom Canyon Brewing Company (Colorado Springs, CO), and First Ascent Coffee Roasters (Crested Butte, CO) created a Guten Tag and Gluten(free) Tag Coffee Vienna Lager. There will be a gluten-free and non-gluten-free version of this recipe brewed at the respective locations.

Beer: Czech Your CoconutDark Czech Lager with Coconut

Story: Bruz Beers brewmaster Charlie Gottenkieny and Left Hand Brewing Co. head brewer Gary Glass knew each other as homebrewers before either had started to brew professionally. They are excited for their teams to get together to brew on the Left Hand pilot system. The recipe for the dark Czech lager with coconut bridges expertise from both breweries. We hope you enjoy it!

Beer: Father FigureImperial Thiolized Pilsner

Story: Los Dos Potrillos and River North connected over a couple tacos during the 2023 GABF Saturday Session. Members of both breweries used to work together in the early days of their brewing careers so the bond formed quickly. Los Dos specializes in clean lagers and River North specializes in just about everything, including huge ABV beers. Naturally, we wanted to make a high ABV Pilsner with exciting hopping techniques. This imperial Pilsner is mash hopped with Citra and late kettle additions of Nelson Sauvin and Medusa. Thanks to our friends at Omega Yeast for working with us to get the perfect thiolized yeast strain to showcase all of the nuanced flavors of this beer.

Beer: Blizzard of hhAAApsCryo Fresh Hop West Coast Pilsner

Story: We’ve been spending a lot of time with our homies at Offset this winter, sharing beers and talking shop, but more importantly, skiing!!! After many an 80s themed apres night together along with our mutual love for nerding out about new hops, we decided to make a beer based on a classic ski movie that utilized frozen fresh hops. Blizzard of hhAAAps is an insanely drinkable, low abv hoppy beer that pulls zero punches on hop flavor, it’s really remarkable just how full flavored this little beer is. Packed with our favorite New Zealand and continental European hops, finished with Cryo 301 Simcoe, it’s a can’t miss collab.

Beer: Presto PilsItalian Pilsner

Story: The goal of this brew was to incorporate Cory’s (Fritz) deep knowledge and skill set for brewing traditional lagers and the New Terrain team’s vision for crafting unique and often style-melding brews into a contemporary version of a classic pilsner. This beer unites traditional brewing methods with contemporary techniques and similarly incorporates traditional German noble hops coupled with contemporary American hops to layer delicate flavors and aromas over a clean and crisp Italian pilsner malt canvas. Subtle, yet bold.
Simple, yet elegantly complex. Interesting, but most of all, exceedingly refreshing.

Beer: MaizebockImperial Mexican Lager

Story: Resolute is passionate about lager beers and we at Odell love our hops, so we switched and brewed a maibock Lager beer and Resolute brewed an IPA.

Beer: Don’t Stir the Tanks!Czech Pilsner

Story: The Odyssey Beerwerks and Launch Pad crews met at the dearly departed Rails and Ales Festival about six years ago (we think) and owners of each brewery, Chris and Dave, hit it off right away. Some might even say they’re a little too close. And the crews from each brewery just like hanging out together. Frankly, it’s kinda ridiculous that it’s taken this long for us to collaborate on a beer!!

Beer: Negro MoleoChocolate Mole Baltic Porter

Story: The head brewers went to brewing school together and this is a great opportunity to collaborate. We made a traditional Baltic porter which was lagered for 8 weeks and then infused with chocolate and mole spices.

Beer: Lima Salada GrandeImperial Lime Salted Pilsner

Story: From Park City Utah to Lyons Colorado we take pride at brewing high elevated beers so we decided to put a twist and create the biggest Lime Salt Pilsner we could!

Beer: Squid Marks – Japanese Rice Lager with Black Squid Ink

Story: The goal is to create a visually stunning beer with a salty flavor profile that reminds drinkers of a cloudy day on the beach.

Beer: Careless PilsnerHoppy Pilsner

Story: Two words. Chris! Bell! I was offered hops from Hollingbery and Son for Collab Fest. I immediately thought of CtA for this project. We landed on a hoppy pilsner featuring Vista and HBC 630 hops, this crispy boi is anything but careless! Que the sax!

Beer: Baltic Porter / Kölsch (2 beers)

Story: Both Seedstock and Prost focus on classic styles and wanted to showcase a few of our favorite styles. Baltic Porter, and Kolsch. Seedstock produced both beers at their Colfax location.

Beer: Landbier (Keller Style Amber Lager)

Story: In Germany, Landbier simply means country beer or beer of the land. Here in Colorado we hope it means a delicious German inspired lager. Malty sweet with a balanced bitterness, reminiscent of festbier/marzen but unique to this particular collaboration.
This beer is made from the oldest German malting barley variety Isaria, which was officially approved for the beer production in 1924. Landbier… basically translates to “beer of the land”. Since one of our more popular beers is our marzen, Station 26 was kind enough to brew a keller style marzenbier or amber colored lager to represent our “bier of the land”. The result of this endeavor was a unfiltered deep golden/amber colored lager with rocky and lasting off white foam.

Beer: Intentional Greetings – Rice Lager with Sake Yeast

Story: We wanted to use Collaboration Fest as an opportunity to explore some new products and processes. We have both been curious about fermentation with Sake yeast in beer and decided to run with that idea. This ultimately resulted in a Sake yeast co-fermented rice lager, with plans to offer up a fun variant of the clean base for Collab Fest.

Beer: Saison DuCrush– Saison/Lager

Story: This beer was inspired by pushing the boundaries of what is considered normal for a saison strain. Saison DuCrush is a saison brewed like a German Pilsner. Brewed with floor-malted pilsner malt from Denvers Leopold Bros and hopped with NZ Exp 9909, and then fermented at lager temps. The result is a crisp and crushable saison/lager hybrid.

Beer: Mezek Pivo– Czech Amber Lager

Story: Iron Mule and Rockyard have been staples of the Castle Rock craft beer scene for many years. Both breweries are minutes apart from each other and we wanted to collaborate on a classic style that neither brewery had produced in the past.

Beer: West Coast Pilsner

Story: This project has been a long time coming! Ska Brewing and Cannonball Creek have a mutual admiration for one another and needless to say we had a blast brewing together.

Beer: The Ghost of Paulie Chestnuts – Chestnut Amber Lager

Story: A chestnut amber lager brewed in the Italian style. What a unique treat! 5lbs/BBL of italian imported and fresh roasted chestnuts were used for this brew. The Jackson Hole – Steamboat connection is as strong as ever.

Beer: Mittel MénagementHoppy Lager

Story: Strange and Freetail have been collab-ing since 2011, and our StrangeTail series has been extremely popular. Freetail and Brieux Carré have been collab-ing for almost the same amount of time so it seemed logical that the three of us should get together and create something that represents all three of our breweries. Hallertau Mittelfrüh is the main focus, along with Saphir and Riwaka, each hop chosen by one of the breweries.

Beer: Over the Sunny Phantasm FallsPhantasm Lager

Story: The story behind our collaboration is pretty special. Jason and Jessie at Over Yonder have been wonderful friends, mentors, and resources over the last few years as Matt and Melanie made Sunroom Brewing a reality. Over Yonder is just down the road from Matt and Melanie’s house, and Matt and Jason have been talking through recipes and brewery operations since Matt’s homebrewing days. It’s surreal and really special to be able to collaborate on a beer as fellow brewery owners this year.

Beer: Rye-Pun – Rye Lager

Story: Nick with The Post and Colin with Bootstrap have been making and drinking lagers for a while now, so we decided to make and drink a lager together. With a toasty & spicy malt aroma, rich bready malt flavor, and an earthy and crisp finish, you’d think we committed a c-’rye’-me with this rye lager.

Beer: Sideways to Helles – Mourvedre-Aged Helles

Story: A reboot of a Collab Fest beer we brewed together in early 2020, we used Pevec pilsner malt from Troubadour and pressed Mourvedre grape skins from Snowy Peaks Winery to create this delicate elixir to help ease into the spring season.

Beer: Summer PilsNon-Alc Citrus Italian Pilsner

Story: Gruvi and Tommyknockers are two innovative Colorado companies that have partnered on several projects in the past and we both use Sustainable Beverage Technology to help us produce Non-Alcoholic beers. It seemed fitting for Gruvi and Tommyknocker to come together to collaborate on the first Non- Alc. beer project that we have ever heard of.

Beer: Baltic Porter / Mexican-OLE! (2 beers) – Baltic Porter / Baltic Porter with Cocoa and Mole

Story: One of our new team members, Patricia, is a Mexican brewer who motivated us to create a collaborative beer with a brewery that was not only from out the state, but international. Building bridges between Mexico and the United States with a beer that represents one of the most famous dishes in Mexico, Mole.

Beer: Maibock

Story: Evan Beggs, Head Brewer for WestFax did his internship at Platt Park under Greg Matthews. They had a mutual interest in getting back together to make a more traditional beer style. We settled on a Maibock due to seasonality and clean drinkability of the style.

Beer: Tank Heist – Hoppy Dark Lager

Story: The greatest heist of all time! Wort was brewed at both Uhl’s and Upslope (Lee Hill), transferred hot into Wild Provisions’ tank truck, blended into a clean room coolship for cold break, open fermented on Spanish Cedar, and lagered.