Beer: Fat Head's brewer is heading over the pond
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A big pour of the Smoked Porter from Stone Brewing Co. from Escondido, Ca., at the 2010 Steel City Big Pour.
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Collaboration is hot.
Great Britain's J.D. Wetherspoon pub and hotel group is bringing over five American craft brewers to make brews for its Oct. 5-23 Real Ale and Cider Festival (jdwetherspoon.co.uk). One of the brewers is Matt Cole of Fat Head's Brewery in North Olmsted, Ohio, who will brew at Britain's oldest brewery, Shepherd Neame Brewery in Kent.
He leaves Friday to brew 400 barrels of his recipe he's dubbed Yakima Sunshine, a golden ale of about 5 percent alcohol with a finishing flourish of Citra hops that he's had specially shipped over the pond. The cask-conditioned brew is to be distributed to pubs all over England.
"This is a very expensive beer to produce," said Mr. Cole. "The consumer is going to get exposed to some different hop flavor and aromas."
Fat Head's is the sister operation to Fat Head's Saloon on the South Side. Mr. Cole is a 1996 University of Pittsburgh graduate who as a student worked in sales at Penn Brewery and started homebrewing in his Oakland basement. He trained in England for a while and has gone on to acclaim in the brewing world, including a silver medal for his Head Hunter IPA at last year's Great American Beer Festival in Denver.
With his expenses and a small stipend paid for by Wetherspoon, he plans to also briefly visit Dusseldorf and Cologne to research alt and kolsch, then come back to make another batch of Yakima Sunshine to serve during this fall's Cleveland Beer Week (Oct. 14-22). He expects that a little of it might eventually make its way to Pittsburgh, too.
Wetherspoon also is doing brews for this fest with Stone Brewing near San Diego, Bell's in Kalamazoo, Mich., Firestone Walker in Paso Robles, Calif., and Oregon's little Bend Brewing. Mr. Cole got the opportunity thanks to Stone brewer Mitch Steele, a friend with whom he's also collaborated.
The Steel City Big Pour sold out in less than an hour on Aug. 15. That's about 1,400 people at each of two sessions of the Sept. 10 beer, food and art fundraiser at Construction Junction in Point Breeze. The hot tickets were $65 and $140.
First Published August 25, 2011 12:00 am
