News / Left Handed Giant
Unique collaboration to create special brew for Bristol Craft Beer Festival
The hops swirl around a big vat, wafting a warm, heady scent of what is soon to be a very special Bristol brew.
For the welly-clad team carefully tending to their creation within the huge metal containers in a warehouse in St Philip’s, it’s just another day at the office – but for craft beer lovers it’s a pivotal moment.
Left Handed Giant has teamed up with Dry + Bitter – a global giant in the craft beer world – to create a brew especially to celebrate the Bristol Craft Beer Festival. The name is yet to be revealed, but the taste promises to be something quite unique.
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Bruce doing some vital taste testing
“Greg from the festival reached out to Dry + Bitter, which is one of the best breweries in the world,” explains Bruce Gray, the managing director of Left Handed Giant, which last year collaborated with three other South West breweries on a beer for the festival.
“We have known Sorren Wagner [of Dry + Bitter] for a couple of years now and we have been flirting with bringing out a beer together for some time. It will be an easy, juicy IPA.
“The really cool thing is that we have a real high profile brewhouse working with us, but also James, who’s our graphic designer, will be doing the design for it and he’s got a bit more freedom because obviously it’s not a Left Handed Giant-branded beer, so we have tried to be a bit more unique with it – it will be something a bit difference for us.”
Head brewer Rich Poole, Andy Sherlock and Scott Martin tend to the brew. Photo by Bristol Craft Beer Festival.
He explains that brew day marks the culmination of a two-month creative process, during which ideas were bounced back and forth between the two brewing companies.
The resulting beer is due to be released in about four to five weeks, ahead of Bristol Craft Beer Festival’s return to the Lloyds Amphitheatre from September 14 to 16. It will be available in certain bars and festivals across the globe for a limited time only.
Soren and Bruce outside Left Handed Giant’s HQ. Photo by Bristol Craft Beer Festival
Soren flew in from his Denmark base for brew day.
“We consider ourselves honorary members of the British craft beer scene and Greg from the Bristol Craft Beer Festival was one of the first people to invite us over,” he says.
“It’s been great to feel a part of how Bristol drinks beer, even by approximation, it’s a great honour. To be here today to brew this and then come back to drink the beer at the festival itself will be a real privilege.
“Left Handed Giant make beers that are very similar to ours in that we like fruity and aromatic flavours. but it has to be balanced and drinkable as well. That’s the main thing that our breweries and this new recipe have in common.”
Festival tickets are available via www.bristolcraftbeerfestival.co.uk/tickets/
Read more: More breweries announced for Bristol Craft Beer Festival 2018
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