Peaks and Pints hosts Bale Breaker Frenz IPA: Sierra Nevada release party
Friends Bale Breaker Brewing and Sierra Nevada Brewing collaborated on Frenz IPA, and Peaks & Pints hosts its release party 5-8 p.m. Thursday, July 6. In addition to enjoying Frenz IPA and other Bale Breaker and Sierra Nevada beers on tap — including a blend from the two breweries — Peaks & Pints will also host friendship bracelet crafts and best friend approved swag. This celebration of friendship benefits GLAAD, a non-profit organization focused on LGBTQ advocacy and cultural change.
Competition is fierce when it comes to making alcohol. In the wine industry, collaborations amongst vintners are few and far between. One would be just as hard pressed to find two coffee roasters willing to join forces to brew the perfect cup. And good luck finding a maker of vodka, whiskey, or rum who’s clamoring to blend his or her sacred liquid with that of another distiller’s. But craft beer breweries have been collaborating with one another on everything from recipes to bottle artwork for decades. While Bale Breaker and Sierra Nevada have collaborated in the past, this release is the very first time Sierra Nevada brewers have come to Bale Breaker to brew, rather than the other way around. Bale Breaker, a brewery located on their family’s fourth generation hop farm in the beautiful Yakima Valley, has been celebrating their 10th anniversary this year inviting friends to brew different versions of their Frenz IPAs. The summer version of Frenz IPA is a collaboration with longtime brewing mentors and friends, Sierra Nevada, as well as Yakima Chief Hops and NZ Hops. Earlier this year, Yakima Chief Hops and NZ Hops launched a partnership that allows American brewers easier access to these international hops, and this Frenz release showcases two exciting new hop releases from NZ Hops, Superdelic™ and Nectaron®. Plus, there’s the added benefit of hops grown in the Southern Hemisphere: the hops featured in Frenz were grown and harvested this year. As if this partnership couldn’t get even more special – some of the New Zealand hops were grown by longtime family friends of Bale Breaker, Mac Hops, a fifth generation hop farm in Motueka, NZ.
“That was a no-brainer partnership for us for this year’s Frenz series,” says Bale Breaker co-owner Kevin Quinn in a news release. Sierra Nevada owner Ken Grossman’s history with the Bale Breaker family goes back further than when the brewery first opened – he’s been coming to the family hop farm, Loftus Ranches, since the early 1980s. “Ken Grossman and the entire Sierra Nevada team helped us out a ton from the get-go, even before we opened our doors,” continues Quinn. “He’s been an amazing mentor and helped us plan out the brewery, as well as supported us throughout our decade in business. One of our first collaborations as a brewery was when Sierra Nevada asked us to be the NW Region lead in Beer Camp Across America in 2016, and we collaborated on Moxee-Moron, an Imperial Session IPA.”
Bale Breaker Frenz IPA: Sierra Nevada offers notes of nectarine, mandarin, white grape, and peach, with 7.1 percent ABV.
BALE BREAKER FRENZ IPA: SIERRA NEVADA RELEASE PARTY, 5-8 p.m. Thursday, July 6, Peaks & Pints, 3816 N. 26th St., Basecamp Proctor, Tacoma
LINK: Peaks & Pints cooler inventory
