Brothers Cascadia 3rd annual Collabuary celebration

Brothers Cascadia Brewing in Vancouver, WA will launch the first 4 beers in a 7-beer Collabuary series this Friday at their Hazel Dell neighborhood pub. Collabuary was originally a creative idea brought on by the mounting challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. Brothers Cascadia Brewing was approaching their 3rd year in business when Covid-19 brought on service closures, business model changes and more. As 2021 approached and breweries were still not serving indoors, Gore explains that the team asked themselves, "How are we going to make January and February fun?" The answer was to collaborate with as many breweries as possible over two months and call it 'Collabuary' - a term coined by their sales lead, Brian Gray.

In 2021 and 2022, Brothers Cascadia saw a lot of success. But as the service industry returned to normal, Collabuary took a lot of effort and planning in a post-pandemic world where regular operations have resumed. The new and improved Collabuary event has been simplified so it's easier for brewers to participate and easier for beer-drinkers to catch up with all of the collaborations. 

• 7 Collaborating Breweries

• 7 Graphic Designers

• 2 Months

• 2 Iconic Beer Towns

• 1 Grand Homage to the roots of Brothers Cascadia

This year's lineup features Seattle's Georgetown Brewing, Reuben's Brews, & Future Primitive Brewing alongside a Central Oregon lineup including Bend's Crux Fermentation Project, GoodLife Brewing & Van Henion Brewing. The cherry on top of the 2-city collaboration sundae is a collab with Northwood Brewery in Battle Ground, WA where Brothers Cascadia originally made the leap from homebrewers to professionals back in 2014 - two years before their own brewery would open in Vancouver.

"Hitting our 5th year, it was a no-brainer to get back to the roots of where this started," shared co-owner Sherman Gore on the collaboration with Northwood. Gore is one of three owners/operators at Brothers Cascadia Brewing. He's joined by Director of Brewery Ops Jason Bos and CFO Richard Tiffany. 

"The juxtaposition of working with the brewery where we started and then Georgetown," shared Gore. "Like, that in itself also tells a story of where we've been and where we are today."  

So why Seattle & Bend?

"Georgetown Brewing and Crux were breweries we'd already spoken with," shared Gore. The Brothers Cascadia began reaching out to other brewers they admired based on those two early interested breweries. The plan to keep this year more manageable was to send Bos along with Head Brewer Eric Van Tassel to these cities to meet with the breweries, develop recipes, and return home to brew the collaborations on Brothers' system in Vancouver. Another creative solution to take the time commitment off the shoulders of collaborating breweries.

The first round of collaborations are in the books and the Seattle area collabs are set to be released on Friday alongside the Northwood collab. Speaking about the Seattle trip, Bos shared, "The facilities at Georgetown were just so impressive." He continued excitedly, "And Reuben's, too. We got to spend a lot of time with their whole crew at the end of the day." 

"Both our team and Reuben's were in Yakima for hop selection, rubbing and sniffing Vista hops," said Bos. Fast forward to today and it's not a coincidence that Vista are the hops used in the Panorama Pilsner collab featuring a spectacular Seattle-to-Portland panoramic art piece on the label.

Van Tassel chimed in, "Future Primitive exceeded all expectations." 

So, in the year 2023, can breweries still learn from one another by collaboration? Turns out these collabs pushed the Brothers Cascadia team to try new things with malt.  "A lot of these beers have grainbill bases with what the collaborating brewery is accustomed to," shared Bos. "So, the grain base for most of these beers are very different than what we typically make and that's exciting."

Now that you know the backstory, here are the beers being released at Brothers Cascadia on Friday:

Gather Round IPA

6.9%ABV
A West Coast style IPA brewed in collaboration with Georgetown. Assertive amounts of Simcoe, Chinook, Idaho 7, and CTZ hops were used to create the bold flavors of grapefruit, sweet resinous pine, and a dank lingering tropical melange.

Artwork by: Mack Stromme

Brewer's Handful Hazy IPA

6.7%ABV
Only a "Brewers Handful" of hops were used in the boil of this beer and then a huge dose of Sultana Salvo hop extract. With the addition of Cryo Sultana, Cryo Nelson, and Strata hops in the dry hop you will find a beer brimming with pineapple, orange, and tropical hop candy flavors.

Artwork: Jeremy Backer

Panoramic Pils

5.6%ABV
A Modern Pilsner. A base of Lyon Pilsner malt from LINC Malt provides a crisp refreshing beer with ultra light color and notes of cracker and honey to perfectly showcase the use of 100% Vista hops. The Vista hops are the most recent release from the USDA public breeding program and have lent this pilsner its pleasant lemon/lime, pear, floral, and subtle white peach qualities.

Artwork: Matt Lloyd

Kollaborator Doppelbock

6.7%ABV
Rich with flavors of toasted bread, raisiny dark fruit, malty sweetness that doesn't linger and visually presents a beautiful deep dark copper hue. This beer is the first packaged beer with the Northwood Brewery name on it. An exciting achievement for the small neighborhood brew pub.

Artwork: Jenna Buescher-Hill

Stay tuned for Seattle Collabuary releases in Washington at:

• 1/20 - Brothers Cascadia Brewing - Vancouver, WA

• 1/25 - Northwood Brewery & Public House - Battle Ground, WA

• 1/27 - The Pine Box - Seattle, WA

Watch for Bend Collabuary Releases at:

• 2/17 - Brothers Cascadia Brewing - Vancouver, WA

• 2/24 - Broken Top Bottle Shop - Bend, OR

Oregon Distribution of the Collabuary beers will be available through Day One Distribution.