Can’t Quit You: A Collaboration with Blue Owl Brewing

This February will mark the first collaboration between Black Star Co-op and Blue Owl Brewing. Back in January, Jeff Young flew north to Black Star for a “brewunion” of sorts in which we set out to create a sour-mashed Double IPA. With him he brought his fellows owls and the infamous MIU (modular inoculation unit) to better facilitate the souring process. 

When we initially sat down to discuss the collaboration, the first step was choosing a style that was bold, iconic, and would play well with sourness. Once we settled on the Double IPA, the next step was to build a recipe that encapsulated everything we love about our favorite examples of the style. First and foremost, we needed hops. Tropical fruit was the most desirable note for us so we sourced some Galaxy and El Dorado as the bright notes and utilized Citra, Centennial and Cascade to round out the rest of the hop profile. Next, we knew we wanted a subtle yet present malt character with a medium-light body and an alcohol content close to 9%abv. The last step was determining the level of sourness, which we ultimately decided to keep relatively low allowing it to be more of a complimenting flavor instead of the main attraction. All in all this process has had our mouths watering the entire way, the results being an exclusive collaboration aptly named “Can’t Quit You”— a bold sour-mashed double IPA, balancing bitterness with tartness beneath notes of citrus, peach, melon, and tropical fruit.

We are extremely excited about this beer, and because of this we will have dual release parties: Tuesday, February 9th @ Black Star Co-op & Wednesday, February 10th @ Blue Owl. We’ll also have awesome collaboration glasses, designed specifically for the release, available while supplies last. 

We hope to see you at the release!