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Elysian has recently started to increase their distribution (Adding the NY market earlier this month), and they have smartly found a way to increase their production without much of a capital investment. They just announced a partnership with New Belgium Brewing, which will allow Elysian to brew batches of their standard lineup on New Belgium's larger brewing system. In return, New Belgium will use the Elysian brewing systems to brew small-batch and experimental beers, similar to their Lips of Faith series.
Talk about a winning situation for Seattle beer drinkers. From the sounds of it, this will allow Elysian to expand without heavily decreasing the amount of small-batch specialty releases that they are well known for producing. But, the really exciting part is having New Belgium small-batch beers being brewed right here; you can bet that will result in Seattle getting first taste of many of these specialty releases.
Don't think of this as just another evil corporate merger. These are two great breweries that respect each other's beers and brewers, and they likely came to this agreement over a long night of beers and some grub.
Congrats to Elysian for getting a deal worked out, and welcome to town, New Belgium.
Thanks to mag3737 on Flickr for the photo.
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I'm feeling pretty *meh* about this. I kinda had a hunch Elysian was stepping up their game with the new labels, but I didn't expect this. Hopefully the greater scale will translate properly and not jeopardize the awesomeness of their beer.
On the other hand, I'm not so excited about having more New Belgium in my life. Though I haven't had any of these limited handcrafted releases, none of their primary beers are particularly great, IMO. Perfectly suited to the Rockies, sure, but nothing compared to even the most average Cascades beers.
Now, if Elysian had opted to partner with Bridgeport, Deschutes or Sierra Nevada, I'd be singing a completely different song.
I'm defintiely a New Belgium fan... I'd take 1554, Mothership Wit, Abbey and Trippel over most brewery's standards.
Their special releases (La Folie, Le Terroir, Eric's Peach...) are indeed fantastic (If you like Belgian sours).
If people can look past Fat Tire, they might like what they see.
New Belgium's Mothership Wit and the Elysian's IPA rank high on my list of favorite beers. Thanks for this news - can't wait to see what they brew up.