A trio of craft breweries in Colorado have banded together and combined their skills and perspectives to create 'Colorado Sweep,' an eminently crushable American wheat ale with a fruity character.
This particular American wheat ale was brewed with a carefully proportioned blend of flaked and white wheat. It also includes a well-balanced quadrant of hopes, namely of the Saaz, Lemondrop, Cascade and Hallertau Magnum varieties, which are responsible for a fruity and citrus-enhanced character. Each brewery also added a different fruit inspired by their award-winning offerings, with Crystal Springs putting forward blood orange, Great Divide contributing raspberry and Lone Tree delivering the peach.
The end result is a complex yet refreshing and approachable wheat ale that is a testament to the literal fruit of collaboration when it comes to brewing great beer.
Image Credit: Nikki A Rae Photography
What's Driving This Trend
- Collaborative Brews
- Collaborations between craft breweries to create unique, complex and refreshing beers with a fruity character.
- Fruit-infused Ales
- The increasing popularity of combining various fruits to create unique flavors and enhance the character of wheat ales and other beers.
- Balance of Hops and Fruits
- The careful blending of different hop varieties and fruit-inspired flavors in wheat ales and craft beers to achieve a perfect balance of flavors.
Who This Affects Most
- Craft Beer
- Opportunities for breweries to collaborate to create unique and refreshing craft beers with innovative fruit character profiles.
- Fruit Production and Distribution
- Increased demand for various fruits to be used in infused-ales and other craft beers may drive growth in the fruit production and distribution industries.
- Bar and Restaurant
- With the growing trend of fruit-infused beer, there may be an opportunity for bars and restaurants to focus on craft beer offerings that combine unique fruit flavors with high-quality brews.
