History of CollaboratorThe Collaborator Project is a collaboration between home brewers in the Oregon Brew Crew and Rob and Kurt Widmer of Widmer Brewing. It all started when the Widmers and fellow Oregon Brew Crew members were talking about how few craft beer styles were available. At the time, craft brewing was holding to the popular styles. If you lived in America and wanted a Belgian Wit or Schwarzbier, you had to depend on beers from Europe. The fact was that these esoteric styles would never be profitable for commercial breweries in the US. Kurt and Rob looked at that as an opportunity and challenged the Oregon Brew Crew to have an annual competition where the best of the club's beers, regardless of style, would brewed and served by Widmer Brewing. In the spring of 1998, the first beer chosen was Scott Sander's English Brown Ale but for whatever reasons, the Milk Stout was the first to be brewed by Widmer Brewing and was served in the summer of 1998. This Stout became known as the Collaborator Stout and was an instant success. Over the years, this Collaborator beer has probably been brewed more often than all of the subsequent Collaborator beers combined. Its popularity was further boosted when it became the AHA's Big Brew recipe for National Homebrew Day in 1999. That was surpassed when Widmer tweaked the original recipe and introduced the Collaborator Milk Stout as Snow Plow Stout in 2004 as their annual winter seasonal and won a GABF gold medal. Snow Plow Stout is Widmer's best selling seasonal beer. Rob and Kurt honored the Brew Crew by including a short history of the Collaborator project and a Brew Crew Logo on the six pack holders. All of this is not even the best part of the Collaborator Project. With every barrel of Collaborator beer that Widmer sells, they donate $1 to the Bob McCracken Scholarship Fund which supports students at the Oregon State University Fermentation Science program under the direction of Dr. Thomas Shellhammer. To date, Widmer Brewing has donated over $5,000. Walk in to the Widmer Gasthaus any time of the year and you'll find a Collaborator beer or two on tap. If you can't make it out to Portland, the Snow Plow Stout shows up on your grocer's shelves in October. Every year, more Collaborator beers are chosen during the annual competition held in May for Brew Crew members. Will your beer be the next Collaborator beer? | |
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THE NEXT COLLABORATOR: WHEN & HOW TO ENTER
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An article by Laurie Yadon entitled "Portland Collaborator Project" is listed in the table of contents of the March/April 2010 issue of Zymurgy as that issue's "Online Extra", which can be read on the AHA website. Thanks for a great article and great exposure for the Collaborator Project, Laurie!
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An article written by Brew Crew member Laurie Yadon about her Collaborator brewing experience was published in the November/December 2009 issue of the MENSA BULLETIN, a magazine published by American Mensa for its 50,000+ members. A PDF file of the article ("The Brew Crew") is available here (3Mb) courtesy of American Mensa, Ltd.
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| Beer | Brewer(s) | Date |
| Milk Stout - Now known as Snow Plow Stout | Ken Bietschek, Jeff Brinlee and Jeff Langley | Spring 1998 |
| English Brown | Scott Sanders | Spring 1998 |
| Belgian Dubbel | Committee | Fall 1998 |
| Hallucinator English Old Ale | Gary Corbin, Michael Rasmussen | Spring 1999 |
| Belgian-style Witbier | Noel Blake and Martin Wilde | Summer 1999 |
| La Vie Belgian Pale Ale | Martin Wilde | Winter 1999 |
| Bermuda Schwarzbier | Eric Dana | Spring 2000 |
| Pre-Prohibition Lager | Curt Hausam | Summer 2000 |
| Steel Bridge Porter | Noel Blake | Winter 2000 |
| HB 25 Dunkles Bock | Mitch Scheele | Fall 2001 |
| Hop Nation IPA | Matt Hollingsworth | Winter 2001 |
| Scotch Ale | Ken Johnson | Spring 2002 |
| Sled Crasher Winter Warmer | Noel Blake | Winter 2002 |
| Moore Fearless Maibock | Ken Johnson, Preston Weesner | Spring 2003 |
| Saul's Stout | Ingmar Saul | Summer 2003 |
| Saison Christophe | Chris Johnson, Bill Schneller | Spring 2004 |
| Alpenhorn Vienna Lager | Mitch Scheele | Winter 2004 |
| Hopnosis IPA | Brian Butenschoen | Spring 2005 |
| Zephyr Kölsch | Dan Schultz | Summer 2005 |
| Lagerhead Pilsner | Chris Johnson and Bill Schneller | Fall 2005 |
| Big C Stout | Craig Edwards | Spring 2006 |
| Ember Ale Smoked Porter | Jamie Dull | Fall 2006 |
| Continuum Brown | Scott Sanders | Spring 2007 |
| Rawkin Bock | Noel Blake | Summer 2007 |
| Cascadian Dark Ale | Patrick Miller | Fall 2007 |
| Altimate | Duane Younger | Winter 2008 |
| Resurrection Rye | Patrick Miller | Spring 2008 |
| Double River Doppelweizen | Jeffry Fisher | Fall 2008 |
| Bike Town Nut Brown | Steven Lynch | Spring 2009 |
| Eilean Dhu | Kelly Collins | Fall 2009 |
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