Photo courtesy of Grimm Artisanal Ales
It’s not every day that a setback leads to beer being produced rather than consumed. However, Grimm Artisanal Ales and Barrier Brewing recently experienced some bad luck involving an equipment purchase gone wrong. As a result, a friendship was forged and two new beers were born.
Sadly, Barrier Brewing is no stranger to unfortunate circumstances. During Hurricane Sandy, their Oceanside brewery was flooded and severely damaged. With Blue Point Brewing lending their facility to the effort, eight Long Island breweries including Barrier came together to brew Surge Protector—a benefit IPA. Each brewery donated their time along with ingredients and all proceeds were divided between Barrier and Long Island Cares. Only four years later, Barrier is thriving and ready to increase their production.
Grimm has a slightly different backstory. Joe and Lauren Grimm, the couple that co-owns the brewery, have been producing commercial beers since 2013 though they’ve homebrewed for over a decade. Recipes are developed and fine-tuned in their Gowanus home kitchen. They then travel to various commercial breweries to produce larger batches. Grimm has no flagships and each beer is considered limited edition—many are brewed just once, never to be seen again. After four years of being “gypsy brewers,” they are looking to settle down and build their own Brooklyn brew house.
And that’s where the paths of the two breweries crossed. Both Grimm and Barrier hooked up with the same reputable west coast fabricator to produce their new brewing systems. After each making final payments, they discovered the fabricator suddenly went out of business. Even worse, their tanks were only partially built—meaning they were out hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Both breweries immediately started working together to salvage whatever equipment they could. Joe Grimm even took an emergency trip out to Portland on behalf of both Grimm and Barrier. Ultimately, they decided to do what they do best: Brew some beer.
The result? Two fruited double IPAs; one brewed by Grimm with input from Barrier and one brewed by Barrier with Grimm’s guidance. Power Source, brewed by Grimm, has mangos, mosaic hops and mosaic lupine powder for an extra hop kick. Barrier’s Groove Angle features kiwi fruit and Amarillo hops.
Both beers have already been canned and will be released this Saturday, July 22 at Barrier Brewing. Cans go on sale at 12 p.m. and limits are still to be determined, though we would advise arriving a bit early—a line seems likely. Barrier is normally cash only, but they will have a point of sale system on Saturday only so they can accept credit cards. A limited edition Teku glass featuring renderings of the still unfinished brew houses will also be for sale. As a personal aside, we have enough beer glasses in our home to stock a bar but we always gravitate towards our lone two Teku glasses.
Proceeds from the release will help both Grimm and Barrier complete their tank construction. So really, buying this beer will allow Long Island and Brooklyn to enjoy even more delicious beer in the future. Plus, you’ll get to try two exclusive collaboration beers from these IPA brewing powerhouses. A real win win win situation.
