Sori Brewing journey started in 2013 as a gypsy brewer. 2014 we started building our own brewery and 05/2015 we were brewing beer in our own facility. First brews were Out of Office Session IPA and Investor IPA, which we already started commercially in 2013. Growing fast, yet staying true to our mission to stay humble and brew beers without compromises. Running a craft brewery is tought work, but it definitely has its pros. One big thing in this industry is to learn from your colleagues and treat your hard working colleagues as friends, not competitors. We all came to this industry to create, grow, do with our hands and heart – and maybe even have fun while doing this.
To celebrate, we invited friends to brew with us from all over. What better way to celebrate than work hard and come up together with extraordinary beers? We brewed a set of different collaborations to showcase interesting styles and flavors, some of which you might have never tried before.
Sori X Bagby Beer (CA, USA)
West Coast IPA
Bagby Beer, California, USA
Jeff Bagby came a long way all the way from Oceanside, California. In Europe, you probably see his brewery every year in Mikkeller Beer Celebration Copenhagen and this year also in Tallinn Craft Beer Weekend. Jeff is the Co-Owner and Head Brewer of Bagby Beer and his background is impressive. Former Director of Brewery Op. at Pizza Port Brewing is awarded three times as best brewer & brewery of the year in GABF (2009, 2010, 2011). Before that he’s been working for breweries like Stone Brewing, Oggi’s and even White Labs.
To honor his San Diegan roots, we are brewing together a no nonsense true-to-style West Coast IPA! No gimmicks, just an amazing San Diego style India Pale Ale.
Sori X Pracownia Piwa (POL) X Hiisi (FIN)
DDH IPA with Bison Grass
Pracownia Piwa, Poland + Hiisi, Finland
Our friends from Finland have been doing a lot of double dry hopped beers lately, so we thought we should make one together. Pracownia Piwa got a very interesting ingredient, bison grass (as known as holy grass or vanilla grass), which is well known from Polish Żubrówka vodka. Among many of the Plains Indians, bison grass is considered one of the “four sacred medicines”.
Sori X Brew Division (RUS) X Õllenaut (EST)
Gruit
Brew Division, Russia + Õllenaut, Estonia
Gruit is very old beer style that dates to times before using hops in beer. In gruit, you use plenty of herbs and fruit to preserve and bring flavor to the beer. In this one we were using a lot of traditional gruit ingredients. As a special ingredient, we got some local wild hops from Õllenaut.
Sori X PINTA (POL)
Blood Orange IPA
PINTA, Poland
PINTA is unarguebly the most productive gypsy brewers there is, actually one of the biggest ones after Mikkeller. We’ve been planning to collaborate together for quite some time but now we had the possibility to do that. Both breweries are big fan of India Pale Ales, so we went for something straightforward with a twist. Adding loads of fresh blood orange to bring out refreshing citrus and tropical fruit flavors.
Sori X Dois Corvos (PT)
Elderflower Saison
Dois Corvos, Portugal
We have been meaning to use elderflowers for a long time, but this time we got a chance to do one beer style we have been graving after for years. A Saison brewed with French Saison yeast to bring light floral fenols and highlighting it with a truckload of elderflowers. This will be sunshine in a bottle!
Sori X LETRA (PT)
Coffee Kölsch
LETRA, Portugal
LETRA is very similar brewery to Sori Brewing in many ways, so now we got together and saw how our skills go together. Coming up with something pretty extreme, that will taste ridiculously tasty. A variation from a German beer style called Kölsch (of course not calling it that as it’s totally not legit as it’s protected style name) where we add great, nutty and aromatic coffee as dry hopping. This is a mind blowingly refreshing yet full on coffee aromas.
Sori X Voodoo Brewing (PA, USA)
Imperial Baltic Porter
Voodoo Brewing, Pennsylvania, USA
Both fans of brewing huge beers, we got together to create something super massive to rip a hole in beer universum. Some of this will go to barrels for aging, some of it will be released as it’s brewed. This will take a ridiculous amount of time to brew and so much ingredients, that it’s a real nightmare for our brewers – but a real treat to you! This big black Imperial Baltic Porter will get its twist from Estonian kama flour, toffee and vanilla.