The recipe started on the phone. Before Cerebral Brewing and Lyric Brewing Company ever stood in the same brewhouse, they spent a long call working through mash temperatures, grist percentages and water chemistry - what Cerebral calls a process swap.

Cheer in Space is the result, and it is the first collaboration between the two. It is an 8.8 percent hop saturated ale, and it drops Friday.

The two breweries are not far apart. Cerebral runs three taprooms around Denver, in Congress Park, West Highland and Aurora Arts. Lyric is in Wheat Ridge, just west of the city. The call, by the brewery's account, turned up as much common ground as contrast in how each approaches hoppy beer.

What they did with that is the more interesting decision. Cerebral says the goal was never to average the two approaches into a midpoint. Instead the brief was to put a Lyric spin on something brewed at Cerebral - one house's instincts applied to the other's beer, rather than a compromise between them. The brewery describes the result as familiar in places, with a few turns it would not have found alone.

The hop bill

Somewhere in that conversation the two found a shared affinity for Southern Hemisphere hops, and the final lineup reflects it:

Riwaka and Riwaka Amplifire

Nelson and Nelson Cryo

Galaxy

Citra

Six entries, but only four varieties. Riwaka and Nelson each appear twice - once as standard pellets, once as a concentrated lupulin product. Cryo and Amplifire are both made by separating the lupulin from the plant material at very low temperatures, then pelletizing what is left. The result carries substantially more oil and resin per gram than a conventional pellet, with far less vegetal matter along for the ride.

Doubling up that way is a deliberate move. It lets a brewer push a single variety much harder without loading the beer with additional hop matter, and the two varieties chosen for it here are the New Zealand pair. Riwaka is known for passionfruit and grapefruit character, Nelson Sauvin for its distinctive white-wine and gooseberry note. Galaxy comes from Australia. Citra, the lone American hop in the bill, is the familiar reference point holding the rest together.

At 8.8 percent, this also sits above Cerebral's core hoppy lineup, which leans on house IPAs and pale ales in more everyday territory.

As for the name, Cerebral says it is a nod to Glass Animals, and offers no further defense than that.

Cheer in Space arrives Friday in pint cans. It lands just ahead of a busy stretch for the brewery: GABF week begins October 7, and Cerebral says it will be pouring at the festival itself this year in addition to hosting its own returning taproom events.

Editor’s Take

Most collaboration beers begin with a logo, a hashtag, and a negotiation about which fruit to add. This one began with a long phone call about grist percentages. Two breweries on opposite sides of the same metro area got on the line and traded mash temperatures and water chemistry the way other people trade holiday photos, discovered they had more in common than not, and then declined to split the difference anyway. Averaging two houses together gets you a beer that tastes like a committee. A Lyric spin on something brewed at Cerebral is a harder brief and a considerably more interesting one.

The hop bill is where the shared enthusiasm shows. Four varieties, six entries: Riwaka and Nelson each turn up twice, once as ordinary pellets and once as concentrated lupulin. That is not indecision, it is two breweries finding out they share a weakness for New Zealand hops and deciding to lean all the way in. Galaxy and Citra fill in around them at 8.8 percent. Whatever a hop saturated ale is supposed to be, this one seems to be taking the name at its word.

Source & Editorial

JollyPint independently prepares release articles using information published by breweries through newsletters, websites, and other official public communications. Brewery-supplied descriptions and tasting notes are reported as provided, while editorial context is added by JollyPint.

Cheer in Space Runs Riwaka and Nelson Twice, Once as Concentrate

Cerebral's first collaboration with Lyric started on the phone, trading mash temperatures and water chemistry. What came out is an 8.8 percent hop saturated ale built on four Southern Hemisphere-leaning varieties, two of them used twice.

The hop bill

Source & Editorial