Amalgam Brewing & Cellar West Collaborate On Assimilation

From Amalgam & Cellar West:

I’m very happy to announce the release info on a very special collaboration beer we made with our friends at Amalgam Brewing.

Like Cellar West Artisan Ales, Amalgam is a small, boutique beer maker with a focus on extended fermentations in oak. Their house culture leans more brightly acidic, almost lambic-like in nature, and over the least year Eric and Phil have been releasing some of Colorado’s most tightly crafted and authentic sour and wild ales.

A couple months back we got together and created a very special blend of oak barrel aged beer; both to honor each other’s distinct ethos’ whilst simultaneously composing a truly wonderful beer that couldn’t exist independent of our joint efforts. After tasting through specific barrels of our saison ales and some of Amalgam’s mature sour beer, we formed a specific blend that spoke to both brewers’ traits and approach.

Assimilation is our Proprietors’ Blend Saison made with Amalgam Brewing. Composed of 75% this year’s batch of Westfield, Cellar West’s oak aged Saison, then 20% Freeform, a solera-style Golden Sour from Amalgam, as well as 5% their Apricot Sour. This thoughtful blend incorporates all of our favorite attributes of each individual beer, but further actualizes a singular expression all its own. With a crisp, saison-like underpinning of white pepper and pear, Assimilation evolves across the palate as it expresses soft oak elements, a spritzy acidity, undeniable juicy stone fruit character, a full & frothy mouthfeel, and pleasantly dry finish. Incredibly complex and gratifying, we forged this delightfully flavorful beer into a modest 6% ABV. package. While this exercise in blending was enjoyable and enlightening for both of our young breweries, the result proved the be equally triumphant on its own – this is a remarkable beer.

We’ll be releasing very limited 750mL. bottles of Assimilation (200 total) for $20 each (tax incl.) when we open the Cellar West Tasting Room doors on Saturday, April 7th at 1pm. We’ll be enforcing a 4 bottle limit in order to allow for several folks to have access to this special beer. Keg conditioned draft pours of Assimilation will also be available while they last. Furthermore, we’ll be hosting a gypsy bottle shop for Amalgam Brewing. They’ll be offering bottles (on-premise or to-go) of their Ascension, Composition #1, Composition #2 (Backyard Peach), and Composition #2 (Plum Mix). If you havn’t tried any of their incredible sours, or want to stock up on some Amalgam, this is an excellent opportunity. Eric and Phil will also be in attendance to discuss their process and share some beers with guests.

This collaboration has been one of our most rewarding to date. As we look forward to the release of Assimilation we also look back on all the revelries and hard work both Cellar West and Amalgam have experienced in our first years of business. We hope you’ll join us for a celebration of wild and sour ale, community, and commitment to authenticity.

-Zach