Benefitting Washington Wild, Aslan Brewing and Bottleworks shepherd this 100 business-strong collaboration release. Say hello to Forestalgia American Lager.
A collaboration by its very definition, both the act of working with a person or organization, or the production of something. In the realm of beer, a collaboration often is associated with one or more breweries combining their esoteric creativeness to produce a unique beer. Examples abound, the most common is beers like 3 Way IPA, made by Fort George and two other breweries. There are, of course, other examples, but the intent is the same, come up with a recipe that marries the right malts, barley, wheat, or oats, plus the right hops, a pile of yeast and the right amount of water.
No stranger to collaboration, Bottleworks, from Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood has sought another brewery to produce a unique expression of their business. Rather, Bottleworks and some 100 different breweries or hospitality businesses, and one cidery, to inspire awareness of clean waterways. Welcome to the annual Washington Wild collaboration release.
Organized by Conservation and Brewshed Program Manager, Chris Chappell, and General Manager at Bottleworks’ Brandon Wiley, have selected host brewery Aslan Brewing Company to create what they’re calling Forestalgia.
Brewed to be an American Lager, Aslan Brewing Company in cooperation with the likes of Halcyon Brewing, Urban Family Brewing, Bizarre, Stoup Brewing, Black Raven Brewing, public houses Beveridge Place Pub, The Pine Box, Peaks & Pints, and cidery Barman. Mind you, this is only a handful of the breweries and related businesses who have endorsed Chris & Brandon’s latest expression of why clean waterways are important.
But, in order to really appreciate its importance, you should probably start by talking to Chris Chappell, on what makes beers like this special.
Forestalgia is both a state of mind and a commitment. It's an individual's yearning for an idealized, sustainable future and dedication to protecting Washington State’s forests and rivers for the future of people, planet, and great beer.
It’s no coincidence that Washington enjoys a flourishing craft brewing industry. As water flows from the peaks of the Cascades and Olympics it picks up things along the way. Things like natural minerals can contribute positively to the unique regional flavor of a beer. But water can also collect pollutants that must be removed or treated before brewing, a process that is often difficult, expensive, and ultimately impacts the quality of the beer.
Intact, healthy ecosystems provide a natural filtration system that protects the quality of water on its journey downstream. With an abundance of protected natural landscapes—including 4.3 million acres of federally designated Wilderness Areas—Washington State has some of the best water in the world, which in many cases requires little to no treatment before brewing. Our Brewshed® Alliance Members know that by protecting the source, they’re protecting the quality of their downstream product.
For a complete breakdown of all the breweries, related businesses, and the cidery that have signed up to support this release, we’ve included them below.
image courtesy Bottleworks
Or to put it another way, here is every participating brewery, cidery, and hospitality member who helped to make this beer possible.
23rd Ave Brewing
3 Magnets
Airways
Aslan
Audacity
Bainbridge Brewing
Barmann Cellars
Bale Breaker
Beach Cat
Beer Junction
Beer Star
Beveridge Place Pub
Bickerson
Big Time
Bizarre
Black Raven
Botanicale
Bottleworks
BreakThru
Brewmasters Taproom
Brouwers
Burke Gilman
Cease and Desist (Friday Harbor)
Chuckanut
Dalliance
DRU BRU
Dwinell
El Sueñito
Elizabeth Station
Fair Isle
Fast Fashion
Fiddlers Inn
Formula
Full Throttle Bottles
Future Primitive
Garden Path
Georgetown
Halycon
Here Today
Hildegard
Hopvine
Human People
Humble Abode
Icicle
Ilk
IX Lives
Jellyfish
Ladd & Lass
Latona
Logan
Lowercase
Lucky Envelope
Lumberbeard
Lunar Levels
Machine House
Matchless
Metier
Mirage
No Boat
North Fork
Obec
Old Stove
Peaks & Pints
Perry Street Brewing
Petite Wine
Pine Box
Ponderosa
Project 9
Propolis
Potlatch
Queen Anne Beerhall
Ravenna
Ridgewood
Salmon Safe
Seapine
Seattle Beer School
SiG
Silver City
Single Hill
Special Brews
Stillwater
Stoup
Structures
Talking Cedar
Teku
The Bottle & The Barber
The Good Society
Uprise Brewing
Urban Family
Varietal
Vine Street Market
WA Wild/Brewshed Alliance
Walla Walla Beer Parlour
Washtington Brewer's Guild
Watershed Pub
Watershed FC
Watts
Wheelie Pop
Whistle Punk
Ya-ya Brewing
Yakima Chief Hops
And the beer?
Recognized by the non-profit, B Corp, Aslan Brewing has fulfilled these key requirements to be considered.
Demonstrate high social and environmental performance by achieving a B Impact Assessment score of 80 or above and passing our risk review. Multinational corporations must also meet baseline requirement standards.
Make a legal commitment by changing their corporate governance structure to be accountable to all stakeholders, not just shareholders, and achieve benefit corporation status if available in their jurisdiction.
Exhibit transparency by allowing information about their performance measured against B Lab’s standards to be publicly available on their B Corp profile on B Lab’s website.
This is reflected in the brewery’s commitment to using 100% Organic ingredients, its employment of community outreach, local non-profits and community organizations. Most recently, the brewery collaborated with Patagonia Provisions, known for supporting the fight against environmental crises. So, how did the brewery feel when asked to brew this year’s Washington Wild collaboration release? With their thoughts, here’s Aslan’s Marketing Director Georgi Shillington.
image sourced from Washington Wild
The Aslan crew was very excited to be asked to host this collaboration! With sustainability being such an essential pillar of our brand, this was a perfect collaboration for us to host. We've worked closely with Chris from Washington Wild before and were excited to connect once again.
But like any collaboration, it’s easy to say you’ll be the brewery to produce, ferment, and distribute the beer. The hard part comes when deciding on a style. Fortunately, Aslan had the perfect excuse. Again, here’s Georgi.
With summer on the rise, we decided to go with an American Lager for this brew. It's light, easy drinking, and perfect for a hot summer day. We also wanted to produce something that all 100 breweries and taprooms participating would be excited to pour at their location and a lager seemed to fit the bill best!
Course, like any brewery there are concerns around negative impacts to the environment. Then again, tackling the challenges of maintaining the spirit of Washington Wild isn’t hard when you’re a brewery like Aslan. But, rest assured, the brewery is serious about their B Corp status and being a brewery for the environment. Reassuring all, once again, is Georgi.
Just like all our beers at Aslan, Forestalgia will be organic-certified. In addition to being organic, the hops we use from Yakima Chief Hops are Salmon Safe. Salmon-Safe ingredients make a direct contribution to restoring important waterways and native fish.
The result is a beer that tells the story of collaboration and commitment to the environment, culminating in a party on August 21st.
image sourced from Washington Wild
Hosted by Aslan Brewing Company in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood from 5 pm to 8 pm.
For the rest of you, you can track cans and draft at Bottleworks, Aslan Brewing’s multiple locations, or at the partner spot nearest to you.
For more information on Bottleworks, Aslan Brewing, or Washington Wild, visit https://www.bottleworks.com/, https://aslanbrewing.com/, or https://wawild.org/.
