Introducing Jester King / Live Oak Kollaborationsbier

We’re very excited to introduce, Jester King / Live Oak:

Kollaborationsbiermittschechischemhopfenundwilderbakterienhefekombination

…(or Kollaborationsbier for short) — our collaboration with Live Oak Brewing Co. in Austin, Texas! Live Oak is the oldest brewery in Austin, and the maker of some of the best German and Czech-style beers in the world. They are among the handful of breweries that inspired us to make beer in the first place, and we couldn’t be more pleased to have had the opportunity to work with them.

Kollaborationsbiermittschechischemhopfenundwilderbakterienhefekombination literally means “collaboration beer with Czech hops, wild yeast, and bacteria” in German. The inspiration for the beer came from two sources. First, we really wanted to make a beer with Live Oak, which again, is a brewery we love. Second, another hugely inspirational brewery for us, along with Live Oak, is Brasserie De La Senne in Brussels, Belgium. De La Senne makes one of our favorite beers called Taras Boulba, which embraces principles of subtlety, restraint, balance, and full attenuation. Its elegant combination of European malt character, hoppiness, dryness, and yeast aroma and flavor sets a benchmark for what beer can be. Coincidentally, one of the few American beers reminiscent of Taras Boulba in terms of its malt and hop character is Live Oak Pilz. We knew that to truly make a beer worthy of claiming inspiration from Taras Boulba, we’d need to turn to our friends at Live Oak for help!

In making Kollaborationsbier, we brewed a low gravity wort at Live Oak with Head Brewer Dusan Kwiatkowski. The wort was prepared using a traditional decoction mash, beginning with undermodified pilsner malt and then working it vigorously by separating out a portion of the mash, boiling it in the kettle, and then returning it to the mash tun. This creates some really tasty malt flavors in the wort that cannot be achieved through other methods. We then added a few hefty doses of Czech hops to the boil for a firm bitterness and floral, spicy hop aromas and flavors. After brewing and cooling the wort, we racked it into portable tanks and drove it from east Austin to the outskirts of town in the Texas Hill Country where Jester King Brewery is located, transferred it into one of our fermentation tanks, and inoculated it with our unique mixed culture of brewer’s yeast and naturally occurring wild yeast and bacteria. The beer fermented to complete dryness (0 degrees Plato or 1.000 specific gravity) and was naturally conditioned through refermentation in kegs, casks, and bottles. Kollaborationsbier is 4.2% alcohol by volume and 42 IBU. It was brewed using only City of Austin water, malted barley, and hops and fermented with brewer’s yeast, wild yeast, and bacteria.

Kollaborationsbier will be released at Jester King Brewery on Friday, October 24th when our tasting room opens at 4pm. We’re also excited to announce that on Saturday, October 25th at Noon, we’ll be joined by Live Oak owner Chip McElroy and Head Brewer Dusan Kwiatkowski. They’ll be bringing a cask of spund Helles Rauchlager with them for our tasting room! Kollaborationsbier will be available by the glass at Jester King Brewery. We’ll also have bottles available for sale (3,300 bottles available, 750ml, $12, limit 2 per customer per day). For the first weekend of bottle sales (October 24th through the 26th), only 1,000 bottles will be available. The art for Kollaborationsbier is by our own Josh Cockrell.



Jester King / Live Oak Kollaborationsbier


Brew day at Live Oak


Transporting wort from Live Oak to Jester King


Racking Live Oak wort into a fermentation tank at Jester King