Our second collaboration started it’s incubation way back in July, when Steve at Westhall Racehorse tagged Moon Gazer in a post on 26 July about one of our beers – Andraste’s Hare – selling out in less than a day. Moon Gazer is a well established brewery in Norfolk and I enjoyed a lot of their beers, which are all named with a hare based theme, before moving up to Rochdale. I was delighted, and honoured, when David said he would be interested in doing a collaboration with us.

Over the course of the summer we exchanged numerous messages about beer styles, recipe ideas, possible beer names and, of course, brew dates. Eventually we had a plan in place which saw me heading down to Norfolk just after my birthday in November.

The brew day itself was lots of fun. David picked me up in Norwich and drove us out to the brewery at Hindringham, where I met the team – Jayne in the office, Andrew, Steve and Seb on the brew floor. Like any good collab brew day, there was plenty of time to chat and Andrew was an excellent host, while Steve and Seb were busy with racking and other brewery chores. Apart from discussing the beer scene of Greater Manchester (Andrew is keen to visit), and tasting a few Moon Gazer beers, I also picked up a tip, which David and Andrew say has helped take their beers to the next level.

Ale behind the Tale: We had settled on a German Porter at 5%, which seemed a perfect fit for the dark winter months. The beer was brewed with all German malt from Weyermann and the German hop, Perle, giving it a rich espressso colour, smooth dark malt complexity and finish and gentle spicy hop flavours.

Tale behind the Ale: Given this is a German themed beer, David at Moon Gazer thought that a German folk tale would be appropriate. The tale of the “Hare and the Hedgehog” was popularized by the Brother’s Grimm. On the face of it, it is similar to the more well known story of the hare and the tortoise. However, it has a dark twist, which sees the hare coming to an unfortunate end.

Keep Posted: The beer was released at the end of November, and has been well received. At the time of writing, I still haven’t been able to sample it myself, but hopefully I will get to put this right at the Baum in Rochdale very soon.