Round Corner Brewing and Yeastie Boys have today launched a brand-new collaboration beer called Eye Of The Storm, which is a 7.2% Vintage Ale.

The two breweries have known each other for much longer than Round Corner Brewing’s existence, with Head Brewer and Co-Founder, Colin Paige establishing a friendship with Yeastie Boys Director, Stu McKinlay over 20 years ago in New Zealand.

With both breweries always having an eye on a collaboration brew together, they wanted to make sure it was the right beer, at the right time and with the right encompassing message – good things take time.

During their time spent in New Zealand, this style of beer would get Colin, Combie and Stu through the cold Wellington Winters. So, making it the first collaboration beer together was the perfect choice.

This Vintage Ale is chestnut in colour, with a symphony of malt which has mellowed for two months during a long 12°C tank maturation on the lees. UK Ernest hops were loaded in the kettle to produce a whopping 56 IBUs of bitterness. The end result is a rich malty beer with a robust lingering bitterness.

The name Eye Of The Storm comes from the River Eye which flows through Round Corner Brewing’s hometown, Melton Mowbray. The river was once used to carry the malt now so important to making beers like this Vintage Ale.

Round Corner Brewing’s head brewer and co-founder, Colin Paige said: “We’re delighted to be launching Eye Of The Storm today at the perfect time of year for a Vintage Ale. This brand-new beer is all about the malt, in-fact there are eight different types of malt in this beer. As brewers our fermentable extract comes from barley malt, but there’s many different types we can use which vary in colour and flavour. In Eye Of The Storm three of these malts are different types of crystalised malt. These add a nice caramel, light molasses, and maple syrup style characters to the beer, so it drinks really well.

“To give this beer its complexity we’ve aged it for quite a long time in tank. It’s a wine making technique we’ve used called aging on the less. This means it’s been matured quite warm; we start at 12°C compared to our usual largering of 2°C. This allows the yeast to stay up in the beer through a long two-month maturation period, allowing a little bit of yeast complexity within the beer without it being barrel aged. We’ve also used 100% English hops, called Ernest in the beer, giving it a strong bitterness which we love.

“Making this beer with Yeastie Boys is special for us. I’ve known Stu personally for a very long time, back when he worked in IT and I was brewing in Wellington. We thought a Vintage Ale was the perfect beer to be making and a style both breweries love, as it got us through the cold Wellington winters. The result is absolutely cracking and a perfect drink to get out of your fridge an hour before consuming to allow the malt to really shine through.”

Yeastie Boys director, Stu McKinlay said: “Colin and I became friends in New Zealand almost 20 years ago now, and then shortly after he became a mentor to me. Over these years I’ve learned a lot from Colin and our breweries have become closer, with Round Corner Brewing being a contract brewing partner for Yeastie Boys.

“We chose to make a Vintage Ale as our first ever beer together because not only is it the perfect time of year for the beer, but the idea is that good things take time. A Vintage Ale not only takes time to brew, but we wanted to make sure our first collaboration was the right one. We’re super proud of this beer and working with Round Corner Brewing.”