Jägermeister Arrogant Bastard Ale is the newest collaborative brew which unites the characteristics of two iconic products to create a totally new taste experience. The American strong ale with 8.5% alcohol by volume (ABV) is the result of a cooperation between Arrogant Consortia, a label of StoneBrewing from Econdido, California and Jägermeister, the German company which produces and sells the herbal aperitif of the same name.
The 20,000-bottle batch of the limited release beer was brewed at Stone’s former brewery in Berlin/Germany, which was sold in April to Scottish craft brewing company BrewDog (inside.beer, 5.4.2019). The product that uses "a variety" of the 56 herbs, roots, fruits, and spices that give Jägermeister its distinctive flavor was launched last Thursday in the USA and sells at a suggested retail price of about $20 for a 750ml bottle.
The collaboration marks Jägermeister’s “first-ever liquid partnership in the U.S.,” the liquor company said in a press release. The idea came to Jägermeister, when they visited several American craft beer breweries during their US Deer & Beer campaign, where the company suggests to “pour an ice-cold shot of Jägermeister into a chilled glass” and to mix it with “your beer of choice.”
"We have enjoyed pushing boundaries over the years. [For] something a little bit different, [we did] a collaboration with another company that's so iconic, it stands apart from everything else," Stone’s co-founder, owner and executive chairman Greg Koch said in a video.
Collaborative brews are not new to the industry. A brewery like Sierra Nevada Brewing Co, one of the largest craft brewers in the United States is teaming up for years with other brewers to create unique taste experience for its customers again and again. Famous is Sierra Nevada’s Oktoberfest beer which is brewed every year together with another German brewery to celebrate the famous Munich beer festival.
Lately craft brewers also teamed up with atypical companies to create more exotic brews like Yuengling Hershey's Chocolate Porter, a collaboration between chocolate company Hershey’s with America's oldest brewery Yuengling, both based in Pennsylvania.
Another example is Harpoon Dunkin’ Summer Coffee Pale Ale, a hoppy tribute to DunkinDonuts’ signature Iced Coffee which combines the flavors of Dunkin’s Original Blend with a bright, summery pale ale from Harpoon Brewery from Boston, Massachusetts.
