Ever since the 2006 mash-up of beers named Salvation from Russian River and Avery brewing companies resulted in Collaboration Not Litigation, collaborative brews have become de rigueur. One of the most recent collaborations sees Colorado-based New Belgium Brewing teaming up with the Maryland-based hard rock band, Clutch. The band’s self-titled beer is a dark sour ale quite unlike the beers from earlier brewery-musician collaborations with The String Cheese Incident’s Kyle Hollingsworth who started by brewing (jamming) collectively with several other Colorado breweries. Those, incidentally, resulted in a string of IPAs and pale ales.

Perhaps it started with BridgePort and the Audubon Society with Blue Heron Pale Ale, first brewed in 1987 before the concept of the craft beer collaboration was born.

Sometimes the collaborator(s) may not be other professional brewers but are at least connected to the beer world, as is the case with BrewDog’s Avery Brown Dredge Imperial Pilsner with scribbling beer blokes Zak, Pete and Mark, respectively.

The equivalent, though more historically-rooted, on this side of the drink is Sierra Nevada’s Charlie, Fred, and Ken, an Imperial Helles Bock created for the brewery’s 30th anniversary in cahoots with the living legends of homebrewing guidebooks Fred Eckhardt and Charlie Papazian.

Has the concept of collaborating with one or more other breweries gone from chic to passé? If partnering with non-brewing entities is the next phase, who or what would you like to see your favorite brewer tagteam with, and what kind of beer would they make?