Area breweries launch ‘Friends in Low Places’ collab

Photo | Provided

Every brewery on Alabama’s Gulf Coast has teamed up to create a special IPA, “Friends in Low Places,” which they’re releasing Thursday in support of the Alabama Coastal Foundation. The collaboration’s launch party, which is open to the public, will take place at the new Greer’s St Louis Market, 260 St. Louis St. in downtown Mobile, Nov. 11, 4-6 p.m.

Friends in Low Places is a joint effort between all six of the breweries in Mobile and Baldwin counties — Fairhope, Big Beach, Braided River, Iron Hand, Old Majestic and soon-to-open Oyster City. The beer is a new take on the 2019 collaboration of the same name, which also benefited the environmental nonprofit organization.

Fairhope Brewing Co., the oldest brewery currently operating in this area, spearheaded the effort and came up with the base recipe, as they did in 2019. (They paused the project in 2020 due to the pandemic.) This year, they based the beer on a West Coast IPA recipe instead of a hazy IPA one.

“We decided to change it up and go with a little more of a traditional-style IPA,” Brian Kane, managing partner of Fairhope Brewing, said. “We know everybody loves IPAs, so we didn’t have to bend any arms to get everybody to jump in on the IPA idea. We wanted to make a really approachable beer, the best in this style, that everybody’s happy with and that’s going to move quickly.”

For 2021’s beer, Fairhope’s head brewer, Jacob Sellers, put together a West Coast IPA recipe he liked and then sent it out to the other area brewers for their input. They brainstormed and fine-tuned the recipe, came to a consensus on the final beer profile, then met up at the Fairhope brewery early last month for “Brew Day.” There, they all participated in the brew process and socialized, many meeting Oyster City’s reps for the first time.

Later this winter, Oyster City, based in Apalachicola, Fla., will open its new brewery at 600 Government Blvd. (formerly Serda Brewing Co.). Oyster City has also recently expanded into Tallahassee, Fla., and its parent company, Made By The Water, acquired North Carolina-based Catawba Valley Brewing Co. last month. That means the Mobile location will be able to brew Catawba- and Palmetto-branded beers, in addition to the Oyster City ones.

Collaborating like this was a first for Oyster City.

“We have not traditionally done that just because of the size of our brewery and our lack of flexibility,” Ian Berg, Oyster City’s director of sales, said. “It’s such a blessing for us to step into a growing and young craft beer scene like Mobile. This was a new opportunity for us to get creative.”

According to Sellers, the 2021 Friends in Low Places brew has a bright tropical fruit aroma that “caresses your nose as you take a sip. With just enough malty sweetness to support the explosion of hoppy flavors imparted by American and New Zealand hops, the finish is so crisp and smooth that for just a moment, you will hear waves crashing and feel the sand between your toes.”

After the launch party at Greer’s, which many of the brewers will attend, the beer will be available in stores in four-pack cans, and on draft at local bars, restaurants and some of the breweries. The 2019 version was only available at Fairhope, but all the participants this year have the recipe; per Alabama law, they must brew it themselves, on-site, to sell it in their taprooms. (Iron Hand is a brewpub, so it can sell kegs of the Fairhope-made beer.)

“This year, we really want to promote that people purchase the beer at bars and restaurants around coastal Alabama and at select participating breweries,” Kane said. “Obviously, we want people to come drink it with us, but we also want people to be motivated to go out and find it. … With the holidays approaching, we want to encourage our community to drink, eat and shop local this season.”

For a full list of places where you can purchase Friends in Low Places, visit joinACF.org.

Alyson Sheppard is Lagniappe’s resident hangover specialist and cool mom. Find her on Twitter: @amshep.