One of our guiding principles here at Elusive is to be open and collaborative. We've worked with many breweries both before we were up and running and in the months since then. Collaborating with other breweries is important to us. To learn, to share and to help each other is one of the key differentiators between 'craft' and big beer - and we've certainly benefited and hopefully helped others along the way.

COLLABAGEDDON was an idea we'd been milling around that really started to come to fruition whilst we were out drinking in Southampton with our friends at Vibrant Forest. We at Elusive already had some collaborative brews lined up and as the afternoon progressed and ideas were exchanged over a beer or six, a few DMs and emails were sent here and there to try to tie it all together under an umbrella event. We were amazed at the response we had from our friends and are delighted to now be able to share the finer details with you!

The idea is a simple one - we bring together some great breweries (both old hands and new kids on the block) to brew a range of diverse beers that we launch all around the UK on the same night. Given the project is built around the idea of being collaborative, sharing and learning, we created pairings to bring together two breweries per beer who usually brew quite different styles to each other - diversity being a key driver. The eight beers we'll be brewing sees each brewery welcome a guest at their place before they take to the road to brew a beer at a different brewery. The eighth beer sees all involved descend upon our wonderful friends at Weird Beard with the aim of a) having lots of fun of course and b) producing something that all seven breweries involved will have contributed an element to. We can't wait! Here are the 'fixtures' showing who's brewing each of the eight beers:

So that's Affinity (Tottenham, London), 40ft (Dalston, London), Odyssey (Hereford), Unity (Southampton), Vibrant Forest (Lymington), Weird Beard (Hanwell, London) and us at Elusive joining forces to brew eight beers! Next, we had a think about which bars we wanted to launch these creations in - thinking about who had supported one of more of us in our early days or those who we'd admired from afar with the aim of reaching a wide range of locations all across the UK. Phone calls were made, tweets and emails were sent and these sixteen fantastic venues were brought on board!

Beer in Hand, Hereford
Belgium & Blues, Southampton
Fuggles Beer Cafe, Tunbridge Wells
HAND, Falmouth
Northern Lights, Belfast
Pilcrow, Manchester
Salt Horse, Edinburgh
Small Bar, Bristol
Small Bar, Cardiff
Stoneworks, Peterborough
The Free Trade Inn, Newcastle
The Hop Locker, London
The Nags Head, Reading
The Plasterers Arms, Norwich
Tilt, Birmingham
Turk's Head, Leeds

Plotting those on a map (below) shows that we certainly achieved our aim of getting these beers into great bars far and wide! Please head down to one of these locations on FRIDAY NOVEMBER 17TH to see what we come up with! The breweries involved will be attending some locations too - we'll share our individual plans nearer the time.

COLLABAGEDDON 2017