Last Thursday evening, 14th April, we flew down to Blenheim for a Friday collaboration brew date with 8 Wired Brewing and Renaissance Brewing. All three of us distribute beer through BeerNZ of Christchurch, and have many good friends in the garden city, so had discussed the idea of putting down a brew in aid of the city after last years 'quake. This vague idea became more of a reality after the January Queenland floods (we all distribute through Innspire, of Brisbane) and, of course, Christchurch's catastrophic second major 'quake in February.

Soren and I discussed the recipe briefly via email - ending up with the concept of a hoppy yet sessionable red ale, with a French Saison yeast that both Soren and myself had been playing with in trials (read: homebreweries). Over a beer or two on Thursday night, and possibly a whisky, we huddled around Soren's tiny laptop to finalise our ideas in Promash. Two pale malts (mostly Gladfield, with a little Malteurop) and a cacophony of specialties in the form of CaraBelge, CaraMunich II, CaraAroma and Carafa Special III would make up the grist. Hopped mildly (for hop monster Soren!) with Styrian and Pacifica in the boil and a big load of Styrian flowers in the hopback. A couple of big chunks of cheese joined the beer and whisky following the recipe development, ensuring we'd have plenty of vivid cheesy dreams...

On the Friday morning we broke our fast, appropriately, with muesli and drove the short distance through the black Blenheim pre-dawn morning to the brewery. The detail of one brewday is much the same as another... we milled, we mashed, we drunk coffee and talked beer, then we boiled, feasted on kebabs, whirlpooled (for a couple of hours!), talked more beer and pumped the wort into the fermenter to do its thing with Wyeast 3711. We cleaned the brewery and tasted a few beers, then visited Dave Nicholls at the fast expanding Moa Brewery and stopped off for a couple at Blenheim's Old Bank bar before flying out. It was a pleasure to work with Soren, whom we've known for a few years via the homebrew and probrew community, and to see the Renaissance Brewery in full flight. Everything, from the recipe development to the cheese eating, was recorded under the keen eye of Jed Soane of www.thebeerproject.com. Keep an eye on his website for photos soon.

Some of the suggested names, via facebook and twitter, on the day include: Saison D'etre, Saismic Activity, Sais'mograph, Sais' of Relief, Buvez Beaucoup Saison Rouge, St Agatha, The French Collabarator, Menage a Trois, Red Rescue Ale, Liquid Fraction, Bag of Suck, Une Saison Rouge Croises, Recovery Red, Earthquake, Blood Red Heroes, Rogue Croix, Rouge Hop, Saissy Red, De Secours Rouge Saison, Plan Quake, Formidable Marinade... and the odd incredibly long, unpronouncable French name. My personal favourite is Bag of Suck, which sums up the earthquakes and floods so succinctly. Feel free to add your ideas in the comments.

The beer is fermenting away down in Blenheim now. The idea is that we keg up the beer, sell to our, and then donate everything over the shipping and excise to appropriate charities for Christchurch and Queensland. We're not yet settled on where the dollars will be donated but will keep you posted... do feel free to make suggestions in regards to this also.

Thanks must go to Brian and Andy of Renaissance Brewery for the use of their fantastic brewery (especially at a time when they are knocking on the door of full capacity); to the great people at Gladfield Malt, Cryer Malt and NZ Hops for the generous donation of the ingredients; Anthony and the team at Ampi Plastics for a pallet of one-way kegs that will enable us to send some of this beer to Australia; Craig and Nat at BeerNZ, who supply kegs and logistics for NZ; Jed Soane for taking a day away from his family to document the brew (and for not breaking too many items in the brewery!)... and, not the least, to Soren and Monique from 8 Wired Brewing for leading us around the brewhouse and turning his family home into a Hotel Eriksen for the brew.

We look forward to tasting the beer as much as anyone else.

Update: Soren reports this morning, 19/04/2011, that the beer smells like a freshly squeezed orchard.