Reuben's x Siren

Where I might marvel at the odds defied by Adam Robbings’ crossing paths with Siren’s ex-head brewer, Kyle Larson, Adam chalks their meeting down to us living in a “small world”, which I guess is true when it comes to craft beer. Adam grew up in Berkshire, just three miles from Siren, but left the UK in 2004 to move to Seattle where he started Ruben’s Brews in 2011. Some years after that, while home visiting friends, Adam decided to swing by Siren’s taproom and doing so, happened upon Kyle and founder, Darron Anley. 

As often happens when beer folk collide, one thing led to another; Adam got a tour of the brewery, recognised the similarities between how Reuben’s and Siren operated, and realised that just as he had grown up not far from Siren but now lived in the Pacific NorthWest, Kyle grew up not far from where Reubens was based but had migrated to Berkshire. With the connection established, Kyle swung by Reuben’s while out West for hop selection the following year, and to mark the occasion brewed a collab they aptly titled Home Away From Home IPA. 

“We've known each other for many years now, and this is actually the third collaboration we've done together” says Adam, of Reuben’s relationship with Siren. He continues, explaining that for Reuben’s “collaboration means brewing with friends. It means a chance to hang out, to come together and ideally, each collab partner comes away from the brew having had a fun time - and having learned something”. 

In the case of the Cold IPA Reuben’s has most recently brewed with Siren, Adam says that “at Reuben's we've enjoyed brewing cold IPAs in the past, and so we thought that would be a fun beer to collaborate on. In this case the goal was brewing it at a far lower ABV than we've brewed it ourselves while putting a British twist on a Pacific Northwest born style”.

Reuben’s innovation manager Thor Stoddard adds that when brewing this beer “we started by using some flaked rice to lighten and crisp up the malt profile, then used a combination of classic pacific NW IPA hops like Centennial, Cascade and Columbus , and somewhat newer hops like Simcoe and Citra. Siren added their lager yeast to the mix and fermented it warm to drive some fruity yeast notes that play well with the hops. In the end you have a very easy drinking but hop forward IPA”.