Life and Limb and Limb and Life

Is this the age of The Collaborative Beer?

All the cool kids are doing it, and none so fervently as Dogfish Head.

Seriously, they’ve bedded all the big guns: Avery, Allagash, Russian River, Lost Abbey… okay, that was for one beer. But even little pistols like BeerAdvocate and Cambridge Brewing have gotten a piece of the Dogfish action.

But will Dogfish know how to handle a seasoned Craft cougar like Sierra Nevada?

Bostonians have only to wait until Friday, when Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head’s little-known love child, Life & Limb, pours for the first time, side by side with its brother, Limb & Life, from the taps at Cambridge Common.

Life & Limb is a strong dark beer brewed with all manner of tree saps, boasting a formidable 10% ABV and 50 IBUs. I’m guessing it’ll be heavy bodied, rich and malty, with a moderate hop backbone. Limb & Life, however, is a “small beer” made by sparging the mash of its predecessor. (Just like Anchor Small) It’s kind of like making a second pot of coffee out of the grounds you used this morning, only less gross. And with booze. The result is a lighter-bodied, sessionable beer with a much more doable 5% ABV.

But this is mostly conjecture - based on the penumbra of a description I found on the Life & Limb website - which is beautiful, by the way (see if you can spot the Dogfish dogfish and the Sierra scroll on the homepage!). I’ll be sure to post a full review after imbibing on Friday.

In any case, if what comes of this collaborative trend is delicious, interesting new beer with a hybrid vigor all its own, then by all means, let this outbreeding enhancement continue, unbridled, until a race of superbeers evolves and takes over the world!