New Belgium / Indeed Come Together Honey Wheat Wine & Strawberry Fields Kettle Sour

A few months ago, the folks at Indeed and the crew at New Belgium came together and ....ah, man, I gave it away already. Well, anyway, they meet in Fort Collins, Colorado and cooked up this number. It came as no surprise that it would be a honey beer, since Josh Bischoff uses three different kinds of honey in three of Indeed's seasonal brews (Shenanigans, Mexican Honey Lager, and Old Friend). Also not a surprise is that they chose a phrase well known as a Beatles song title to commemorate their collaboration, following after Day Tripper Pale Ale (and with their next collaboration, done in Minneapolis, using yet another title).

Well, I never saw a bottle, but I got my hands on a keg, and took some notes before it ran out.

Come Together Honey Wheat-wine. 9% ABV. New Belgium Brewing, Fort Collins, CO. in collaboration with Indeed Brewing.

Clouded, pale golden hue, lacey ivory head.

Sweetness jumps out of the nose, honey & wheat, with a little floral & spice notes.

In the mouth: bright, sweet, strong. Low to no hops. Nothin' but honey & wheat. Smooth, but big. A tasty treat, but really a one-and-done-er. A bit too big and too sweet to be more than that. What I wish is that I could keep a bottle for the winter, but I don't think they did bottle this. (A search on BeerAdvocate shows one rating. What? And one on rate beer.com, too. Whoa, how rare was this? And 171 check-ins on Untappd.)

Hey, guess what? I was going to add the Minneapolis-brewed New Belgium/ Indeed collaboration as a separate entry, but I can't find the notes anywhere. I know I wrote them, but I also know they were very brief. The beer was on tap for a very short time, and the keg was easier to get than Come Together. For Strawberry Fields, I asked Indeed for one and they said, sure, of course, you bet. To get a 1/6 barrel of Come Together from the distributor, I also had to buy a keg of New Belgium Citradelic.

Strawberry Fields was a 5.4 % ABV kettle sour / tart ale, using strawberry puree, honey, and brettanomyces. It tasted just like you'd want it to: a little sweet, a little tart, plenty of fruit and flat-out delicious. Plump, jammy, and refreshing. Pity it went away so quickly, but that it is the nature of the limited release brew.