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The Bronx Brewery collaborating with Baldor Specialty Foods for unique, limited-edition beers
Two South Bronx businesses have joined forces to brew up something new.
The Bronx Brewery, known for its “no-nonsense ales,” has a habit of collaborating with bars and restaurants on one-off beers. But its latest partnership with Baldor Specialty Foods brings its experimentation to a new level.
“I would say this is pretty unique,” said Patrick Libonate, 43, vice president of marketing for the seven-year-old craft brewery, which is working with the specialty food distributor to create beers using rare, seasonal ingredients.
“A lot of times in the beer world you have collaborations between two breweries, which clearly makes a lot of sense,” he said. “But you don’t see a lot of collaborations with a company that’s buying and selling produce.”
So far, two brews have been released with Baldor under the brewery’s B-Tracks series of limited-edition, specialty beers.
“The whole idea behind the B-Track was similar to the flip side of a record for a music artist — the flip side was always the side where they would experiment, do something out of the norm or collaborate,” Libonate said. “That’s what we’re doing — it’s out of the normal character of our beers. The produce and vegetables and spices allow our brewers to really push the envelope on flavor.”
The first release with Baldor, called Yokozuna Wit, is a Belgian-style witbier made with sumo citrus, a late-winter citrus from California, and spicy Szechuan Buttons.
The second, Heavy Fennel, is a dry Irish stout (available now, just in time for St. Patrick’s Day) that features fennel pollen, a spice made from wild fennel grown in California.
