Wooden Robot and Weathered Ground brew collaboration farmhouse IPAs

Sam Fonda of Weathered Ground Brewery is developing a nice little reputation for brewing collaborations with top-flight North Carolina breweries. The latest bi-location brew days were conducted at Charlotte’s Wooden Robot Brewery and then at Weathered Ground in Cool Ridge.

A couple of weeks back, Sam made a trip to Charlotte, where he met up with Wooden Robot head brewer and co-founder Dan Wade to brew a beer together. They then repeated the exercise last week at Cool Ridge when Dan came north and spent a day at Weathered Ground.

“We’re excited to come out here and brew a collaboration beer,” Dan said of his visit to Weathered Ground. “We’re doing an interesting style— a farmhouse IPA.” He further described it as a mash-up of a Belgian-style Saison with modern American hops. Dan and Sam had brewed a similar version of the beer in Charlotte.

Sam’s relationship with Dan goes back a few years.

“I met Dan early on when I was working at Triple C [Brewing Company],” Sam said. He explained that he was always attracted to Dan’s Wooden Robot beers, both sour and clean styles. “That’s what’s really interesting and versatile about them. They’re known for their amazing, award-winning sours, but if you try their IPAs, they’re just as good as any IPAs out there.”

Making the collaboration beers

These collaboration beers, brewed at the two locations, share a common theme, but used slightly different ingredients. The Wooden Robot version used malt from Epiphany Craft Malt in Durham, NC, where the Weathered Ground version used malt from Riverbend Malt House in Asheville. The Weathered Ground version used mostly pilsner malt with an addition of malted corn, while the Wooden Robot version was pilsner malt and spelt. For hopping, the WRB version used Glacier and Meridian; while at WGB, they used Glacier and Comet.

Both brews used a mixed culture yeast from Wooden Robot. Dan brought the Wooden Robot yeast up to Weathered Ground for their brew day.

“I think that will be the real big similarity,” said Sam. “You’ll have those same yeast characteristics.”

The Wooden Robot version should likely be ready for release in mid to late January. The Weathered Ground version will likely be out sometime in February. At blog post time, neither brewery had decided on a name for the beer yet. Watch the breweries’ social media for the release dates of the beers.

Visiting Wooden Robot Brewery

Wooden Robot has been around for about four and a half years and is best known for its farmhouse-styles and sour beers. But they also produce a variety of lagers and clean ale styles, such as pale ales and IPAs. The brewery took home medals from the Great American Beer Festival in both 2018 and 2019.

Wooden Robot now has two locations in Charlotte. The original brewery is on the South End, about six blocks south of the Panthers football stadium. Their new location, called The Chamber, is in NODA just down the street from the Salud beer shop and within a block of the light rail station. The Chamber is more focused on the farmhouse and sour beers, and all the beer-aging barrels are visible inside.

“We really try to focus on just being a place to enjoy good beer,” Dan said, emphasizing their welcoming, community atmosphere they strive for. He stresses that you won’t find lots of distractions, like game areas or loud music, at Wooden Robot. You will find a wide range of IPAs, lagers, saisons, sours, and more that give folks the opportunity to try different things. They want people to enjoy each other’s company while having a beer.

Weathered Ground Brewery website link
Wooden Robot Brewery website link

Hear the interview on the podcast

You can hear the complete interview with Sam and Dan on the second part of the WV Beer Roads 12-17-19 podcast.