Photo courtesy of Stonebrew.com

(Escondido, CA) – Some details on the first Stone collaboration of 2011…

On December 17th, Mitch Steele of Stone Brewing, Chuck Silva of Green Flash Brewing and Jeff Bagby of Pizza Port Carlsbad collaborated on a new brew called Highway 78 Scotch Ale. The name is based on the main road connecting the three Southern California-based breweries.

West Coaster SD got the scoop on this last month and I completely missed it. Better late than never:

Jacob McKean of Stone Brewing Co. described the brew-in-progress as “a big, rich, malty beer made with all English ingredients.” Mitch estimates that the ale will be 8%-9%ABV, around 30 IBUs, and a deep-amber color. “It’s been a couple of years in the making,” Jeff describes, “and we’re excited to age some of this beer in the scotch barrels that are on order.” Chuck Silva chimes in, “That’s the fun part!” This will be the first Scotch Ale created at Stone.

Close to 150 barrels of the collaboration ale will be made, and they will be bottled in Stone Brewing Co.’s trademark triangle collaboration bottles.

According to the article, this should be ready in early February (always subject to change, especially when it comes to beers aged in barrels). A handful of brew day photos were posted on Flickr.

The label isn’t yet available and there are currently no further updates to report.