Two Roads Brewing Company, Guinness Announce Groundbreaking Collaboration

STRATFORD, CT — Stratford-based Two Roads Brewing Company and Guinness have announced a ground-breaking collaboration for the two companies in which they will brew two small-batch beers that will be released in May.

Officials from both companies said they rarely collaborate on projects, in fact it is believed to be the first collaboration in Guinness history.

The first collaboration will be brewed at the Open Gate Brewery, St. James’s Gate in Dublin, Ireland, and will be served to visitors of the Open Gate Brewery taproom. The second beer will be brewed shortly afterward at Two Roads Brewing Co.’s brewery in Stratford and will be served to visitors at the brewery, according to a post on the Two Roads’ website.

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Two Roads CEO Brad Hittle said the idea for the collaboration came up when he was chatting with Tom Day, president of Diageo Beer Company USA which produces Guinness and is based on Norwalk, in the Two Roads tap room late last year.

“Our offices are 20 miles apart in our home state of Connecticut, so our paths have crossed a few times,” Hittle said, via the Two Roads website. “Several of the Guinness guys have been in, and our brewers are big fans of Guinness. It made perfect sense to do this.”

“Two Roads is the nearest independent brewery to my house,” Day said in a statement on the website. “And they brew fantastic, very high quality beers, as their recent GABF Gold Medal clearly demonstrates. I was in the brewery to try some of their new beers, and Brad kindly offered to show me around. We got to talking and the idea of a collaboration beer – which we believe is the first in Guinness history – seemed like an obvious one.”

Hittle said Two Roads “doesn’t collaborate often, and prefers efforts that both cement friendships and also provide shared learning. And it’s something of a privilege to be the first brewery to have collaborated with Guinness, a name synonymous with beer quality. We’re very excited to see how the beers turn out.”

Both beers will be released simultaneously on May 24 at launch events at the respective breweries.

Read more at the Two Roads Brewing Co. website here.

Image via Shutterstock

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