The craft brewing community is a tight one. Brewers collaborate on beers quite often and there is a lot of sharing among small brewers, even as they compete with each other in an ever more competitive beer market. Dogfish Head owner and brewmaster Sam Calagione and Leonardo Di Vincenzo of Italy’s Birra del Borgo have once again proven this to be the case.

Earlier on this blog I reported that Drei Fonteinen brewery, one of the very few remaining traditional lambic brewers left in Belgium had lost 100,000 bottles of lambic to an equipment malfunction, equalling a third of the brewery’s annual income. This is a very heavy blow to a very small brewery who’s beer can take as long as 5 years to get to market. They have plans to save some of the lost product by distilling it into some kind of lambic spirits (I have to try this when it comes out). But this would not be enough to make up for the whole loss.

Enter Calagione and Di Vincenzo. The two are collaborating on a charity beer of sorts with a large portion of the proceeds going to help Drei Fonteinen ride out the immediate situation. The beer, called Namaste,  is a traditional Belgian Wit Bier brewed with orange peel, coriander, and lemon grass. It will be brewed by each brewer and released in their home markets. The beer should be available at the Dogfish Head brewpub in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware in a few weeks.

Let’s raise a glass to the brotherhood (and sisterhood) of brewers. Cheers!

You can read more here.