Reviewing the Latest CBANS Collaboration Beer

Although I am still working my regular work week, my quarantined weekends mean I can catch up on some reading. One of my best friends gifted me a book based on a study done on step families for Christmas. If you don’t already know me personally, I am starting a non-traditional family with my lovely girlfriend. We are having a baby girl this July and already combined our households of my dog and her sweet six-year old boy. From what I have learned in the beginning chapters of the book, the first few years are the most turbulent when it comes to finding your new stepfamily’s identity. The beer I paired with my afternoon read has something in common with that.

Every April for the past four years the Craft Brewers Association of Nova Scotia, CBANS for short release a beer. If I am being 100% transparent, the first three CBANS collaborations have missed the mark. Either trying too hard to create a Nova Scotia style or making a completely confusing beer like the brown pale ale of last year. Formerly known as Made Here by Us, Together We Brew is the newest iteration of the mass-collaboration brew.

Breweries from all over the province got together at Breton Brewing in Cape Breton and brewed a brand new beer. Together We Brew is classified as a Nova Scotia Common, a spin on the California Common that originated on the American west coast during the Gold Rush era.

This years beer is a lager aimed to be crisp, clean and refreshing using Nova Scotian grown malts via Horton Ridge and New Brunswick grown Chinook Hops.

This beer comes in a white can with beautiful navy blue artwork featuring lots of hops and Nova Scotia’s own Rampant Lion done by Dose Media. It pours a medium gold, and is opaque. The Common is certainly malt-forward, with notes of white bread, water cracker and light caramel. The Chinook hops offer a hint of pine, spice and floral aromas as well as just enough bitterness to ensure the beer still finishes relatively dry on your palate. Overall it’s an easy drinking lager using local ingredients well. Unlike the last few years there is not any huge stylistic flaws and they are not trying to invent a revolutionary Nova Scotian style, and I will drink to that!