Rainbow Project 2015

Sometimes a disappointment can lead to something unexpectedly wonderful.

The beer Rainbow Project entered it's third year in 2015. Originally conceived by Ryan Witter of Siren Brewery, this year the entire project felt much more like an event than I'd previously remembered.  This year's niche was that the seven UK breweries involved would be making collaboration beers with selected American breweries.

Like many recent beer phenomenons, the excitement surrounding this event seemed to reach peak levels this year. Announcements of each beer were dropped like birth declarations. Each stage was given the fanfare treatment. But little of it excited me. Sour after sour after sour. Though some playfully called out my sour cynicism on Twitter , no matter what different styles you refer to them as, we ended up with 6 out of 7 of this year's Rainbow Project beers being sours.

I was to be attending the Rainbow Project's Northern launch at the Magic Rock Tap. Opening in June this year, this on-site brewery tap has already become a must visit, after as much launch anticipation as Dr Dre's Detox album. I'd been a couple of times and was impressed with the potential the space offered.

The build-up to the Rainbow Project launch however was a continual build-up of low expectancies and further disappointments. My initial ticket was purchased as I was caught in the early fervour and before the beers themselves were announced. As time went on I was feeling a little cantankerous.

Then there was the e-mail the day prior to the event that revealed some pre-launch information. Like many others that had bought tickets for the launch, I thought the £10+ was not only for entry but to include at least a taster of all of the Rainbow project beers. The night before revealed this to be 7 TOKENS and that third’s of the rainbow beers would range from 2-3 tokens. I don’t want to say I was deceived, but as I was certainly not the only one to be miffed by this penultimate evening announcement, I must have got the idea I’d be getting all the beers from somewhere.

 

Perhaps I should have read through the launch material a little more thoroughly to understand the scope of what was happening. I was prepared for an evening spent in the bar area of Magic Rock Tap, sat with good people and politely sampling each of the seven rainbow beers and probably hating them.

What I was greeted with, on a day the weather found it's glory, was a small but packed mini-festival that encased all that is right about such spaces. Magic Rock had turned all of its outside section into an ample seating area with food and beer coming at you from every side. I was welcomed with the words "Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA is here." I had no idea it was going to be like this.

I had to start with the 90 minute IPA (I've written about my love of Dogfish Head before, though somewhat tragically now re-reading it) but I was determined to try the Rainbow beers, despite the other delights on offer. Firstly out of curiosity, but secondly because it felt like that was what we were there for. I may not be much of a sour fan, but I know one's that are crafted well and in turn can find enjoyment in that. I wanted to turn that obstreperous Mark into a repentant one.

Rather unsurprisingly, I gave up on the Rainbow Project after four of the beers. The Magic Rock/Cigar City Red IPA Cigarro Roja Mágica felt like a lesser version of Rapture and Big Top. The Buxton/Arizona Wilderness Deep Rainbow Valley was certainly flavoursome but with a sour zestiness that was too much for me. The Hawkshead/Crooked Stave Key Lime Tau delivered none of the flavours I was searching for. The Beavertown/Dogfish Head Ajna... well it was sour, I know that much. I couldn't even tell you what colour this beer was supposed to be but it evoked nothing and wasn't enjoyable. At this point I realised I was wasting my tokens on beers that were all hips and no ass. I'm sure much fun was had in creating them, but I think back to the images of people forming large queues at Beavertown that were posted in order to buy a box of these beers, and think that their time and money would have been much better spent picking up 7 different untried beers from their local bottle shop.

People queueing for Rainbow Project beers at Beavertown brewery

Let that not take away from a special day at Magic Rock Tap. The rest of the beers consumed during the day were often incredible, especially those big rarities brought by the collaboration breweries. The atmosphere was that of the best UK beer festivals. There were many families here. There were many familiar faces. There were many new faces to befriend. There were many great beers. There was also some very good food on offer.

I don't want to disparage the Rainbow Project. This year's beers were obviously not to my taste, though if I spot the missing three - as I almost certainly will at Indy Man Beer Con as they're always there - I might give them a go for confirmation. The well packaged boxes of the entire set certainly made these beers look appealing and there will be those that enjoy them. I just think back to the more memorable - and now rebrewed - beers from previous years, such as Buxton/Omnipollo's Yellow Belly and can not imagine this year's beers making a reappearance or being as memorable.

I'm happy for more occassions like this one, though, at venues as good as this. I wrote a (so-far) unpublished post about the Magic Rock Tap, after my visit to their first Food & Drink festival in August, that finished by saying: With this event they've shown that the capabilities of the tap room have been thought through before the move, rather than a secondary thought whilst hunting for a brewery. The space inside and out makes the potential for such events to become frequent. Whilst the British weather will probably destroy the odd event, warm and dry days like this weekend can still favour us. 

Magic Rock Tap will indeed be on many’s lists of future beer pilgrimages. Whilst there may be the odd person looking for the next trend or odd beard looking to try and spout their Wikipedia-found hop knowledge, for those happy to drink a cask Rapture feet away from where it was brewed, this is a beer must. As time grows and expands this could be the best thing to happen to Huddersfield since the Grove. That is big indeed.  

Indeed.