By Dylan Hochstedler

Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or new to the craft scene, chances are you’ve seen or heard a beer name and thought to yourself, ‘how the hell did the brewers name that one?’

The craft beer industry is sloshing with creativity, but no backstory and resulting monikers are quite as fun as the Collaboration Fest brew between Mockery Brewing and Baere Brewing Co.

There are dozens of beer festivals throughout Colorado each year, but Collaboration Fest is hard to match. From 3-7 p.m. on March 31, the Hyatt Regency Downtown Denver will host some of the industry’s craziest craft creators.

This marks the fourth year that Mockery and Baere have teamed up. Both opened in 2014. A year later, the owners began developing the quirky narrative for collab beers, involving far-away lands and an unnamed protagonist involved in a shipwreck on a deserted island. A barrel of infected beer was the only thing he had to survive on. The story provoked the brewers to brew a kettle sour IPA called Mocking Baered Episode 1: Lost on Lacto Island.

In year two, Lacto Island caught on fire, which resulted in a collab named Mocking Baered Episode 2: La Isla esta Quemando, which was a smoked pineapple saison.

Year three is when the protagonist escaped from the island inferno. He used an old rum barrel that washed up on shore, as the story continued, to float to safety. This caused Mocking Baered Episode 3: Stuck in Rumination, a rum barrel aged English IPA.

For year four, the character has floated to France in his rum barrel at sunrise, just in time for breakfast. The collaboration brew for 2018 is an imperial French toast stout, Mocking Baered Episode 4: Intercontinental When I Eat French Toast.

Without a doubt, the brewers have enjoyed the fictitious ride. “I think the beer comes from the story and the story comes from the beer,” said Kevin Greer, co-owner of Baere. “Last year we had some extra rum barrels and we were like, ‘well why don’t we do something fun with the rum barrels.’”

The name for Episode 4 goes a bit further than just the narrative and was meant to be a shout out to their yeast propagators, Inland Island Yeast Company. “We were trying to extend the story of the shipwreck guy and we talked about a way to incorporate the guys at Inland Island, the Yeastie Boys,” says Zach Rabun, owner and head brewer at Mockery. “Yeastie Boys turned into Beastie Boys, and that’s how we decided on the name.”

Most often, two breweries collaborate on a beer for Collab Fest, but this year there are a few fun twists. On deck is a collab between Longmont’s Wibby Brewing and various media around the Front Range.

Also, Little Machine Beer hopes to be part of the largest beer collaboration in history with its People’s Beer. Through the Collab Fest website, fans have the opportunity to vote for grains, flavor additions and the official name of the People’s Beer, which will be tapped at the festival. The ingredients have been voted on and determined. The People's Beer will be a rye saison with citra hops and tangerine zest. The public can still vote on the name of the beer and the link to vote is here.

Collab Fest brews are created by members of the Colorado Brewer’s Guild and at least one other entity from Colorado or other states.