With Bottled Blonde, our collaboration with alt-rock gods Momma, we sought to make a beer for warm summer evenings and sus decision-making. At 4.8%, it won’t immediately get anyone into trouble… but this quenching crusher may keep you reaching for another.

We constructed the lager from a mix of premium Weyermann grains – mostly their floor-malted Bohemian Pilsner Malt – and flaked corn, which lightens the grist while imparting a kiss of malt sweetness. It’s a pristine beverage – a fitting nod, in our mind, to bassist/soundsmith Aron Kobayashi Ritch’s polished production on Momma’s fourth LP.

But across that clean expanse, Welcome to My Blue Sky is a record that pops. The hooks are predictably gargantuan – this is a Momma album, after all – but unexpected flourishes populate every song. Drum machine. Cello and acoustic guitar. Synth and piano. An iconic “owowowow” or two. Naturally, we wanted Bottled Blonde to surprise as well. So, following kettle additions of Noble-leaning Adeena hops, we gave the pilsner a not-insignificant dry hop of Elani.

Commercially introduced in Momma’s fateful summer of 2022, Elani was discovered growing wild in Idaho’s St. Joe River Valley. Where did it come from? No one is quite sure. The varietal likely resulted from the open cross-pollination of hops planted and abandoned in the region a century ago. What we do know is that it imbues Bottled Blonde with bright, bold notes of guava, tangerine, white peach, and cantaloupe.