Collin Street Bakery and Shiner Beer partner up for a limited porter.
By Guy Chapman – Navarro County Gazette
UPDATE: 10/27 – Additional details have been added, courtesy of Hayden Crawford, Vice-President Director of Collin Street Bakery.
For the last 125 years, Collin Street Bakery’s DeLuxe fruitcake has been the signature confectionery headliner of the bakery’s menu. For those who can’t get enough of that candied flavor, and have quite possibly ever wanted to drink up one of those fruitcakes (Editor’s note: We’re not judging), that day has come.
Meet the latest flavor of the Shiner Brewer’s Pride family: The Collin Street Bakery Fruitcake Pastry Porter, a unique collaboration between Shiner Beer and Collin Street Bakery.
Shiner Beer and Collin Street Bakery team up for a limited time beer. – Courtesy photo
The limited edition beer is part of Collin Street Bakery’s 125-year anniversary celebration, the business having opened its doors in 1896. A brief history of the bakery can be found here. Released just in time for the holidays, this new beverage is inspired by the award-winning, world-famous, record-holding DeLuxe Fruitcake.
According to Crawford, the bakery has previously been exploring options of blending the flavors of its fruitcake with various types of liquors, but it was Shiner who approached them with an interest to collaborate. The bakery’s response was enthusiastic.
In a statement direct from the bakery’s website, Thomas McNutt, Executive Vice President at Collin Street Bakery said: “Shiner reached out to us and said, ‘Hey, we’d like to do a fun co-branding venture with the Collin Street Bakery,” recalled McNutt. “And I responded by saying, ‘Are you sure you’ve got the right number?’ I was so flattered that they’d think of us.”
“Initially, Shiner suggested the idea of a pairing beer –a beer that would pair nicely with fruitcake,’ McNutt added. “But then, our Chief Marketing Officer, James Manning, said ‘Hey, why don’t we make a beer that resembles our fruitcake.’ That idea stuck.”
Known for its Shiner Bock beer, the Texas brewery (residing in its hometown of Shiner), still follows the original Spoetzl family recipe it has used since 1909. When creating specialty beers, Shiner has a team of professionals that work on distinguishing flavor notes.
As the Collin Street Bakery fruitcake is a signature piece of the Corsicana business, its ingredients of the signature recipe are kept close to home. To ensure flavor accuracy, the bakery sent out a few fruitcakes, and the brewery based the beer’s taste on the qualities of the product’s pecans and cherries.
The flavor was described by Chris Woolsey, Shipping Manager at Collin Street Bakery, as “A pretty stout beer, full of rich flavors.” The pastry-inspired porter will embody a flavor “brewed with sweet Texas pecans and rich cherries, barrel-aged to perfection.”
Crawford added the beer’s taste has a “good, clean, crisp finish,” where enthusiasts would note essences of the pastry’s signature nuttiness and cherries.
Local stores such as grocery store chains will start carrying the limited run beer for only a short time through the holiday season, and the beer will definitely be found in the Texas market. The Gazette will be following up on its release, depending on distributor availability.
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