Grab your sunscreen and a comfy pair of shoes, it’s go-time for one of our favorite outdoor summer beer festivals. United in Beer returns to The Corral at Ex Novo Corrales this Saturday, with VIP hour kicking off at noon, followed by general admission at 1 p.m., and it all wraps up by 5 p.m.

We’ll get to the nitty gritty details of this festival, which are pretty unchanged from the last two years, but first we wanted to tackle the process of how these collaboration beers come together.

It all started a couple months ago as a draft was held which paired up the breweries at random, and then those pairings selected a specific beer style. Once the style was picked, it was off the table for the remaining breweries.

Since Ex Novo is the host and all, I caught up with two of their brewers, Kyle Fosbinder and Tevin Gray, to go over how things went from that point forward.

“We were paired with Brew Lab (101),” Fosbinder said. “I thought this was pretty easy. Tevin used to work for Brew Lab, too, so there was already a bit of a connection there. So when I reached out to Austin (Giorgetta), we got the kolsch category, we had just done a kolsch. I suggested cucumber. He suggested raspberry. We said that doesn’t sound that good.”

The recipe construction often tends to be a sticking point, though it did not end up really being one this time around.

“I think the hardest part with a lot of those (collaborations) is coming to terms, coming to some sort of conclusion some times,” Fosbinder said. “This is an opportunity to have a wild idea of something that maybe neither of us have ever done, but we want to make sure it’s something we can all agree on. It turned out well.

“From there, we ended up plugging our recipe and sent it to him. He was stoked about it. There were little to no changes about it. We were already hot on kolsch, so I’ve just got to scale it down and acquire some cucumber. After that, it was just seeing when it was convenient for him to show up, with enough time for the beer to finish up. He did and it was a really fun day.”

Gray, who was formerly the head brewer at Brew Lab before moving to Ex Novo, agreed that it ultimately went smoothly.

“We had a good brew day with them,” he said. “After that, we’ve been taking care of the fermentation side of it, obviously. We got it all transferred, carbonated, testing it out. We all actually quite dig it.”

Fosbinder made sure to credit Ex Novo founder Joel Gregory with his contribution to the process.

“We upped the cucumber, shout out to Joel for that,” Fosbinder said. “I figured cucumbers might come out a little bit more, but he said in years past they had done something similar. We just ended up buying more and made it happen. It’s very fresh, very light, easy drinking, good stuff. It smells like candy.”

It definitely helped both breweries that Ex Novo had just brewed Krispy’s Kolsch and was already beginning to set up a brew date for Honey, I Lav You, their lavender-infused kolsch.

“So we had a lot of (those ingredients) on hand,” Fosbinder said. “Weyerman Pilsner malt, so on a small brew you can use the more expensive malts, instead of having someone ask why you’re brewing with an imported malt on a 20-barrel batch. Kind of just kept it true with our base beer, Krispy, it’s slightly more wheat, we had Weyerman Pale Wheat. Hops for beers like that are fairly easy, I think we just ran with (Tettnang).”

Gray said they were able to harvest some of the yeast they had just used for Krispy’s and use that for this collaboration. Then they went and harvested the yeast, even after the cucumber infusion, and used it for Honey, I Lav You.

“The whole collab went extraordinarily smooth,” Fosbinder said. “It was cool hanging out with Austin. I had met him once before when he was at Rio Bravo. I had never met Scott (Salvas) before. He showed up for a little bit, we had some beers. It was a jolly old time.”

All the event details

With a little help from events coordinator Sarah Turner, we got the lowdown on the important details. First up, there are still tickets available online, so do not gamble on any being left at the door on Saturday. And, for anyone who complains about the cost, remember, part of the proceeds benefits the Somos Unidos Foundation.

The Crew also recommends you take a rideshare or find a designated driver. Yes, Corrales can be a long drive for some people, but the police there are very serious about road safety, and that parking lot at Ex Novo fills up fast.

Otherwise, the setup is largely the same as years past. The collaboration beers will be poured from stations along the outside of the brewery building on the west side of The Corral. There will be a fair amount of seating, though not all is covered, so again, sunscreen and a hat are your friends.

Some new features, per Turner, will be scattered about. Cheba Hutt will have a tent on site, while food trucks out front will be Steam Q (oh, those strawberry-glazed ribs) and Papa Cano’s (oh, that wood-fired pizza). There will also be a new pickle cart that’s owned by Bosque brewmaster John Bullard and his wife, because, well, it’s Bosque, of course one of their staff would own a pickle cart.

“We’re also trying to do a couple sixtels throughout the beer garden of our new hop water, called Novo Light, a coconut/grapefruit hop water with electrolytes,” Turner added.

Those, plus plenty of water stations, will help keep everyone safely hydrated. Another way to stay hydrated will be the new dunk tank that will debut this year.

“It’s going to be really, really warm that day, so I think it’s going to be really popular,” Turner said, and she mentioned that Gregory and Ex Novo’s HR director, Stevo Jeter, will be among those getting dunked.

There will also be cornhole and beer pong tournaments, so there are plenty of activities beyond just trying the beers. Oh, but they are the main attraction, and here is the final list of paired breweries and the style category they brewed.

• Nuckolls Brewing Co + Painted Lady Bed & Brew | Fruited Sour
• Nuckolls Brewing Co + Painted Lady Bed & Brew | Classic UK
• La Reforma Brewery + Second Street Brewing Co | European Lager
• Sidetrack Brewing Co + Icebox Brewing Co | West Coast IPA
• Flock of Moons Brewing + Tatted Bee Brewhouse | SMASH (Single Malt and Single Hop)
• Bathtub Row + Thirsty Eye Brewing | Experimental IPA
• Quarter Celtic Brewpub + Sunday Service Moto | Hoppy Lager
• Quarter Celtic Brewpub + Sunday Service Moto | Hazy IPA
• Ex Novo Brewing Co + Brew Lab 101 | Light Ale
• Ponderosa Brewing Co + Downshift Brewing | Classic North American
• Turtle Mountain Brewing Co + Santa Fe Brewing | Dark Lager
• Bosque Brewing Co + Rowley Farmhouse Ales | Red Beer

Twenty breweries and a dozen unique beers should keep everyone quite satiated. All attendees will receive a commemorative glass and a bag of tokens for their samples and one full pour. If you wish to purchase additional tokens, you can get those at the main bar inside The Corral, which will also have plenty of merchandise available (VIP ticket holders get discounts on said merch).

All of this should add up to a grand Saturday, and a bit of a farewell to this event. Oh, it is not ending in 2025, it will just see a bit of a refreshing shake-up.

“This is the last year we’re solely doing it, we’re partnering with the Brewers Guild next year and they’ll rotate who hosts it,” Turner said.

Well, that is pretty darn cool. The Guild will be present at this year’s event, if you wish to learn more directly from them, plus they will have merch available and plenty of news on their upcoming Cornhole Tournament, Guild Collab Day, and of course the IPA Challenge that starts in July.

If anyone has any additional questions about United in Beer, drop us a line on social media or send an email to nmdarksidebrewcrew@gmail.com. Anything that we cannot answer, we will forward to the Ex Novo staff.

A big thank you to Kyle, Tevin, and Sarah for the interview. See you all Saturday.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister