Oklahoma Brewers Collaborate For 'Wild Brew'

By Rick Wells, The News On 6

TULSA, OK – The new Wild Brew Beer is the product of a first ever collaboration by two Oklahoma brewers. It was created to promote the Wild Brew Festival, a beer and food tasting which benefits wildlife conservation.

Michael Lalli and Eric Marshall are the brewmasters for Choc Brewing Company Of Krebs and Marshall Brewing of Tulsa. They make competing beers.

But for the first time competing brewers in Oklahoma collaborated on one beer.

"We did a few weeks of tossing recipes ideas back and forth," Eric Marshall, Marshall Brewing Company, said.

Imagine Budweiser and Miller creating something perhaps called Mill-weiser. Well it wouldn't happen, but for small or craft-brewers, collaboration is easier.

"The craft brewing industry is kind of a big family," Marshall said.

So it was a simple task for a couple of the family members to get together and create a beer to promote a charity event coming up later this summer. The event, the 12th annual Wild Brew, benefits wildlife conservation.

The new beer was introduced at a launch party in Tulsa Monday night.

"The beer actually the collaboration ale, which we've got the bottle right here is available in stores as of yesterday," Marshall said.

It's called Wild Brew in honor of the event. It's a one-time thing and they didn't make a lot of it.

"We put out what like 260 cases, when it's gone it's gone," Marshall said.

So, it won't be around forever.

"I would drink the beer and collect the bottles, the empty bottle that's what I would do," Michael Lalli, Choc Brewing Company, said.

The Wild Brew beer, the product of the collaboration, is available at various locations throughout Oklahoma and Western Arkansas.

The Wild Brew event to benefit wildlife conservation is coming in late July. For ticket prices, check out the Wild Brew website.

5/3/2010 Related Story: ‘Wild Brew' Beer In A Bottle