Vee Vee’s Centre Street Consortium Rolls Out a New Beer by Idle Hands

Artwork provided by Streetcar Wine & Beer

Vee Vee and Streetcar Wine and Beer are on the verge of releasing their second small-batch beer in their ongoing Centre Street Consortium project. The program, which pairs local artists and brewers together, made its debut in August with a hoppy farmhouse ale from Mystic Brewery and photographer Andrew M.K. Warren. Now Dan Valachovic of Vee Vee and Michael Dupuy of Streetcar have brought together Idle Hands’ Chris Tkach and Ben Howe and artist James Weinberg, on a dark sour ale they’re calling, Endling.

“We wanted to do a dark sour for a while and it seemed like such a good fit with the Centre Street Consortium project,” Tkach says. “We had done a berliner weisse in a similar fashion and we wanted to apply that knowledge to a different style of beer. We loved the berry-like character we were able to achieve with our berliner weisse and we wanted to see how that translated into a darker style. We used caramel and a little bit of chocolate malt, so it’s not heavily roasted like a stout. If you had something bigger like a stout, the acids would end up competing with each other. Ours isn’t like that all, it’s like a sour brown ale with nice caramel, toffee, and cocoa notes.”

The five-barrel batch brewed by Idle Hands will divided up between the parties and sold exclusively at their respective businesses. Starting next Tuesday, December 16, you’ll be able to find Endling on draft at Vee Vee and the Idle Hands taproom (where you’ll also be able to get growler fills). Tkach and Valachovic will be throwing a release party at Vee Vee that day with bar bites and snacks to complement the beer.

Then on December 18, Streetcar Wine and Beer will host a bottle release party and tasting. The lactobacillus-infected ale, with Weinberg’s striking dinosaur artwork, will be available in 750ml bottles that will retail for around $10. Dupuy anticipates having enough Endling to last through the holidays, but when it’s done, it’s done. So grab some while you can.

Streetcar Wine & Beer, 488 Centre St., Jamaica Plain; 617-522-6416 or streetcarwines.com

Vee Vee, 763 Centre St., Jamaica Plain; 617-522-0145 or veeveejp.com.