History inspires Boneyard Beer and 3 Floyd's Gumball IPA
Boneyard Beer has a history with Indiana's 3 Floyd's Brewing and a connection that runs deep. Boneyard founder Tony Lawrence worked at 3 Floyd's and acquired their original brewhouse to start Boneyard in 2009. Back in the day, Lawrence's favorite beer was Gumballhead Pale Ale and as of late he had a craving for it. By 2015 both Boneyard and 3 Floyd's were on to bigger and better brewhouses, but Lawrence thought he could obtain the original Gumballhead recipe and fire up the old brewhouse at Boneyard to make a close replica of the beer he remembers so fondly. Nick Floyd was happy to oblige, and sent over a brew log from the earlier days.
"At the end of the day that's a collab, and if we're gonna do a collab let's step it up in scope by volume or we need to brew it at brewhouse two or not on the original brew house," says Lawrence. "At that point the old brew kit and old Gumballhead brew log (recipe) no longer applied. So what to do?"
Rather than make a clone of Gumballhead Pale Ale "for the fuck of it" says Lawrence, the Boneyard crew decided to use the original recipe but scale it up to become an IPA with 3.5lbs of hops per barrel . The result is a one-off but larger release of Gumball IPA on draft and in 12oz cans being released at the brewery in Bend, Oregon today. Limited amounts of special Gumball IPA merch, draft and cans will be available at the brewery and hitting the Portland-area next week.
"So basically its Gumball 2.0 as an IPA brewed here with the 3F team," says Lawrence. It's just the first of more planned collaborations and 12oz can releases, the first large batches of canned beers that Boneyard has ever produced. Boneyard will be celebrating their 10th anniversary this April and is planning a few collabs with Ecliptic Brewing and Bell's Brewery, more details on those soon.
Gumball IPA
6.9% ABV, 60 IBU