The first-ever collaboration between the brewery and nearby Duck Donuts at 5635 Deerfield Blvd., is brewed with the flavors reminiscent of the popular Duck Donuts Sunrise doughnut, including lemon icing with raspberry drizzle. The beer is “slightly tart with a light berry sweetness,” according to Kerry Foley, owner of the local Duck Donuts.
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Foley said she approached the brewery’s partners Jennifer Meissner, Justin Neff and Daniel Schmerr with the idea, then brought them many of the shop’s signature doughnuts to sample.
“They loved our Sunrise Donut, and that’s what they decided to make their beer out of,” Foley said.
Duck Donuts will offer two doughnuts for $3 while supplies last during a release party for the new beer at the brewery from 9 a.m. to noon today.
The beer will be available on tap at the brewery and in four-packs of 16-ounce cans at select retail establishments, including Jungle Jim’s International Market in Fairfield and O’Bryan’s Wines & Spirits in Deerfield Twp. The Eastgate location of Jungle Jim’s will receive its allotment on Wednesday.
Foley said Duck Donuts has paired its products with beers at the store before, but the idea for the collaboration with Sonder Brewing was inspired by others offering similar combinations.
That includes Braxton Brewing with Graeter’s Ice Cream, March First Brewing with Holtman’s Donuts and Rivertown Brewing Company with 11 shops on the Butler County Donut Trail.
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Brewery co-owner Meissner said the new Sunrise Lemon brew isn’t the first flavored beer that Sonder has concocted. The business offers a Gold Series of beers, which are often brewed and then infused with fruit.
“A lot of times we use ingredients like fresh vanilla, fresh pineapple, fresh coconut,” Meissner said. “In this case it was fresh raspberries, fresh lemons and vanilla.”
She said the combination of beer and doughnuts can be “a feel-good” experience.
“If you like one brand and you like the other brand and you can bring them together, I think it’s a fun way to combine things,” she said. “Because craft breweries are local and locally owned and they have partnerships and they have relationships with people in their community, it just makes sense that they would also brew things that people in their community love.”
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