We recently had a proposition from the Tate in London, asking if we would like to work and collaborate on their upcoming exhibition between Hilma AF Klint & Piet Mondrian. Of course, we jumped at the opportunity!
For this collaborative project, we have been paired with Mondrian and tasked with making a beer and label artwork that has been inspired by the artist. No mean feat!
We brewed this new collab beer with the help of the Tate Eats team, who came to visit us at the Brewery a few weeks ago. Hopped with Idaho 7, Galaxy, Mosaic and Nelson Sauvin, this 5.2% Pale Ale is incredibly juicy and dank. Our head brewer James Heffron describes it as "a matrix of latitudinal and longitudinal lines, positions and flavours. Drinking it will journey you through the visible and invisible territories of our collective hop, malt, water and yeast experiences. Join the dots, colour the gaps, dream the dreams, devour the world... Together."
To finish off the project, we asked Justin Robertson for a piece of art, inspired by Mondrian's work, that would be featured on the can. He picked one of his amazing paintings, THE FIRST NOTE, which also became the name of the beer.
Justin Robertson said: "Human senses can often be inadequate tools with which to capture the manifold mysteries of the reality we are all enmeshed in. I’m fascinated by what we might be missing. ‘The First Note’ translates in a visual form the hidden occult connections made by sound as it blossoms out into the world. Notes once created take on a life of their own. Sound may emerge from musical instruments, animal howls, bird song or the crack of stone but once born these notes make their own way in life to be interpreted and appreciated in a million different ways.
Both Piet Mondrian and Hilma Af Klint are huge influences on my work not only in their use of pattern and colour that is both simultaneously harmonious and revolutionary, but also in their theoretical exploration of the invisible. Their work is like a fantastical map of an alien landscape in a territory that borders our own but is somehow just out of reach."
Our new collab Pale Ale The First Note will be available Wednesday 12th April on the webshop, and we will be celebrating the draught launch on Thursday 27th April with a Tap Take Over at the Tate Modern Terrace Bar in London + with a Tate Modern Lates event the next day, Friday April 28th (free).
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Don't forget to listen to our latest Brewing Folk podcast which features Adam Robertson (Verdant), Andrew Downs (Tate) & Justin Robertson discussing what the project means to them and why collaborations like this are so important to us: