Wollongong band Tumbleweed has inspired a beer.
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Called Galactaphonic Tonic (named after the band’s second album) the pale ale is a collaboration with Geelong brewer and longtime fan Scott Hunt.
The owner of Valhalla Brewing said it all started when he got in touch with the band to get his hands on some T-shirts.
Drummer Steve O’Brien saw Hunt’s email address and looked him up.
From there O’Brien suggested a swap of T-shirts for beer – and one thing led to another.
“I’d been looking to do something a bit different,” Hunt said.
“The craft beer industry is very collaborative. A lot of breweries will do beers together but I wanted to look outside the industry to do collaborations and thought it would be great to do a collaboration with a band.”
READ MORE: Taking a tumble with iconic band Tumbleweed
While O’Brien is a fan of dark beers, they felt a pale ale might be more approachable for Tumbleweed fans.
Once the style was nailed down, Hunt said he still had to put a bit of thought into the recipe.
“Tumbleweed have that stoner rock reputation and their artwork’s a bit psychedelic and I wanted something that reflected that,” Hunt said.
“So I felt like the juicy pale ale style would work because it’s all about those floral and fruity hop characters.”
The aim is to have the beer stocked in bars when the band is playing – as well as a few of the live venues around Wollongong.
Hunt said it was unlikely to end up in Wollongong’s bottle shops but fans could order a few cans via the brewery’s distribution site lotusbeer.net