Rockville, Va.-based Midnight Brewery has been quietly toiling away in its brewery cooking up a new beer with the help of
Rockville, Va.-based Midnight Brewery has been quietly toiling away in its brewery cooking up a new beer with the help of Richmond’s Stone Brewing Co.

The two started bouncing ideas off each other about a month ago to bring together beers that their known for and fuse it into one fantastic beer, the Red Rye Chipotle IPA, dubbed the RVA Fiesta.

“We were trying to bring something we do and something they do to represent both of us,” said Midnight Brewing owner Trae Cairns. “They do a lot of IPAs and one of our best-selling beers is an Irish Red, I figured if we get a red IPA, and spiced it up a little bit with rye and chipotle, it would give it a nice south-western flair.”

Cairns said in addition to Chipotle peppers, they used a good amount of rye, Magnum hops for bitterness, and Vanguard hops.

The two breweries went back and forth tweaking the recipe for RVA Fiesta.

“With the rye we had to compensate a little bit…I wanted enough you could tell the rye was in there, but not enough to overpower it,” he said.

Cairns said the beer isn’t super hoppy, but it packs a ton of flavor.

“It’s got enough bitterness to give it some character, you get a little bit of rye spice right up front, you get the smokey sweetness from the chipotle,” he said. “The chiptole lingers for just a little bit, it’s not overwhelming.”

This isn’t the first collaboration for Midnight Brewing. Cairns said the brewery has partnered with Hardywood, Lickinghole Creek and Isley in the past to create brews.

RVA Fiesta will be released at Midnight Brewing on April 23. The Answer Brewpub will also possibly be doing something with the beer on April 25 according to Cairns.

Make sure to mark May 21 on your calendar as well which is Midnight’s four-year anniversary.