Destihl Craft Brewery in Normal has launched a partnership with the band Hanson through the release of their collaborative beer, Pink Moonlight.
Destihl is a beer hall and production company whose overall theme is deeply connected to music. With live music at the hall, and beverages inspired by songs/artists, Destihl is well acquainted with the relationship between music and beer.
“Our owner, Matt Potts met them [Hanson] at The Great American Beer Festival in Denver, and they started talking.” said Destihl sales director Bob Ryan. “Matt’s a drummer too, he’s been in a few bands over the years. [He] ended up sitting in and jamming with them a little bit, and they started talking about doing something bigger on the beer project and collaborating on beers.”
Hanson had already done a bit of beer production themselves through Hanson Brothers Beer, but with the help of Destihl, they were able to produce beers inspired by their previous creations.
MMMHop's Pale Ale was Hanson’s flagship beer. Originally made independently, Destihl was able to mass produce the beverage inspired by one of Hanson’s more popular songs, MMMBop.
Collaboratively, the team produced Pink Moonlight, inspired by the song Penny and Me; as the song’s composers, Hanson spearheaded the translation from music to beer.
“A lot of that was developed on Hanson’s side," Ryan said. “They wanted to sort of think about the songs themselves, picturing the song Penny and Me and the pink moonlight and ‘what kind of beer would that turn out to be,’ and it turned out to be a nice, hazy IPA [Indian Pale Ale] with a little bit of peach that sort of lends itself to the pink.”
And with that, Pink Moonlight was born. It had a soft release on June 15 at the Boulevardia Beer and Music Festival, where it shocked the team with its popularity.
“It’s been honestly bigger than we expected,” Ryan said. “We’ve been getting calls and emails from all over the country from people who would want it right now.”
While the future of this partnership has yet to be decided, Ryan is confident that there is no end in sight.
“I can see it evolving into different directions with different products,” Ryan said. “If one of the products, or another, or both remains very popular we can continue to develop on those and kind of riff on different recipes and different directions...”
Hanson will be going on tour in the fall. Both beers will be available at every city they play in, as well as the Hanson’s home state of Oklahoma and at Destihl locations in Normal.
