Musician Byron Nash, Helltown Collaborate on BLQ METAL IPA

Pittsburgh musician Byron Nash and Helltown Brewing, an independent craft brewery with locations in Mt. Pleasant and Export, Pennsylvania reintroduce BLQ METAL – a West Coast-style IPA.

Byron and Helltown Brewing were originally paired together to create a collaboration for Fresh Fest 2018 – the nation’s first Black brew festival.

“We are participating in Fresh Fest again this year and there will be additional announcements to follow in the upcoming months, but we enjoyed last year’s BLQ METAL collaboration with Byron so much that we decided to revisit it independent of this year’s event,” stated VP of Sales & Marketing, Rob Johnson. Rob also added, “We really wanted to take everything up a notch and improve upon what was set in motion last year. We feel that the beer, marketing, and musical components of the collaboration have evolved well and we are having a ton of fun with it all.”

Brewer, Pat Harris, had the following to say about this year’s version of BLQ METAL. “BLQ Metal 2.0 is a west coast style IPA, 6.5% abv, golden-straw color, hopped with Simcoe, Centennial, Chinook and Galaxy. Bitterness is present but not aggressive, light bodied with a semi-dry finish. Aroma is citrus fruit with some piney/grass that carries through the flavor with a little earthiness in the finish . . . an old school IPA with the bitterness dialed back just a bit.”

Helltown Brewing’s Graphic Designer, Allison Pittler, responsible for the photography, video production, and content creation associated with BLQ METAL shared this about the experience. “We wanted the passion and creativity of Byron and the brewers at Helltown to be the emphasis of our marketing for BLQ METAL. It’s been so awesome to see the project take shape and have the opportunity to work with such talented individuals.”

Byron Nash added, “It’s my extreme pleasure to be able to collaborate with Helltown on the BLQ Metal series. This time around we went for a more straight-forward, Pale Ale that’s perfect for summertime drinking and gets you in touch with your inner rock star!”

This year’s rendition of BLQ METAL will debut at 4 p.m. on Friday, June 7 at the Federal Galley on Pittsburgh’s North Shore. A live performance by Byron Nash from 7-9 p.m. will accompany the debut that night.