Two Cornish breweries – one with a long-standing heritage and one famous for its punchy craft beers – have collaborated on a one-off cask ale.

Limited-edition Fuse was born the only way a new beer should be – over a pint on a brewery social, where St Austell Brewery’s Lee Walker and Penryn-based Verdant’s head of operations James Heffron came up with the idea. 

Sam Taylor, brew manager from Verdant joined Lee in St Austell Brewery’s small batch brewery earlier this month to bring Fuse to life. 

It’s been made with Verdant’s own yeast and three new experimental English hopping varieties.

The finished beer is packed with tropical fruit and citrus flavours. 

It has a savoury biscuity note to it with a thick and chewy mouth feel.

Lee Walker, who manages the Small Batch brewery at St Austell said: “It’s really exciting to collaborate with another Cornish brewery whose beers we regularly seek out. 

St Austell and Verdant produce very different beers in their day to day operations, so the idea of coming together to blend styles and flavour ideas has been a real pleasure.”

Fuse forms part of the brewery’s Cask Club series which sees a variety of experimental beers brewed in its small batch brewery, giving brewers the freedom to experiment. 

As a result, a programme of limited-edition beers in cask and bottles are available in select pubs, its visitor centre shops and online. 

Many of St Austell’s most popular beers, including its flagship Tribute pale ale, started out as small batch releases. Verdant’s Sam Taylor added: “St Austell Brewery is steeped in tradition and our brewery is the opposite of that. 

“Both breweries are coming at things from a different angle and that’s the true point of collaboration, different ideas from different places that coalesce to make one product that is great and brings something new to the table that neither one of us would have thought about doing. We’re lucky to have our own yeast strain and lucky that it lends itself to this style of hazy New England beer.”