MAKING A TACOMA BEER MORE TACOMA >>>

You know what's awesome? Making beer with wine must - the quite flavorful and useful "leftover" grape skin, seeds and stems from wine mashing - is what's awesome.

You know what's more awesome? If it was produced in Tacoma.

That's Wingman Brewers intention, pairing with Tacoma winery 21 Cellars to produce unique flavored beers distinct to Tacoma.

Two beers - White Betty, a Belgian-style tripel, and Black Widow, an abbey-style beer - will be released at the end of November, says Ken Thoburn, Wingman's head brewer. 

White Betty is a twist on Wingman's Miss-B-Havin, swapping out bitter orange oil for Sémillon white wine must. Fermented together, the result is a hit.

"It has a really cool flavor," says Katrina Lange, assistant winemaker at 21 Cellars. "It has great age-ability, which is right up 21 Cellars alley. There's a really fruity round quality to it."

The Black Widow uses the same technique, but with Tempranillo grape must, providing the dark beer with a "great red wine nose to it," says Thoburn.

Both beers ring in at 10 percent ABV.

Wingman tried mixing the two imbibing favorites last year when it aged it's beer in Pont 21 2007 Cabernet barrels, creating a inspiring and intoxicating (11.4 percent) brew.

"We felt like we had such a good product, we wanted to have something more complex," says Thoburn. "We are really happy it turned out so well, it was a fun experiment. We were very happy to again get the chance to work with 21 Cellars. We enjoy collaboration and it doesn't get any better than working with another local Tacoma business to create something together."

Weekly Volcano will keep you posted on when and where you can find these dynamic duo beers.