There’s a new term in the brewing world: collab beer. Collab is short for collaboration and it’s used to describe a beer designed and produced by two breweries that have worked together to draw up a recipe and shared such basic materials as malt, hops and yeast.

There are several examples of collab beers made by British breweries but now the idea has spread its wings with brewers from more than one country getting together.

As a prime example, Thornbridge Brewery in Bakewell, Derbyshire, has joined forces with Budweiser Budvar in the Czech Republic to produce a lager called Czech Mates.

Thornbridge is one of the most successful independent British breweries. It produces some 30,000 barrels a year and its large taproom attracts beer lovers from far and wide. Its leading beer, Jaipur IPA, has won more than 100 awards world-wide.

Budweiser Budvar should on no account be confused with the American beer Budweiser, owned by AB InBev, the world’s biggest brewing group. Budvar is based in the Czech town of Ceské Budejovice, better known by its old German name of Budweis when the region was part of the Austrian empire.

Beers from Budweis were known as Budweisers just as beers from Pilsen were labelled Pilseners.

The American and Czech breweries have been locked in endless trademark disputes for many than a century.

Budvar is owned by the Czech government and it won’t privatise the brewery until it’s satisfied the Americans won’t buy it and snuff out the competition.

At a time when most lagers produced by global brewers such as AB InBev are made in just a few days, the hallmark of Budvar is the lengthy 90-day maturation in the ice-cold lager cellars beneath the brewery.

You can sample the beer as it ages at one, two and three months to see how it improves as a slow fermentation takes place. The end result is one of the true and genuine lager beers.

Czech Mates, 4.8 per cent, was designed by Rob Lovatt, Thornbridge head brewer, and Adam Broz, the Budvar brewmaster. The beer was brewed at Thornbridge using the finest English malting barley, Maris Otter, and the classic English hop, East Kent Golding.

The water for brewing in Bakewell is soft and similar to water in Ceské Budejovice, making it ideal for lager production.

Budvar provided the yeast culture, used from the late 19th century, and which adds a delicate hint of apple fruit to the finished beer.

Rob Lovatt and Adam Broz started the Czech Mates brew with what is called a “decoction mash”.

When Rob is making his ales, such as Jaipur, he will use an infusion mash, with malted grain heated with pure hot water in just one vessel, the mash tun. With a decoction mash, widely used in lager production, a third of the mash is pumped to a second vessel, heated to a higher temperature and then returned to the first vessel.

Rob says the method not only converts starch in the grain to fermentable sugar but brings out the full fresh bread and biscuit character of the malt.

The beer is lagered for 60 days and the finished beer, available on draught and in cans, has a honey malt and spicy hop aroma with a hint of apple.

Biscuit malt dominates the palate but is balanced by hops and gentle fruit. Hop bitterness grows in the finish but there are continuing notes of biscuit malt and light fruit.

Czech Mates is available from www.thornbridgebrewery.co.uk and will be on sale in most major retailers in the next few weeks.

Last week I was in Norwich for the annual City of Ale festivities. This year four brewers from the Norwich area joined forces with their opposite numbers in Leuven in Belgium to brew beer.

Leuven is known as Beer City and linking up with Norwich brought two great brewing cities close together.

Collab is catching on!