Kemet Coleman Extends Two Ships in the Night Into Belfast Through New Beer Collaboration
Kemet Coleman’s Two Ships in the Night is heading to Belfast.
Released in March, the project now moves into a new chapter through a live performance at Ulster Sports Club and a new collaboration beer brewed with Bullhouse Brew Co and Out of Office in Belfast.
On Thursday, May 14, Coleman will perform at Ulster Sports Club as part of A Tale of 2 Cities, a cross-city exchange connecting Kansas City artists with Belfast musicians. The night brings songs from Two Ships in the Night into a new room, with Belfast players helping carry the music live.
The beer release pushes that same world further.
Created with Bullhouse Brew Co and Out of Office, the Two Ships in the Night collaboration beer gives the project a physical form beyond the stage. It ties the music to a real place, a real brewery, and a real moment in Belfast instead of treating the album and the beer as separate lanes.
Tom Ray of Bullhouse Brew Co put it well:
“Two Ships In The Night is the result of an unexpected collaboration between three breweries, situated oceans apart but with much in common. Listening again to Woodie, Elliott and Kemet talk to Bryan Roth on their Good Beer Hunting podcast episode, it was clear how much common ground there was in our outlook and how many of our core values were shared. Fundamentally we’re all passionate about brewing the best beer that we can, and creating welcoming spaces that bring people together to enjoy it – whether that’s in Belfast or Kansas City.”
That is the clearest way to understand this release. It is not just a show announcement. It is an extension of the project itself.
Coleman is a Kansas City artist, writer, and founder whose work often connects music, neighborhood identity, and hospitality. With Two Ships in the Night, that connection now moves across the Atlantic through a live exchange and a beer release carrying the same title.
The collaboration also brings together three distinct worlds that make sense together: Coleman’s music, Vine Street Brewing’s cultural point of view, and Bullhouse’s strong place in Belfast’s independent beer scene. Out of Office, inside Ulster Sports Club, gives the release a home inside the same building where the performance will happen.
As Coleman puts it:
“Two Ships in the Night started as a music release, but I never saw it as something that had to live in one format. Taking it to Belfast through a live exchange and a beer release makes the project feel bigger, more physical, and more connected to the kind of world I’m trying to build.”
What started as a March music release is now showing up in a fuller way. A record becomes a live set. A live set becomes a beer. A beer becomes another way for the story to travel.
More soon from Belfast.
To learn more check out this extended quote from Tom Ray of Bullhouse Brewing:
“Many independent brewers here would say that they are heavily influenced by US craft beer - in the case of Bullhouse it was what gave William (Mayne, our MD) the spark of an idea to start a brewery in the first place. So when Kemet got in touch with us and told us his story it felt really exciting, and we wanted to capture that in the beer itself by bringing a taste of Kansas City to Belfast in time for his arrival.
Two Ships In The Night is inspired by Vine Street’s ‘East 71’ Cream Ale. It’s an accessible light beer at a sessionable 4.6% abv, and a deviation from the hazy hoppy ales that we’re usually brewing up, but every detail of the recipe was still carefully considered – emulating the KC water profile; sourcing a new hop variety called Lorien from Indie Hops, a modern descendent of the Sterling variety used at Vine Street; and pairing the finest German pilsner malt from Bestmaltz with flaked maize and rice to give that super-pale colour and clean flavour.
We’re really pleased with the beer, and grateful to Kemet for producing original artwork to make the cans stand out. Hopefully they get the KC seal of approval next week.
