I am generally interested in everyone's thoughts/feelings/rants/etc. in collaboration beers with other breweries and businesses.

Are collaborations good for spreading your brand name? Can you collaborate too much, as in, does it become white noise eventually and dilute your brand's image? Has anyone costed the extra use of materials, time lost in the brewery, additional marketing required to prepare a successful collaboration? Does anyone have any tips about selecting the right businesses to collaborate with to maximize brand exposure?

I might be kind of fishing for downsides here, but I'd love to know everyone's thoughts, because lately I feel like Backwoods' brand has really been propelled by some effective collaborations - (shameless self-promotion, but whatever. I love this one we just did with Hot Lips Soda: http://brewpublic.com/beer-events/backwoods-brewing-teams-up-with-hotlips-soda-for-super-radler/ )

My brother is also looking to do a collaboration with one of his favorite rock/reggae/blues bands - basically they would come and brew with him and then release the beer at one of their concerts - which is something else to be excited about in my opinion. But of course, like I mentioned above, I have concerns about all of this reaching a critical mass.

Thanks in advance for any input! I'm sure other breweries have this on the brain as it seems to be all the rage these days.