Hello again from beyond the pale, I only say that because updates should be much more than biyearly at this point. Definitely hit a burnout stage during the past couple of months. Between the pandemic, social media, wedding planning, and work struggles stress has been an all time high recently and I just needed to…disconnect for a while. It definitely helped, though… I’m feeling much more refreshed and succinctly motivated.
With that said the first two thirds of this year have been challenging from a brewing perspective. Between what we feel is a plateau in what our current rig can do for us and feeling almost like we are just “treading water” at this point I sort of feel that the passion somewhat slipped over the past few months. We were having issues such as; a leaky keg, oxidation in our hoppy beers, overly mineralized light lagers, and the worst of all a beer fridge that is overflowing.
We sat down and had a long conversation bringing these issues to light and addressing the obvious elephant in the room. We need better equipment. This isn’t a particularly stunning revelation by any means, we’ve spoke in length about this several times. I think the overall hesitancy to do so was because of complacency and maybe a hint of anxiety? Either way there was a sort of nervous energy radiating from us whenever we discussed this. We’ve since conquered those demons and set out a pretty direct plan of action in the coming months. Equipment is obviously first, but we should be taking on some DIY stuff for fermentation space as well a bigger keg set up. I mean after all, 2 kegs are nice, but 4 would be nicer.
We have a few announcements that we have been sitting on for some time as well. We wanted to be sure the product we were putting out was worthy of being sent out to all of our supporters. We appreciate you guys so much; it’s humbling to always hear how excited you are to try our beer and how you are all so willing to provide feedback whether it be positive or negative. I love the enthusiasm you allow us to speak to you with, even it means us nerding out for a bit and talking about you don’t understand. It really does mean a lot.
Anyhow, enough of the emotions, let’s get to the meat of this.
We have 3 collaboration beers in the process of being brewed.
The first one is going to be Brave Noise Pale Ale. For those of you who are unaware, the industry is going through a bit of reckoning at the moment. Craft beer being a boys club was no secret... I’d even say it was incredibly obvious if you were on the outside looking in. With that being said, a courageous brewer at Notch brewing named Brienne Allan asked about women experiencing sexism in the industry. She was absolutely flooded with messages from women all over the world detailing their experience with not only sexism but also misogyny, abuse, violence, racism, and even rape. It is a disgusting view into what women have to deal with on a daily basis, not only in this industry, but in every industry. This collaboration was created to promote inclusivity in the industry. This will be available in the next month or so. As we normally do, we will be selling them and matching every dollar earned and donating to Infinite Ingredient.
The next one is going to be the Things We Don’t Say IPA. This collaboration was created to shift the views of mental health in this country. Odds are we all know someone suffering from mental health issues, there are even greater odds that we all know someone that hasn’t told anyone that they are suffering. We hope that in the future this will no longer be the case. This was named after Hope for the Day’s flagship mental health education curriculum. This is an effort among the craft beer community to encourage everyone to start the hard conversations regarding their mental health and bring attention to all of the resources we have at our disposal. Don’t ever feel like you are alone. All proceeds will be donated directly to Hope for the Day.
The 3rd in our list of collaborations is the STOP HATE collab. This is born out of the hate crimes and malice that were directed towards our Asian and Pacific Islander brothers and sisters. Misinformation runs rampant, especially on social media, and unfortunately this misinformation and vitriol almost always leads to violence. We saw an extreme spike in violence against this already marginalized community in the latter half of 2020 and of course into 2021. We will be brewing a black tea IPA and all proceeds will be donated to the Stop AAPI Hate affiliation.
Lastly we have a collaboration in the works with a friend that we grew up with. We stand with Palestine, the violence on display in reminiscent of genocide. Sadly a lot of this was swept under the rug because of how the US and Israel are allies. We always pride ourselves with taking firm stances on what we believe and this is no different. We will be brewing a Tamriyeh inspired Saison for this movement. It will be called simply #FREEPALESTINE and we will be donating all of the proceeds to a charity of his choosing. He also designed the label we will be using for this beer.
I do want to address what I know some people will say, that these movements are old and we missed the bus. I respectfully disagree, movements are not only relevant when they are making their rounds on social media. These are actual human beings and their lives are affected every single day, not just when the media needs a story or when you post a hashtag to feel like you are being an activist and helping. If you have strong feelings toward something, never stop pushing for what you believe in. Make people aware of it, make them so aware that they stick by your side and stand up with you. That is how real change happens.
I know this turned into somewhat of a heavy update, but again, we believe strongly in these matters and we will continue to use whatever platform we have to advocate these causes. Sale details for all of these beers will be provided once they are available. We may do a bundle deal if we are able to brew and package them quick enough.
Thank you for reading and for the support. Cheers.