Local breweries join national Black Is Beautiful beer fundraiser
Broken Bat Brewing has something good brewing. So does The Fermentorium Brewery & Tasting Room. And Third Space and Vennture Brew. Also, 1840 Brewing.
These Milwaukee breweries will participate in a national initiative to brew a beer that would bring awareness to equality issues and raise funds to support police reform and legal defenses.
Black Is Beautiful, a lush Imperial stout, and the initiative named after it, was started by Marcus Baskerville, head brewer and founder of black-owned Weathered Souls Brewing in San Antonio.
“As much as we want this to be about raising money, the real issue is bringing education and information, which will bring forth change to a system that has fractured so many families and has been broken for decades,” Weathered Souls posted on its website.
Weathered Souls is sharing the recipe for the stout, which will have 10% ABV (alcohol by volume). The website recommends breweries make their own versions of the recipe.
Broken Bat, 135 E. Pittsburgh Ave., is planning two barrels of the beer to be sold for $8 a pint in the taproom, said co-founder Tim Pauly. He didn’t want to set a date for brewing the beer while he concentrated on getting Broken Bat’s taproom open for the first time in its new location.
The goal is to make $4,000 for the Milwaukee Freedom Fund.
Third Space, 1505 W. St. Paul Ave., planned to brew Black Is Beautiful on its pilot brewing system and will give all the proceeds to a local charity. Co-founder Andy Gehl said the brewery hadn’t yet selected a group to get the money (they were taking suggestions online) but have set the price of the beer at $20 for a four-pack.
The Fermentorium Brewery and Tasting Room, 7481 State Road 60, Cedarburg,
and Tank 8 Beer has not announced the charity yet. But they hope to release Black Is Beautiful in mid-July.
Kyle Vetter, co-founder of 1840, 342
E. Ward St., said they plan to brew Black Is Beautiful on the brewery’s pilot system.
“This is something we can get behind,” said Vetter. He called it a chance to join the voices bringing awareness to the issue of justice inequality.
“It’s an opportunity to use beer to do that, to let the beer talk,” he said.
To brand it as an 1840 brew, Vetter said, they’ll probably add cocoa nibs (signature move) when they brew sometime this month. He thinks it will be ready for sale in July. Vetter expects the beer will cost $20 for a four-pack, with $2 of every four-pack going to Milwaukee-based Teens Grow Greens.
Vennture, 5519 W. North Ave., will work with Pilcrow Coffee on its version of Black is Beautiful.
More than 300 breweries across the country have signed up to make Black Is Beautiful.
It’s part of a trend of craft breweries using what they sell to further a cause. To help rebuild communities lost in the California wildfires, breweries made a beer called Resilience and donated a portion to Camp Fire relief, which was started by Sierra Nevada Brewing. Some breweries, including Third Space and 1840, produced All Together IPA, using the same recipe and label on the beer. It was a worldwide effort, and a portion of the proceeds were used to support those in the hospitality business.
Also, these breweries are donating to related causes: Lakefront Brewery, 1872 N. Commerce, pledged $1,000 to NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund; Component Brewing, 2018 S. First St. will donate to BLOC — Black Leaders Organizing for Communities; City Light Brewing, 2200 W. Mount Vernon Ave., will give a portion of the proceeds from reopening the brewery June 8 to BLOC.