Pretentious Barrel beers support nonprofit
Pretentious Barrel House owner and brewmaster Joshua Martinez once considered a career as an environmentalist and is constantly on the lookout for ways to help clean up pollution and preserve nature.
Earlier this year, the nonprofit Helping Hops offered him such an opportunity through a partnership with Rural Action Inc., a nonprofit organization that, among other things, cleans up waterways in Appalachian Ohio.
“I’m a chemist by trade, and I was thinking about going into environmental toxicology as an undergrad,” Martinez said. “They (Rural Action) are doing a lot of environmental clean up.”
Pretentious, which is based on the East Side of Columbus, now offers two limited release beers with packaging that promotes Rural Action. Proceeds from sales of those beers go to the Appalachian organization.
Acid to Acid, Rust to Rust is a fruited wine-barrel-aged sour blonde. The title refers to Rural Action’s efforts to remove acid resulting from mine drainage from streams, according to a news release.
Terra Amar is a sweeter sherry-barrel-aged dark sour. The name means
“Earth Love” in Portuguese.
Pretentious Barrel House has a prior history with Helping Hops, which was founded by several central Ohioans. That organization raises money for charitable causes through events like beer festivals and helps brewers make their operations more environmentally sustainable.
“We would host events for them, back when there were still events,” Martinez said. “They would raffle off high end beer in exchange for people donating to a cause.”
Helping Hops just recently started facilitating partnerships between breweries and nonprofits involving limited release beers, co-founder Andrew Stroh said.
The project with Pretentious “is the first in Ohio, and certainly the first with a really specialized barrel aged beer,” Stroh said.
Terra Amar and Acid to Acid also represent an evolution for Pretentious. In the early days, the brewery experimented with adding single ingredients – other than basic ingredients like hops – to its concoctions, but as the beer producer evolved, Martinez said it branched out and starting mixing more ingredients into its beer.
For the two new beers, Martinez also wanted to offer customers some variety.
“It’s nice to have a darker beer and a lighter beer so people can pick what works for them, and no matter what they’re donating money to charity,” he said.
Patrons can order the limited release brews through Pretentious Barrel House’s website. Martinez expects to raise around $2,000 for Rural Action.
But more important than the money is the publicity, said Bob Benz, who holds the role of storyteller for Rural Action.
“The profit isn’t the main thing,” Benz said. “Every bottle of beer being sold has a description of what we are doing.” pcooley@dispatch.com @Patrickacooley