Themed craft beer comes to state just in time for total solar eclipse
The total solar eclipse is coming to Arkansas.
And so is an eclipsethemed beer.
If you’re lucky, as the last total solar eclipse to visit North America until 2044 crosses over Arkansas and 12 other states on April 8, you could be one of the few sipping such a beer while sitting in the dark for roughly four minutes.
The New York City-based nonprofit the Simons Foundation and its Science, Society and Culture division, which works to “provide opportunities for people to forge a connection to science,” has joined forces with 13 independent craft breweries to bring their respective states a special run of beers inspired by the celestial event.
The program all started on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington.
That’s where John Tracey, program director of the Science, Society and Culture division, was inspired to combine beer and science.
“We had just passed a brewery and we just got into a conversation about how craft breweries have just exploded in popularity over the last 10 to 15 years,” Tracey said. “Beyond serving great beer or what have you, they’ve become community hubs.”
In the spirit of raising awareness of the total solar eclipse — which Arkansas hasn’t experienced since 1918 — and “meeting people where they are and being responsive to people’s interests,” Tracey asked “why not do something in a place like a craft brewery?”
So where do you start? On paper, the worlds of scientifically minded nonprofits and craft breweries don’t have an overlapping vinn diagram.
The foundation started doing its research into the areas where they were already partnering with organizations to help promote the eclipse.
That includes Little Rock, where the Simons Foundation has awarded a $10,000 grant to SoMa 501 and is also collaborating with the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub.
“Breweries don’t know who we are, right?” Tracey said. “A lot of it was we had to literally show up to these places.”
The very first business that signed onto the project was Lost 40 in Little Rock, the popular brewery that has been in operation since 2014.
True to what Tracey said, he just showed up one day at the brewery, located at 501 Byrd St., in the late summer to early fall last year.
“They kind of just dropped in basically last year and told us about this initiative that that they were creating and asked us to be a part of it,” recalled Lost 40 brand manager Cassie Millington. “It was in the very beginning of their planning stages, so they were not sure about if anyone would want to jump on board.”
But Lost 40 believed it was a “huge honor to be asked” to be involved and “immediately said yes” to the people from the foundation.
“Apparently that was a help to them recruiting more breweries,” Millington said. “Because I told people that we were on board and they were like, ‘Oh, cool. Well, Lost 40 is on board, let’s do it.’”
Among the final roll call of 12 breweries joining Lost 40 in its eclipse beer endeavour — including four in Texas — are Sun King Brewery (Indianapolis), Zilker Brewing Company (Austin, Texas), Resurgence Brewing (Buffalo, N.Y.), Coös Brewing Company (Colebrook, N.H.) and the aptly named Celestial Beerworks in Dallas.
In November, Millington and Lost 40’s innovation lead, Jerry Gorman, flew to New York City to meet with all the other breweries to brainstorm about the project.
While the cans across all 13 breweries will have “unifying” designs — including a timestamp of when each city will experience the eclipse’s totality, with Little Rock’s being 1:52 p.m — each will be making its own unique beer and subtitle to commemorate the eclipse.
For Lost 40, which will launch its beer on March 12, the concoction will be called “Ar’ Clipse of the Heart.”
The beer itself will be a “nod” on Lost 40’s flagship “Love Honey Bock” brand.
“We brewed a Helles Bock,” Millington said. “So we’re kind of in the middle of the path of totality. If you look where the path (of the eclipse) is in the United States, Arkansas, is kind of right in the middle. Helles Bock is kind of right in the middle of the lager-style range.”
Millington described the beer as being a medium amber color with “a pretty moderate” ABV (alcohol by volume) of 6.3% that has “a really balanced body.
“So it’s kind of just right in the middle of color, flavor, alcohol content and that was kind of what we’re trying to achieve, while still it being a nod to our flagship logger.”
While “Love Honey Bock” is darker and sweeter, “Ar’ Clipse of the Heart” is not sweet.
“This initiative is really focused on education and spreading awareness about the eclipse and science,” Millington said. “The tie-in of brewing science with the science the Simons Foundation does, we wanted to create something that’s really approachable for people and something that is easy drinking that everyone can like and enjoy.”
The beer itself is still fermenting and takes about six weeks to brew.
It will be first available to the public on March 12 at a launch party in Lost 40’s Tap Room bar from 4 to 9 p.m.
The event will feature a partnership with the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub, which will bring a letterpress to it.
“The Simons Foundation, they’re kind of their tagline for this initiative is ‘Greetings from the Path,” Millington said. “The Innovation Hub is … creating a design so people can print their own postcards and we’re going to provide postage here and we can mail them for people.”
Now you probably want to know how much of “Ar’ Clipse of the Heart” will be produced.
Not much.
Lost 40 is only going to make 800 cases of the lager.
One case has 24 cans in it, which adds up to 19,200 cans.
“It goes quickly between all the events that we’re going to do and just distributing this, because it will be available in six-packs,” Millington said. “So that will be sold out of our Tap Room. It’ll be sold at liquor stores and gas stations all over Arkansas.”