Even in Tough Times, Breweries Give Back
photo by Kevin Gibson
Charity brews and craft beer collaborations in the age of Covid-19
Wyoming’s Melvin Brewing, like so many breweries across the U.S., are feeling the effects of coronavirus. With bars and restaurants closed, or operating at limited capacity, plus the cancellation of most festivals and sporting events, there is a lot of beer not being consumed. Breweries have been forced to look for creative ways to keep moving forward until a time when the economy begins to rebound and it’s safe to gather. But breweries are also giving back, because everyone is feeling these effects.
A recent survey by the Brewers Association offered some startling revelations. The craft brewing organization, which promotes independent craft breweries in America, surveyed more than 900 member breweries, with 99% of them reporting the coronavirus shutdown has affected their business, and projections that many microbreweries will close. 95% project their year over year sales to be down for April, with an average falloff of nearly 60%. It prompted the Association to launch a Believe in Beer Relief Fund in hopes of keeping potentially thousands of craft breweries from shuttering permanently.
“The results show a sharp drop in craft category sales, massive furloughs or layoffs, and the high likelihood of large numbers of brewery closings without a swift end to social distance measures—which looks increasingly unlikely—or rapid government support for small brewers and hospitality more broadly,“ the Brewers Association stated.
Yet breweries continue to give back as best they can. Melvin Brewing teamed up with Iowa’s Toppling Goliath Brewery to release a limited edition beer called Vladimir Gluten, selling a limited number of 16-ounce cans, with the $11.99 price including an invitation to a virtual tasting and Q&A session with the brewers on May 1.
The beer is a rich, chocolaty, massive barrel-aged Russian Imperial Stout with cacao nibs and vanilla. A boozy 12% alcohol by volume gives the one-off collab a memorable warmth, to boot. Melvin is using a percentage of all its beer salesin April—not just from Vladimir Gluten—to support its front-of-house staff as well to benefit a local charity called Community Foundation of Jackson Hole, which funds a host of organizations in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
They aren’t the only ones. McCall Collective Brewing Co., a brand-new brewery in Allentown, Penn., was is donating all the proceeds from its very first beer—Collective Contributions, an American wheat ale—to local nonprofits. "We are a new brewery encouraging everyone to drink a new beer for a good cause," McCall founder and CEO Kaitlin McCall said in a news release.
A selfless gesture, to be sure, but they aren’t alone. Breweries all across America are stepping up.
Perhaps the best example is that some 500 U.S. breweries have joined in on the cause called All Together, led by Brooklyn-based Other Half Brewing. Other Half created a recipe which it is sharing, along with can artwork, for participating breweries to produce and sell, with proceeds going to help hospitality worker charities in the breweries’ respective communities.
“It's an effort to raise awareness and provide relief, even in the smallest way, to those who are struggling,” Other Half’s owners wrote in an invitation to breweries around the globe. “We are all in this together. In this industry, when one of us struggles, the rest of us pick them up. It's baked into who we are.”
All of us at Alcohol Professor urge all our beer lovers to support local breweries however they can by picking up their beers at grocery stores, purchasing online or stopping by breweries offering curbside sales and beer to go.