Local breweries have proven to be pretty good at charity and giving back to the community. Many Milwaukee-area breweries participated in recent collaborations like Black Is Beautiful Stout, to raise awareness for injustice and All Together IPA, a beer whose sales benefited the service industry.
The latest example of brewery altruism comes courtesy of two members of Milwaukee’s brewing industry: Malteurop Malting Co. and Eagle Park Brewing.
The project is Things We Don’t Say IPA, a community-brewed craft beer designed to raise awareness around mental health. Malteurop approached Eagle Park to provide the recipe for the collaboration beer – a 6% ABV double-dry-hopped IPA that includes Azacca, El Dorado and Cashmere hops. Malteurop is offering collaborators a discount on the malts in the recipe, and Hollingbery & Sons Hops in Yakima, Washington, is doing the same with the hop varieties.
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Craft breweries are encouraged to sign up, brew their own batch with their own take on the recipe and release the beer in May, in conjunction with the Hope for the Day nonprofit’s “Shake The Stigma” awareness campaign for Mental Health Month 2021.
“Mental health is, unfortunately, one of the most overlooked aspects of any workplace,” said Eagle Park co-owner Jake Schinker. “But in the brewing industry, it is amplified by the passion people have for what they do overshadowing their personal needs. This, combined with the hardships our industry has faced over the past year, has deeply affected many, including myself, and sometimes just being able to talk about it without fear of judgment is enough to keep pushing through even the hardest of times. That’s what this project is really about. Saying ‘it’s okay to not be okay’ and getting through the things we face together.”
So far, seven Wisconsin breweries are participating in Things We Don’t Say, including locals Component Brewing and New Barons Brewing Cooperative.
Awareness is a big part of the collaboration, but breweries are also asked to donate a portion of the proceeds to support the suicide prevention and mental health education programming of Hope for the Day. The nonprofit’s goal is to empower the conversation on proactive suicide prevention and mental health education.
