While the past three months have been a taxing time for the craft beer industry, one of the brightest aspects to emerge has been the consistent theme of breweries banding together for the greater good. As seen with Other Half Brewing’s All Together Beer, and more recently with Weather Soul’s Black is Beautiful Initiative, breweries have been harnessing their collective powers to unite behind great causes to fundraise for organizations in need.
As we first reported in April, breweries in the Centennial state have also teamed up on a similar collaborative fundraising effort with the Colorado Brewers Guild and the Left Hand Brewing Foundation, resulting in the Colorado Strong Fund.
The first initiative to come from the fund called for breweries across the state to join together in releasing their versions of the Colorado Strong Pale Ale. This collaborative benefit beer uses all Colorado ingredients aimed to raise money for the CBG in addition to healthcare, hospitality, service industry, and gig economy workers across Colorado.
The Left Hand Brewing Foundation has supplemented the cost with partner suppliers for all ingredients needed to brew Colorado Strong Pale Ale, and has provided all ingredients to participating breweries free of charge. In return, participating breweries are being asked to donate 20% of sales to the Colorado Strong Fund.
Photo Courtesy of Comrade Brewing
“One of the biggest goals of this campaign is to drive consumers to continue purchasing to-go and delivered beer directly from local breweries, which have been hit hard by the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic,” explained Shawnee Adelson, Executive Director of the Colorado Brewers Guild. “Each dollar that consumers spend at nearby independent breweries helps them keep their staff working, provide benefits, and keep the lights on.”
The beer’s recipe is a collaboration between Left Hand Brewing Foundation Treasurer and Great American Beer Fest award-winning homebrewer Mark Boelman along with Root Shoot Malting, and Colorado Hop Company. Additionally, Colorado Strong Pale Ale will be made possible through donated labels from Sticker Giant, beer design by Beer Murch, and additional underwriting by Ball Corporation and On Tap Credit Union. However, all participating breweries have been allowed to tweak the recipe to put their own unique touch on the beer. As such some breweries have released India Pale Lager editions, Kveik IPAs, and even a Double Strong Ale Blonde Barleywine from River North Brewery.
While some breweries are still in the process of determining release dates for their versions of the Colorado Strong Ale, we’ve rounded up all releases that we currently know are available. Also keep in mind now that most breweries have re-opened most of these listings will also be available on draft, but we’ve only listed to-go options.
On a separate but related note, today is also the release date for Golden Strong Ale, which brought together 10 Golden, CO-based breweries in a fundraiser for the Colorado Brewers Guild as well. Participating breweries include Over Yonder Brewing Company, Holidaily Brewing Company, New Terrain Brewing Company (who donated the canning materials), Ohm Brewing Company, Barrels & Bottles Brewery, AC Golden Brewing Company (who donated the local grain from Root Shoot Malting and locally grown hops), Cannonball Creek Brewing Company, Golden City Brewing (who was able to get can labels donated by Lightning Labels), Mountain Toad Brewing, and CODA Brewing Company, and also employed the help of Propagate Labs who supplied the yeast and Codi Manufacturing, also based in Golden, who helped donate the mobile canning for packaging.
This beer is a Golden Strong Ale, with 70% of proceeds going to support the Colorado Brewers Guild and 20% of proceeds going back to the city of Golden. The Golden Strong Ale is now available at all participating Golden breweries.
Without further ado, here’s where you can find the Colorado Strong releases throughout the state.
Cover Photo Courtesy of Woods Boss Brewing
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