Good brews from the beer industry
Beer is increasingly doing good for society and the work of The Good Beer Co for both The Big Jubilee Lunch and Thank You Day, set for June 5, will take things to another level through the nationwide availability of the specially brewed Thank Brew beer.
The company initially began working closely with Fergus Fitzgerald, production director at Adnams, to create a simple base recipe for an IPA that could be replicated by a coalition of brewers who support the project.
James Grugeon, founder of The Good Beer Co, says the idea is to sign-up a batch of breweries – the aim is to take it up to as many as 70 – who will tweak the original recipe and then sell the beer through local pubs on draught (in keg and cask format) as well as in bottles as a limited edition – “when it’s gone, it’s gone” – brew.
The beers will be ready in mid-May and the brewers already on board include St Austell, Camden Town and Theakston’s. In addition, Big Drop is producing a low alcohol 0.5% ABV beer for the project. The brewers will create their own artwork for the bottles while Good Beer Co has produced a pack for pubs including pump-clips and beer mats.
Grugeon is also working hard on signing-up pubs to take part in the initiative – with the aim of having 5,000 outlets involved. Punch is already onboard alongside other pub companies as well as 40 pubs in the St Austell estate and 10 operated by Adnams. Helping expand this base are a variety of organisations including CAMRA, the BBPA, SIBA, UK Hospitality and the BII.
Grugeon says that every penny of profit – after the brewers’ cost of production – will go to three chosen charities: the Together Coalition; Eden Project Communities; and Reset, which works with refugees including finding homes for Ukrainians with families in the UK.
There are high hopes that Thank Brew will help contribute significantly to these charities because of the high expectations of peoples’ participation in events across the Jubilee weekend. According to Grugeon, 15-20 million will take part in some event or other including Jubilee lunches and that 10 million will participate in Thank You Day on June 5.
The creation of the Thank Brew initiative follows other successful fundraising activities by The Good Beer Co including a brew created for the Great Get Together. This was initiated with Brendan Cox (husband of MP Jo Cox) and again involved Fitzgerald and Adnams.
Click here for more information on Thank Brew.
Glynn Davis, editor, Beer Insider