GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The goal for Edwin Collazo, managing partner for City Built Brewing Company, wasn't a brewery specifically. He says the brewery is a vessel for his actual goal of being a light to the community.
"That was the mission from the beginning was to make an impact in our community," he said.
So when leaders from the brewery heard online about a nationwide effort to help communities of color through beer, they knew they had to jump on board.
"When we saw Black is Beautiful, we jumped on that initiative. We appreciate what it stands for and we had places where we wanted to give money already," Collazo said.
Weathered Souls Brewing in San Antonio had already created art and a recipe for the Black is Beautiful stout. Participating breweries must keep the art, but they're free to experiment with the recipe.
"Our version happens to be a blackberry sweet stout, which is 7 percent [alcohol by volume]. It's really good and chocolaty. There's cacao nibs and blackberry concentrate in it and then there's malt sugar, so that makes it a sweet stout."
Proceeds from City Built's version of Black is Beautiful will go to LifeQuest Ministries, which is a ministry that serves young Black men ages 16 to 23 and the Grand Rapids Urban League, which is "traditionally an African American organization that assists all people in achieving self-sufficiency and equality."
"Most of it will get sold out of our taproom," Collazo said, "but we distributed 30 cases to our distributor, M4, out of Detroit and they're giving 100 percent of the proceeds back to the non-profits that we chose, and then they found retailers that were willing to also give 100 percent of the proceeds to the organization of their choice that fits the same idea that Weathered Souls had."
Several other West Michigan breweries are a part of the Black is Beautiful effort, including Arvon Brewing Co. in Grand Rapids, Bell's Brewery in Kalamazoo, Founders Brewing Co. in Grand Rapids, Guardian Brewing Company in Saugatuck, Hopland Brewstillery in Holland, New Holland Brewing Co. in Holland, Our Brewing Company in Holland, Speciation Artisan Ales in Comstock Park, Tulip City Brewstillery in Holland, and Unruly Brewing Company in Muskegon.
Related Video:
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.