With the reality of a 24/7 newsfeed, doom-scrolling, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, survivor guilt feels more real than ever before. One craft beer artist rallied some friends to use their creativity and marketing prowess to make another beer for a cause, and we want to help however we can!
(Make Peace Not War Collaboration Beer initial artwork – it alllways starts on paper, or at least it should.)
It’s 3am. I can’t sleep. It’s been like this a couple of days a week for a couple of weeks… What gives?
There are handful of things that I’m attributing it to – work, some personal adjustments in my schedule, my wife’s new job, and this war in Ukraine. No amount of journaling, meditation, or melatonin seems to be doing the trick. As I’m laying in bed, after about an hour of trying to hyperventilate myself back to sleep, I end up on my phone, and I come across this compelling gold and blue artwork in my feed. As a fellow artist, it stopped me dead in my tracks.
Having used Beer Chronicle for so many philanthropic and reliefefforts over the years, I’ve been trying to figure out how we could do it again. I really want to run a batch of 🖕 PUTIN glasses to add to our collection following Hurricane Harvey and Corona Virus, and then donate the profits to Doctors Without Borders, but I just haven’t made the time. Then I saw this beautiful art, and I said to myself, here’s something small I could do!
The Make Peace Not War Collaboration Beer Story Started as a Humble Piece of Art
Jen Borror of Hoot Design Studio’s guilt and creativity combined. Pencil met paper, and a little idea was born. She intended to just create a little piece peace of beauty to share a smile with her feed, but then the gears started turning.
“Maybe something pretty will make someone feel good that day…” Jen explained the moment that it turned from a simple piece of art into the kickoff of a collaboration. “What if some of the breweries I work with would be interested in label design with this art? I’d definitely donate the artwork. Being an expert – a professional – in the craft beer industry, who do I know that might be interested in this that could help raise funds kind of like the Black is Beautiful Collaboration?”
Jen reached out to Jackie DiBella-Curry of EGC Group & CBMA’s and Dennis & Sammie Guy of First Sip Brew Box & First Sip Studios and the idea gained momentum.
How Can I Get Involved?
As a reader, simply share this post with your favorite brewery. See if they’d be interested in lending a hand.
As craft beer industry worker, do the same thing! The big difference here is you may be showing it straight to your boss rather than sharing on social.
As a brewery owner, they’ve made it really simple. Sign up and agree to donate 10%, use the art, brew, and give. The biggest difference between Make Peace Not War is the minimum donation they’re asking from breweries (and themselves) is 10% of profits where Black is Beautiful donated 100% of profits.
This project is a collaboration of local businesses, breweries, and the craft beer community coming together with a common goal of spreading peace through beer and art. The label is focused on promoting positivity, connecting people through beer, and sending a message of hope. This is also a no recipe collaboration so brew what you enjoy brewing.
I’m making the time right now. This was all I needed to see to know that I should do what I do best. Get off the sidelines, get in the field, and help out however I can. Beer Chronicle could share about a collaboration, or we could run some merch and donate the profits. OR, we could avoid the tyranny of or and embrace the power of and… AND we could do both. Jim Collins FTW.
So here goes nothing… I’ve joked that we hope we never have to do another one of these F such and such glasses. I continue that joke/hope. We’ll run as many of these glasses as y’all pre-order, and we’ll donate all the profits. Heck, depending on how quickly First Sip’s packing their boxes, maybe our glass will end up in there too? If you’re wondering why we always choose Tekus for this type of glass, it’s because there’s something satisfying about the balance of fanciness and pettiness. They also work well as wine glasses and for cocktails. We don’t want to discriminate.
While I appreciate Jen trying to spread positivity – and clearly we’re here for that – I’m going to spread a little bit of pettiness. 🙂 I read the other day on my friend’s IG stories, “when others go low, I’m going to go medium ’cause God’s still workin’ on me.” I’ll take the high road another day, but until then, I’ll shout out others that are doing so like Jen and her team. Ima go medium.
I’ll also email them with one small idea, but I can’t guarantee they’ll take me up on it. Therefore, I’ll omit it from here until further notice, but stay posted for updates! Go pre-order a glass, share the Make Peace Not War Collaboration Beer story, and go high and medium with us. And. Not or. Finally, skip us all, and go straight to one of the sources and donate there. There are many, but Doctors Without Borders is at the top of my list.
In conclusion, my wife and I recently flew from Houston, TX to Charlotte, NC to see Hasan Minhaj’s stand up show The King’s Jester. While I don’t want to ruin it for you, if you follow him, you probably already know this story. He made a conscious effort to go after global dictators, but it’s not about the Twitter notifications. I wanna be (kinda) like Hasan when I grow up.
Beers to you, Houston.
Update – Friday March 18, 2022
We saw that Urban South HTX is doing a beer that’s not related to this collab, but it doesn’t have to be. There’s another way you can go help out.
Anthony's a Houston native, a Creative Strategist at https://ledgeloungers.com/, an adjunct instructor of Visual Communication at Lone Star College, and a UH Coog that loves good beer almost as much as he does his city. Anthony lives to help others and that's found a home helping some of the coolest breweries on earth with creative and marketing projects that can be seen on our Portfolio page. Fueled by hoppy lagers, sessionable IPAs, and gangster rap, he's ticked his way through H-Town, rocking the most unusual Nikes he can find. When he's not writing for us, he's with his family or very patiently rooting for the Rockets.
No Comments