PA brewers are making a craft beer to honor veterans

by Harri Leigh • Published on May 16, 2019 • Last modified on June 6, 2019 • Comments

PBS39 News Reports

PA VETS MEMORIAL DAY BREW

2:22

Published:

Pa. brewers banding together for a special Memorial Day veterans IPA.

NORTH WALES, Pa. (WLUC) - This Memorial Day, Pennsylvanians who died serving in the U.S. military are being honored… with beer. Twenty-two breweries across Pennsylvania are joining together to release the first-ever PA Vets Memorial Day Brew.

“We have breweries from the Pittsburgh area all the way up to Philadelphia,” said Bob Heger, owner and head brewer at Ten7 Brewing Company in North Wales.

Four of the breweries are located in Montgomery County: Blueprint Brewing in Harleysville, Imprint Beer Company in Hatfield, and McAlister Brewing Company and Ten7 Brewing Company, both in North Wales. All the breweries involved are owned or operated by veterans, and each brewery will donate some or all of the profits from the Memorial Day Brew to the Pennsylvania Veterans Foundation. The charity helps support Pennsylvania veterans and their families.

“As far as I know it’s the first time this has been done in the United States,” Heger said.

Heger served four years in the Marines and 17 years in the Pennsylvania National Guard. He said the military and craft beer have something in common: they both bring people together.

“You have that esprit de corps in the military, and it kind of works that way too in the beer world, too, with breweries,” he said.

All 22 brewers met to brew the beer April 15 at Newfangled Brew Works in Harrisburg.
Newfangled Brew Works donated the use of its equipment for the project. The brew they made, called “Hurry Up and Wait,” is an 8.0% Double IPA brewed with 3060 pounds of malt, some of it processed in Pennsylvania malthouses. The blend of hops used was hand-selected by a group of veteran-owned breweries, and includes 2400 pounds of Deer Creek Malthouse(West Chester, PA) Keystone Pale, 440 pounds of Pale Oat Malt and 220 pounds Pale Triticale. The hops used for the beer is the Yakima Veteran blend; a group of hops that were hand-selected by a group of veteran-owned breweries from across the USA.

In addition to supporting veterans, the Memorial Day Brew helps promote local breweries, Heger added. And that, in turn, brings communities together.

“One of the reasons that people like breweries so much is you walk into one and it’s almost like that old corner bar,” Heger said. “When you walk in, everybody knows you.”

Ten7 opened last October with five beers on tap. They’re now usually serving 10 to 14 of their own beers. And starting Thursday, May 23, you can order a pour of the Vets Memorial Day Brew there. Ten7 and the other breweries will serve the beer all weekend, or until they run out.

The brewers said they were planning to continue their partnership for more special brews in the future.

“We’re already talking about a Veterans’ Day brew,” Heger said.