Black Is Beautiful collaboration

How great it would be to see a bunch of West Virginia breweries participate in the Black Is Beautiful collaboration beer project. Originated by Weathered Souls Brewing Company in San Antonio, the Black Is Beautiful collaboration is an effort to raise awareness for the injustices people of color face daily and raise funds for police brutality reform and legal defenses for those who have been wronged.

Weathered Souls Brewing provides the recipe for a base stout and then each participating brewery will put its own spin on the beer. Much like this spring’s All Together beer led by Other Half Brewing, Black Is Beautiful will have common label logo art used by all those who brew and package the beer.

The project grew from Marcus Baskerville’s passion for beer and for his community. Baskerville is Weathered Souls Brewing’s co-founder and head brewer. Reacting to the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, he wanted to contribute something meaningful and constructive. That’s when the idea for the Black is Beautiful beer was born.

Breweries that join the collaboration agree to:

• Donate 100% of the beer’s proceeds to local foundations that support police brutality reform and legal defenses for those who have been wronged.
• Choose their own entity to donate to local organizations that support equality and inclusion.
• Commit to the long-term work of equality.

In order to join the collaboration, breweries are asked to register at this website.

Brewers adapt base recipe

Weathered Souls says their base stout recipe is only a guideline, and brewers should feel free to adjust as needed based for their system needs. It’s expected that brewers will be quite creative in brewing their own versions, such as in adding various adjuncts and flavorings to this stout.

Hundreds of breweries have already signed up for the effort. Some of the bigger-name craft breweries that signed on early include Jester King, Other Half, J. Wakefield Brewing, and Tripping Animals.

A homebrew recipe version is also available for making a 5.5 gallon batch. (Get the recipe PDF here.)

Weathered Souls is one solid brewery

I met the co-founder/head brewer of Weathered Souls Brewing in Pittsburgh last summer at Fresh Fest. Macus Baskerville was there pouring his beer and it was clear at that time that he had a talent for stouts. Two standouts included the Thai French Press Imperial Milk Stout (4.35 Untappd), brewed with added Thai coffee, cinnamon, and banana, and the Way of the Shaolin Imperial Stout (4.44 Untappd), brewed with added Mostra coffee and three types of coconut.

The brewery has developed a big reputation for its imperial stouts and has brewed dozens of variants over the past four years. Marcus Baskerville never imagined it would happen this way — he told me he only got into brewing out of a competition with his brother.

“My brother started home brewing first, and it was like one of those things, ‘All right, I can brew better beer than you.’ And it just went on from there.”

Weathered Souls now has a 20 barrel brewing system with 10 fermentors. They brew all the contemporary styles including lots of lighter-style lagers for the Texas heat. In addition to heavy adjunct stouts, their IPAs, both hazy and clear, have gotten great reviews.

Weathered Souls Brewing website

For social media, use the tagline #BlackIsBeautifulBeer