Ballast Point, Kilowatt Brewing & Friends Team up to Brew Black is Beautiful Chicory Stout
Ballast Point, Kilowatt Brewing, Mujeres Beer House, San Diego Beer News and several of their friends in the San Diego craft beer community have joined forces to brew their version of the Black Is Beautiful collaboration brewing project organized by Weathered Souls Brewing. Their version is the Black is Beautiful Chicory Stout.
Background
The Black is Beautiful Project is a nationwide collaborative effort to raise awareness for the injustices people of color face daily, social justice, equity, and inclusion. Each participating brewery is asked to brew an imperial stout recipe developed by Weathered Souls, a black-owned brewery in Texas, and put their own spin on it, all under the same Black Is Beautiful label. To date, more than 1,000 breweries have committed to participating.
The Beer – Black is Beautiful Chicory Stout
The Black is Beautiful Chicory Stout is brewed with chocolate malt, roasted barley, dark caramel malts, oats, and lactose sugar. It is conditioned on chicory and Cafe Du Monde coffee sourced directly from the famous New Orleans coffee house. This medium-bodied stout has notes of bitter chocolate, caramel, and dark roasted coffee topping out at 7.2% abv.
“Our version of the recipe is a chicory coffee milk stout inspired by a beer we brewed with our pal Brandon Hernández a few years ago to help raise funds for his organization Beer to the Rescue. When brainstorming with the group on what we wanted to brew, we decided to use the recipe as a launching point and everyone involved in the collaboration made their own modifications and contributions to the final recipe.”
Rachel Fischer, Co-Founder and COO of Kilowatt
Partnering With Hear Us Here
Black is Beautiful participants were also asked to identify and partner with a local organization that is committed to the long-term work of equity and inclusion, donating a portion of the proceeds raised from sales of the beer to the organization.
“The purpose and message of Black is Beautiful is important to us both personally and as a company. When discussing ways we specifically could help bring more awareness in our local community, we decided the best path forward was to partner with a local grassroots organization embedded in the San Diego Black community with a firsthand, personal understanding of the issues local people of color face. When a friend introduced us to Hear Us Here their message instantly resonated with us.”
Steve Kozyk, Co-Founder and CEO of Kilowatt
Hear Us Here uses video and other media as a platform to amplify Black voices from a diverse range of individuals within the community including political figures, artists, activists, professionals, and faith leaders in the form of raw, unfiltered messages for everyone already listening and for those who need to begin.
The Release Details
Please show your support for members of the local black community and Black is Beautiful by joining the teams at Ballast Point and Kilowatt’s tasting rooms on Thursday, August 27th, and purchasing a pint of Black is Beautiful Chicory Coffee Milk Stout.
Ballast Point and Kilowatt will be donating 100% of the proceeds from the sales of Black is Beautiful on its release night and additional proceeds beyond from each of its locations to Hear Us Here.
About Ballast Point
What started in 1996 as a small group of homebrewers who simply wanted to make great beer evolved into the team of adventurers known today as Ballast Point. From bringing a hoppy twist to a porter or adding four types of malt to its amber ale, to creating the breakthrough gold-medal winning Sculpin IPA, the San Diego-based company is known for adding its touch and asking if there’s a better way. Now an internationally recognized leader in the craft brewing industry with 6 brewery locations in California and Chicago, the company makes over 50 styles of beer and is distributed in select markets across the US and internationally. For more information, visit www.ballastpoint.com and follow our journey on Instagram and Facebook.
About Kilowatt Brewing
Kilowatt Brewing is a small batch brewery located in the San Diego neighborhoods of Kearny Mesa, Ocean Beach, and Oceanside. Small batch brewing allows Kilowatt to continuously innovate and experiment with ingredients to produce unique styled, hand-crafted beverages including our 2019 GABF Bronze Medal winner OB Bubble Dubbel and 2018 GABF Bronze Medal winner Chocolate Macadamia Stout. Kilowatt Brewing’s taprooms feature creative lighting, interactive art, giant games, rotating artwork by local artists, along with a hidden tiki bar speakeasy and mind-bending infinity mirror rooms. Kilowatt Brewing is located at 7576 Clairemont Mesa Boulevard in the Kearny Mesa neighborhood, at 1875 Cable Street in Ocean Beach, and 406 Mission Avenue in Oceanside. Learn more about us at https://kilowatt.beer and on Instagram and Facebook.
About Mujeres Brew House
Mujeres Brew Club was founded in 2018 with the mission of exposing women of all walks of life to the rich flavors, history, and culture of craft beer. Open to one and all, this casual club accomplishes this through events featuring guest speakers from within and around the brewing industry. Soon, it will do so using beers produced in conjunction with club members and Border X Brewing at the Mujeres Brew House in San Diego’s Barrio Logan community.
About Hear Us Here
Hear Us Here is a channel for messages that need to be heard. Black voices. We’re a diverse collection of people who are taking action. Using the skills we’ve developed to build brands, we are amplifying Black voices through our Hear Us Here video series, where community members and leaders speak about topics that are important to them. We are sharing our stories in an unfiltered and organic way. Let’s all listen. Hear us here: https://hearushere.org/
About San Diego Beer News
The San Diego Beer News website is a one-stop resource for everything happening at the county’s 150-plus breweries. The site was founded by native San Diegan Brandon Hernández, an award-winning journalist who has covered the local brewing industry for 13 years and written a pair of guides to the county’s breweries. His work has been featured in dozens of national and local magazines. For more on San Diego Beer News, visit the website – http://sandiegobeer.news – and follow on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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