Indianapolis Craft Beer Community Comes Together to Support Workers with a Benefit Beer

20 Mar Indianapolis Craft Beer Community Comes Together to Support Workers with a Benefit Beer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Indy Independent Relief Fund will use dedicated beer sales to provide for laid off employees

Indianapolis, March 20, 2020: Members of the Indianapolis craft beer industry have come together to form the Indy Independent Relief Fund (IIRF), a registered non-profit organization designed to generate and disperse funds and food to needy members of the food and alcohol service industry. Present conditions have led to the layoff of thousands of restaurant/bar and brewery employees that depend on both hourly wages/salary and tips.

Local companies have combined forces to produce a beer, from which 100% of the sales will be used by the IIRF to provide services and funds to industry workers. Three hundred cases of Social Distance, a pale, will be sold by the IIRF’s industry partners to Central Indiana bars and breweries that have licenses for “to go” sales, and those businesses will then sell six packs of the beer by carryout or delivery in order to raise money for their business and their own employees.

The beer servers are one of the at risk industry groups. This new project is aimed at easing their burden right now and into the future. image credit: Centerpoint Brewing

The first run of Social Distance has been funded by donations by several breweries and beer related companies. Centerpoint Brewing in Indianapolis is providing the equipment on which to do the brewing and the labor, tank space, and energy for production. Sugar Creek Malt Co. of Lebanon is providing the grains for the beer, the hop farm Indy High Bines of Indianapolis donated the hops, and Sun King Brewing of Indianapolis gave the yeast for fermentation. Daredevil Brewing of Speedway is contributing cans and Monon Beverage Brokers the labels, while Indiana On Tap is donating graphic design and marketing services.

Interested parties wishing to purchase cases of Social Distance should contact IIRF via Sean Webster at sean@mononbeverage.com or 317-340-0227, or Centerpoint Brewing at sales@centerpointbrewing.com. The first run of Social Distance will be complete and ready for distribution two weeks from the brew date of March 20, 2020 and the design is to have all cases presold by that time. Cases will have a suggested resale of $10/6-pack ($40/case). This will provide individual businesses with profit (and tips) for their employees, while the IIRF will generate $9000 from this initial run.

The funds collected by IIRF from this100% donation beer will be used to purchase food stuffs for the immediate needs of industry worker that have been laid off. Foods to be distributed from the contributing breweries in their taprooms (Daredevil, Sun King, and Centerpoint). Laid off workers should monitor social media for the dates and times of the distribution.

The recipe for the Social Distance beer will be made available to all Indiana breweries so they may produce the beer themselves for draft sales, the proceeds of which will provide some funds and tips for their employees, as well as an appreciated donation to the IIRF. Future production of Social Distance and a series of charity beers will not be based on 100% donation of ingredients and labor, but the plan is for these to provide an ongoing source of funds that IIRF will distribute to needy individuals within the industry for a variety of reasons beyond the present coronavirus pandemic and restaurant/bar shutdown.

About Indy Independent Relief Fund. The Indy Independent Relief Fund was registered as a nonprofit organization on March 19, 2020. Dedicated to “Serve those who serve us” entity to provide assistance for food and alcohol industry workers in both the short-and long-term. Sean Webster of Monon Beverage Brokers is the president of the Fund, and a board of directors is being set up at the present time. The goal of the fund is to continually generate funds through the production and sale of charity beers, which will then be donated to industry workers in need due to health, financial, or personal reasons.