Madisonville’s Bad Tom Smith Brewing has joined craft breweries across the nation in releasing a special Black Is Beautiful collaboration beer.
San Antonio, Texas’ Weathered Souls Brewing Co. launched the initiative earlier this year to foster inclusion and raise awareness of social and racial injustice through collaboration with other U.S. craft breweries.
The brewery shared their base imperial stout recipe and encouraged brewers across the country to give it their own unique spin. They also provided free Black Is Beautiful label artwork, with space for individual logos.
“I’m a Black business owner and someone who has experienced police abuse,” Weathered Souls founder and head brewer Marcus Baskerville told CityBeat‘s sister paper, the San Antonio Current. “This experience happened in my early 20s, but that stuff lingers with you. Interactions with law enforcement change after an experience like that.”
Baskerville felt starting with his business was the best way he could participate in the movement’s call for change.
“The brewing industry is pretty eclectic, with all kinds of different people in it,” he said. “Why wouldn’t this community be one to join together to support a message of equality and purpose to support the concept of general respect for everybody?”
Bad Tom is just the latest Cincinnati brewery to release their beer; others including Streetside, Northern Row, Rhinegeist, Listermann and Sam Adams also signed on to release their own.
Bad Tom’s iteration of the Black Is Beautiful roasted chocolate stout features African Queen hops and comes in at 69 IBUs, with a 6% ABV and 183 Calories. It’s available at the taproom.
Weathered Souls has asked participating breweries to donate 100% of the beer’s proceeds to local foundations that support equality and inclusion. Bad Tom says it is donating all the proceeds of its Black Is Beautiful brew to the Madisonville Education and Assistance Center (MEAC), which “strives to meet the needs as well as the desires of our community to ensure that all residents of Madisonville can not only survive, but also lead fulfilling and vibrant lives.”
See the full list of participating breweries and get more information at blackisbeautiful.beer. Bad Tom Smith Brewing is located at 5900 Madison Road, Madisonville, badtomsmithbrewing.com.
This article appears in The Meaning of Monuments.