Brisbane breweries get together to help mental health charity
13 June 2020 at 8:00 am
A new beer is looking to raise money and kick start conversations about mental health
A group of independent Australian breweries have teamed up to launch Brisbane’s first not-for-profit collaboration beer.
Spearheaded by Archer Brewing, this beer – the BNE IPA (Bright New England IPA) – is being made with 22 other Brisbane breweries and 7 local companies to raise money for Gold Coast mental health education charity LIVIN.
With many people’s mental health suffering during the COVID-19 pandemic, Archer Brewing felt LIVIN was the perfect organisation to raise money for. The company also hopes the beer itself will help kick start conversations between mates around mental health.
Companies involved are donating their time, products and/or services for free, meaning every cent from the sale of the beer will go directly to LIVIN.
Hilltop Hops has supplied the hops, Cryer Malt supplied the Australian grown malt and Mauri Brew supplied the yeast.
When the beer is ready to be packaged, Orora will supply the cans, Ultra Labels supplies the labels, and Craft Punks Canning offers their canning line and services to can the beer.
Lucy Martin of Archer Brewing said their choice of charity partner was easy, because talking about mental health issues was key.
“LIVIN is all about that message, and right now with so much uncertainty and difficulty, everyone needs to hear that asking a friend how they’re doing and being honest could save lives,” Martin said.
“This beer is not only raising money to get that message out there, but can be the perfect icebreaker for that conversation.”
Stuart Martin from Archer Brewing added that while it had been a hard time for those in the beer industry, he wanted to find a way to help other people too.
“With our own industry struggling, I was really blown away by how many companies and people felt the same, and were so willing to help others,” Martin said.
“The brew day also gave us all a chance to catch up and have those kinds of conversations with each other too.”