(Courtesy Bow & Arrow Brewing)

Over the years, open-source collaboration beers have become an important way to raise awareness and money for different causes. In 2018 Sierra Nevada Brewing introduced Resilience IPA as a way to raise money for wildfire victims.

Spurred on by death of George Floyd, Weathered Souls Brewing, a black-owned brewery in San Antonio, Texas, crafted a Black Is Beautiful Imperial Stout and shared its recipe with breweries that want to participate, asking that 100% of its proceeds be donated to local foundations that support police brutality reform and legal defenses for those who have been wronged.

Responding to a virtual tsunami  of reports from women in the brewing industry of workplace sexism and sexual assault, Brienne Allan, then of Notch Brewing, created Brave Noise Pale Ale, “a global beer collaboration to advocate for safe spaces and inclusive environments by requesting breweries be transparent with their policies and commit to long term work.”

And now, an Albuquerque-based brewery has launched a new campaign to support another overlooked minority (especially within the brewing community), Native Americans.

Created by founder Shyla Sheppard to help raise funds to benefit the needs of New Mexico’s indigenous Tiwa People, Bow & Arrow Brewing, the nation’s first and only female-owned Native American brewery, has introduced Native Land IPA, and inviting other breweries to brew their own version in support of the cause.

“Participants have until March to brew and sell their take on the beer, with all profits going to benefit Native American groups,” reports Food & Wine. “Additionally, the participating breweries are asked to acknowledge the ancestral land where their brewery is now located and recognize these tribes on the label.”

“This campaign demonstrates to people that we still exist,” Sheppard, who grew up on a reservation in North Dakota, told the Albuquerque Journal. “So far, 30 breweries from at least seven states have joined in. My goal is to have a brewery from every state.”

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 (All image credits: Bow a& Arrow Brewing)