PORTLAND, Maine — One of Maine's iconic breweries teamed up with a Black-owned brewery in Los Angeles to brew a collaboration beer with a mission to promote racial equity in business.
Crowns & Hops Brewing Company in Inglewood, California teamed up with Allagash to create "Cur-8," a blend of Allagash's "Curieux" bourbon-barrel aged tripel ale and Crowns & Hops "8 Trill Pils" Pilsner.
"At first blush, these two beers — like, these two beers can't go together," Rob Tod, owner of Allagash Brewing Company, said. "This collaboration made a ton of sense, and it's been a blast."
But why choose Curieux? It was the first Allagash beer Crowns & Hops co-owner Teo Hunter ever tried. He called it "one of the first craft beers that really blew my mind."
Hunter's "8 Trill Pills" is named for a statistic from a W.K. Kellogg Foundation report that the U.S. could increase the national GDP by $8 trillion by closing the racial equity gap by 2050.
"It changed the conversation around diversity, inclusion, and racial equity into an investment conversation versus a charity conversation," Hunter said.
Proceeds from sales of "Cur-8" will go to the "8 Trill initiative," a development fund that the owners of Crowns & Hops launched. That fund is dedicated to generating opportunities for Black-owned craft beer brands and demonstrating the impact of racial equity.
"This is part of the mission of welcoming as many people as possible to the craft beer experience and to the Allagash experience," Tod said.
Cur-8 is also the inaugural beer of the "8 Trillion Allies Collaboration Series," which partners established breweries, like Allagash, with Black-owned beer brands to better represent diversity in the craft brewing industry.
"It truly is a catalyst to a rising tide that lifts all ships, and that's why it matters," Hunter said. "It's truly a full circle moment and I think [it] really speaks to the opportunity."