Information for SR76 and Kilowatt’s beers updated Friday, July 20.
Once a year since 2013, hop growers Loftus Ranches and YCH Hops craft a unique blend of hops to support ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) research. Brewers who contact the Ales for ALS team receive the hop blend, free of charge, in exchange for donating $1 of each pint sold to the ALS Therapy Development Institute. Breweries have raised $1.75M since the program’s inception.
More than 150 domestic operators are participating this year, including nine in San Diego.
Carlsbad breweries Pizza Port and Burgeon Beer both crafted their beers in honor of Kelvin Fries, a San Diegan brewer who passed away last year from ALS. Pizza Port’s “Honey Nut Beerios” features plenty of wheat plus local grapefruit honey, and was tapped this morning. Burgeon’s “Kelvin Strong IPA” is kegged and will grace taps soon.
“Hop Hop Horray IPA” at Mission Brewery is a passion project for lead brewer Jeremy Castellano; a family member of his died from ALS several years ago. Castellano used a pilsner base malt to allow the hops to shine through. He expects the beer to be available for the next month or so.
Three local beers reference Lou Gehrig, the Yankees baseball player who lived with the disease until 1941. The “Bronx Bomber” hazy IPA at Pizza Port Ocean Beach clocks in at 6.8% ABV.
“I really enjoyed working with the hop blend this year,” said OB head brewer Matt Palmer. “There’s this amazing orange character you get, like fresh, Navel orange.”
At South Park Brewing, both of their Ales for ALS beers are named Tower of Strength, in remembrance of Gehrig’s famous 1939 speech (transcribed below). “Vol 1” is a clear, 6.9% West Coast IPA, and “Vol 2” is a 7.3% hazy IPA. Both were on tap at time of press.
Also available now are The Apothecary Ales for ALS IPA (6.5%) at Societe Brewing, the 2018 Stone Liberty Station ImperiALS IPA (8.5%), and Ales for ALS American Pale Ale at SR76 Beer Works in Valley Center (6.5%).
Kilowatt Brewing’s Deak the Streak Hazy Pale Ale (5.91%) — named after the father of a close friend of the brewery who recently passed away from ALS — will be released on August 9 at 5 p.m. at both the Ocean Beach and Kearny Mesa tasting rooms.
And if you happen to be in the Bay Area on Saturday, July 21, some of San Diego’s benefit beers will be available at the fifth annual Ales for ALS event at Faction Brewing in Alameda.
2018’s Ales for ALS hop blend: 40% Ekuanot, 15% HBC 438, 15% HBC 344, 10% Simcoe, 10% Loral, 5% HBC 630, and 5% HBC 520.
Lou Gehrig’s “Luckiest Man” Speech:
“Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.
“Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn’t consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I’m lucky. Who wouldn’t consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball’s greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I’m lucky.
“When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift – that’s something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies – that’s something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter – that’s something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body – it’s a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed – that’s the finest I know.
“So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for.”