A Valley restaurant group incentivizes charitable giving the old-fashioned way: with good beer.
Valley gastropub The Vig has always fancied itself a “neighborhood tavern,” so as the local chain expands into more neighborhoods – five and counting – parent company Genuine Concepts started seeking new ways to give back, as it were. One of its solutions: Community Handle, the beer-centric brainchild of operations director Cesar Cramton. The notion is simplicity itself: donate $2 from every sale of a designated monthly draft beer pint to a paired charity. Unsurprisingly, Cramton found an enthusiastic brewing community willing to partner on the idea.
Other Charitable Chugs
Huss Brewing Co. Fire Station 2 Ale
Profits from this red ale, brewed in 2018, were donated to United Phoenix Firefighters Charities.
Black is Beautiful
Benefiting NAACP’s Legal Defense and Education Fund, this mass collaboration brought together 863 breweries across 13 countries, including Sedona Beer Co. and Dark Sky Brewing Co. in Flagstaff.
Four Peaks The Joy Bus Rad IPA
Crisp and refreshing, this session IPA from the Tempe brewing giant benefits The Joy Bus, an organization that delivers nutritious meals to cancer patients.
The Vig
Five Valley locations, thevig.us
The Vig poured The Grand Canyon Brewing + Distillery’s crushable Prickly Pear Wheat Ale in August, bringing the program’s total contributions to $178,340 since 2018. The GC pairing benefited breast cancer charity Tri 4 the Cure AZ.
Future charity-beer pairings include Huss Brewing Co./Muscular Dystrophy Association (September); Mother Road Brewing Co./Chrysalis (benefiting child-abuse survivors, October); and Four Peaks Brewing Co./GiGi’s Playhouse (Down Syndrome achievement center, November).
Beer of the Month
Simple machine Tap that AZ Hazy IPA
New England IPA/8.2% ABV/48 IBU
Are you familiar with the humorous autumn adage “It’s decorative gourd season, motherf*&%ers”? In Arizona, we have our own version of the saying, in which the “decorative gourd” is simply replaced by “prickly pear.” Fighting past the cactus fruit’s famously nettlesome needles, food-oriented folk love turning the fruit’s viscous pulp into jellies, cocktail additives and – in the case of this collaboration between Simple Machine Brewing Co. and the Tap That AZ podcast – a rich and faintly tart IPA. With its brick-like, grapefruit-cocktail color and lacy foam, the brew is easy on the eyes and tongue alike, the prickly pear’s cucumber-like taste presenting faintly on the finish. F*&%ing perfect for fall. Available at Arcadia Premium and other craft beer shops. simplemachinebrewing.com
