Knoxville — More than two dozen Tennessee breweries are joining breweries across the country to brew a beer to benefit California Wildfire victims.
At Fanatic Brewing Company here in Knoxville, there's something special fermenting in their barrels—something way beyond beer. They're brewing Resilience Butte County Proud IPA—a dark, bold IPA concocted by a brewery thousands of miles away.
Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, California, came up with the recipe and an idea: why not get breweries across the country to make the IPA, and donate the proceeds to help victims of the Camp Fire in California?
According to Sierra Nevada's website, the brewing company is working with malt, hop and yeast suppliers to provide raw ingredient donations to all participating breweries and is then asking those breweries to donate 100 percent of their sales to relief efforts.
"Our hope is to get Resilience IPA in taprooms all over the country to create a solid start for our community’s future," the company said on its website.
Marty Velas, the owner and founder of Fanatic, said he decided to help out because he is a California native.
So far, over 1,000 craft breweries have answered Sierra Nevada's call for help.
Fanatic's brew of the IPA will be on tap in three weeks, Velas said.
The money raised will go to the Sierra Nevada Camp Fire Relief Fund.
"The brewery is seeding this fund with an initial $100,000 to get started," Sierra Nevada's website said. "Once the fire is out, we will distribute all donated money to partner organizations that are dedicated to rebuilding and supporting the communities that have been affected."
Click here for a full list of participating brewers. And home-brewers can participate too! Here's a link to that Resilience IPA homebrew recipe.
"We appreciate the tremendous amount of support and compassion shown from folks around the world," its website said. "With the brave men and women risking their lives fighting this fire and the outpouring of support from communities near and far, we know we are on a path to healing and rebuilding."