Greetings, beer lovers! Happy Friday, and yes, ‘tis chingchongchinaman doing the guest FNBB host thing for the evening, with esquimaux taking a well-earned evening off from FNBB blogging matters duties. Tonight’s edition follows up on self the loser’s most recent FNBB 3 weeks ago about the “Buy Betty White a Beer” / “Betty White’s Beers” fundraiser by the Commerce Street Brewery in Mineral Point, WI. Originally intended as a light-hearted salute to Betty White in case she ever returned to Mineral Point, where a free beer awaited her, following her passing at the end of 2021, Commerce Street Brewery decided to donate the funds banked over to an animal charity, given BW’s advocacy for animals. The challenge closed at the end of January 31, 2022. Commerce Street Brewery posted the final count on their brewpub page:
“With your help, we collected $6,295 (or 1,259 beers for Betty)! We will be forwarding this money to local animal shelters in early February.”
Pretty good haul there. In the diary, 3CM the loser put in a poll for folks to guess the final count. It turns out that no one guessed the correct range. I guessed low (natch).
Self the loser later thought that this can’t be the only craft beer-related Betty White Challenge. So I searched teh interwebz, and the number that I found was actually fairly low, 2 other events. The first that came up was from an article in the Weatherford Democrat (Texas) back on January 17 by Glenn Evans:
“The Betty White Challenge asked people to donate $5 to an animal shelter or animal rescue on White's birthday. Shelters got in on the act, posting offers for reduced-cost adoptions, such as a $5 Betty White Adoption Special at the Weatherford shelter last week.
To support that effort, Edgewise Eight Brewing in Weatherford offered to donate 100 cents, one for each of the icon's years, for each Social Betty Ann beer sold on Monday.
Mineral Wells Animal Shelter Coordinator Kim Marinara reported on Friday that $185 in White's name had rolled in so far. The shelter is at 101 Farm-to-Market Road 22556.”
Curious how the article spells out “100 cents” rather than $1, but whatever: all for a good cause, and all that. Moving from red to blue territory, the other story was from WFSB Channel 3 in Connecticut, this feature presented on TV by Courtney Zieller and Erin Connolly (with Evan Sobol credited in the on-line feature), about the “Pups for Pints” event presented by Dog Star Rescue in Bloomfield, CT:
“To attend bring a $20 donation. You can bring your dog, and you’ll get a free beer from Thomas Hooker Brewery in Bloomfield.”
No particular Thomas Hooker beer from their roster was mentioned as the gift beer, but of course that’s not the point. The point is how much Dog Star Rescue raised from the event, which they indicated in a general guestimate value on their FB page back on January 23:
“What an incredible week we have had at Dog Star Rescue. First you all showed your love for us and Betty White through your generous donations which totaled over 10K.”
At $20 per donation, that means a minimum of 500 attendees / donations, a very nice turnout indeed.
No dog- or cat-themed brew chez 3CM this evening, unless a fantasy creature counts, as the selection is a ‘Drachenstadt’ from Levante Brewing Company. My limited German translates the title as “Dragon City”, which might kind of fit Asian New Year this week, except that this is not the Year of the Dragon, of course :) . The label describes is as a “Fest Bier”, and is in the Märzen style. Not that I’m at all an expert on beer flavors, but it’s certainly good. Plus, if nothing else, my dad, who is not into craft beer at all and doesn’t imbibe all that much in general, even liked it.
With that, time to turn the FNBB e-floor over to you folks. What are you imbibing tonight? Anyone brewing their own? Inquiring minds, etc.