Greetings, beer lovers! For this Friday evening, once (or not) again, ‘tis chingchongchinaman as your semi-friendly FNBB guest blogger. The subtext of tonight’s edition is pretty obvious, even granted that the final game was this past Monday and thus 3CM is his typical loser self, way behind the curve. To add to his loserness, the specific beer in question isn’t tied at all to the winning team or its university. Instead, the focus is on this March Madness year’s Cinderella institution, Saint Peter’s University, and specifically this March 21 ROI-NJ article by Tom Bergeron, and Departed Soles Brewing Company (https://www.departedsoles.com/), both in Jersey City, NJ.
The mini-saga, at least from the POV of Departed Soles, began with Brian Hamilton and Eamonn Brennan of “The Athletic” choosing (article behind a pay wall) Departed Soles as the local brewery to stand in for Saint Peter’s College, in a craft beer bracket equivalent to the college teams present in the initial bracket. Departed Soles commented on FB as follows, in part:
“NCAA Tournament AND Saint Paddy's Day?
Now that is MADNESS!
Ok, how many people used that line already? Anywho!
We are honored to have been chosen as beer rep for the Saint Peter's University Peacocks in The Athletic's #NCAA #Tournament #Beer Drinking Guide! Check out their other recommendations in the link in the comment section!”
Brian Kulbacki, head honcho of Departed Soles, chose his brewery’s “Light Rail Lager” as the featured flavor for March Madness. Well, surprise, surprise: Saint Peter’s knocked out Kentucky in the first round. Kulbacki then wondered what to do next, where Bergeron noted in his article:
“Creating a beer in honor of the Peacocks wasn’t a possibility.
“You can’t just push a button and get that done in 48 hours,” [Kulbacki] said.”
The same can be said of fixing the 4 years prior to January 20, 2021, which too many Americans don’t understnd. Digression aside, and returning to Bergeron’s article, Kulbacki quickly settled on this plan of action:
(a) “…plead with your artist (Jason at True 13 Studios) to create a new logo and new name (Busted Bracket, what else?) for Light Rail Lager”
(b) “…plead with your local printer to produce 240 labels that can be put on the cans
(c) “..plead with your staff to help you hand-relabel them in time for Saturday’s second-round game.”
This project went down to the wire on second-round Saturday, per Kulbacki:
“We were relabeling the cans all morning. I labeled the last can at 12:01. Our doors were supposed to open at 12, so we were one minute late.”
Plus, to add (or subtract) to it all, it was questionable how financially lucrative that particular opening would be:
“Kulbacki quickly did the math and realized he wouldn’t have enough cans for all those in line, so he limited everyone to just a four-pack — and put a few away for Saint Peter’s.
He didn’t need to do the math on the cost.
A rush project like this was not going to be a money-maker. Quite the opposite, in fact.”
One hopes patrons tipped him reasonably well. Kulbacki further made use of the bespoke “Busted Bracket” design in a T-shirt:
‘“For those who can’t get to his brewery, but still want to support the team, Kulbacki has put the newly created logo on a T-shirt and will be taking preorders this week. Not surprisingly, he already has said that $5 of every shirt sold will go to help those affected by the war in Ukraine.
“We’re not trying to profit off it,” he said. “We’re just trying to keep the momentum going for Saint Peter’s while supporting another community that really needs help.”’
Ultimately, Saint Peter’s got knocked out at the Elite Eight round, which didn’t stop Jersey City from celebrating what the team did achieve, in a parade last Friday:
“Mayor Steven M. Fulop H ’14 joins Saint Peter’s University alongside local officials, state dignitaries, and the Jersey City community to celebrate the unprecedented run Saint Peter’s University’s Men’s Basketball Team achieved during March Madness, putting the University and Jersey City on the map.”
Not sure where “Part 2” is from YT, but there is an alternative video with subpar sound:
No such map presence for 3CM the loser here, nor a lager for the occasion. Instead, the featured brew is a Crank IPA, originally from Cycle Brewing in St. Petersburg, FL, a perfectly solid IPA, maybe not tremendously distinctive amongst the sea of craft brew IPA’s out there. However, like Hamilton’s immigrants, it gets the job done.
With that, time to turn it over to you folks. What are you imbibing tonight? Anyone brewing their own? Inquiring minds, and all that….