Terrapin Beer Company, Schmaltz Brewing and Alan Shapiro of SBS Imports has released Reunion Ale ’11: A Beer for Hope, this year an Imperial Brown Ale.
Now in its fifth year of production, Reunion is brewed annually in memory of Virginia MacLean, a dear friend of Shapiro and Pete Slosberg’s (creator of Pete’s Wicked Ale) and a dedicated cancer research supporter who lost her own battle with Multiple Myeloma in 2007. It was her wish to raise funds and awareness on behalf of the Institute for Myeloma & Bone Cancer Research, and a portion of the proceeds from Reunion Ale ’11 is donated directly to the IMBCR.
Reunion Ale ’11 is available in 22-ounce bottles and a limited amount of draft in the nearly 40 U.S. states that receive distribution from Terrapin and Shmaltz, and in Western Canada through Shmaltz’s distribution network.
Inspired by a delicious dessert at MacLean’s favorite restaurant, Reunion Ale ’11 is a dark Imperial Brown Ale brewed with vanilla, chili peppers, and cocoa nibs from Nashville, Tennessee’s Olive and Sinclair Chocolate Company. Brewmasters Spike Buckowski (Terrapin Beer Co.), Pete Slosberg, Paul McErlean (Shmaltz Brewing Co.), and Shmaltz Brewing proprietor Jeremy Cowan designed this year’s recipe to combine sweet and spicy aromas with complex malt flavors and decadent vanilla and chocolate overtones.
Reunion was conceived initially by Shapiro, MacLean and Slosberg – who all met during the early days of Pete’s Brewing Company – as a way to increase awareness of myeloma and bone cancer and raise donations for the IMBCR. Although MacLean passed away just four months after the release of Reunion 2007, the Reunion project has carried on the vision of these three friends, raising more than $130,000.