Sandy Relief Beer raised $58,000 for Barrier Brewing Company and Long Island Cares, Inc.

The project, a collaboration between eight Long Island breweries to help local victims of Hurricane Sandy, created Surge Protector IPA, a piney, dry-finishing IPA featuring donated ingredients from every participant. Thirty barrels of Surge Protector IPA were brewed at Blue Point Brewing Company on December 04, and Clare Rose Inc., which funded the project, distributed kegs and bottles across Long Island.

Every drop of Surge Protector IPA was sold. Every drop of Surge Protector IPA was consumed.

Sandy Relief Beer, however, was never about the beer. Never. Sandy Relief Beer represented community, resiliency, and compassion. Sandy Relief Beer was, and is, love.

As the oversized checks were presented to Barrier Brewing Company and Long Island Cares, Inc. at Blue Point Brewing Company on May 08, I witnessed a room of colleagues, not competitors, proudly raising bottles of Surge Protector IPA for cameras and reporters.

Everyone was smiling.

I smiled, too.