Revolution Brewing Penguin Hops Returns To Benefit Shedd Aquarium

“We’re excited to continue our collaboration with Revolution’s brewers to offer a truly local, and flavorful, taste of our organic practices,” said Christine Nye, Shedd’s manager of horticulture programs. “Conservation is at the center of our culture, and while our perennials are beautiful, they also represent our value of sustainability.”

Like many of the 400-plus strategically planted foliage surrounding the iconic Chicago building, the aquarium planted the hops nearly a decade ago to be visually pleasing and purposeful. The vine-growing plant helped enhance the aesthetic look on some of the exterior walls of the building during the marine mammal pavilion’s re-imagination in 2009.  When Shedd realized the hops needed to be harvested last fall, the organization partnered with the popular Logan Square brewery to ensure the fragrant plants would not go to waste. The successful partnership raised $2,500 in funds for Shedd. As the weather cooled off this year, the opportunity to harvest the hops again presented itself.

“We jumped at the chance to continue our collaboration with Shedd this year,” said Josh Deth, Chairman of the Party at Revolution Brewing. “With the overwhelming success of last year’s brew, we were excited to help the city’s aquarium craft a new batch of Penguin Hops to support the important conservation work they do.”

In step with the aquarium’s mission to conserve the world’s largest freshwater ecosystem, the Great Lakes, Shedd’s gardens are pesticide-free, using only natural compost to build healthy soils and eliminate chemical runoff into our local waterways and aquatic systems. Nye and her horticultural team have created a lush space of native and nativar plants that serve as a home, or migration resting place, to many species unique to the shores of Lake Michigan, including migratory birds, pollinators such as butterflies, and other beneficial insects like bees. In addition, the fertile soils of the organic gardens cultivate nutritious produce such as parsley, lettuce and zucchini that serve as enrichment food to many of Shedd’s resident herbivores and omnivores.