Harpoon Grateful Harvest Cranberry Ale Returns
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MyBeer Buzz
From Harpoon:
We’re kicking off the season of Harpoon Helps in a delicious way! Today at our breweries we tapped the first kegs of our Grateful Harvest Cranberry Ale to kick off the busiest and most impactful time for our charitable program, Harpoon Helps. Though the beer won’t be on draft elsewhere, you should start to see it in 6-packs in stores near you very soon. For every 6-pack of Harpoon Grateful Harvest we sell, we’ll donate $1 to the local food bank in the area it was purchased. Since we first started brewing this beer a few years ago, we’ve donated more than $84,000 to food banks from the sales of this beer!
At our Boston Beer Hall, we’ll donate $1 per pint and per growler of Grateful Harvest sold, as well as $1 per pumpkin pretzel sold, to the Greater Boston Food Bank, New England’s largest hunger relief organization. At our Riverbend Taps and Beer Garden in Windsor, VT, we’ll donate $1 per pint and $1 per growler sold of our Grateful Harvest to the Vermont Foodbank, which helps feed as many as 86,000 Vermonters each year. Come down and raise a pint with us and help your neighbors at the same time!
Getting the cranberry puree into this amber ale was no small feat. Harpoon Brewer, Steve Theoharides, led the charge in pumping the puree into our tanks. After spending so much time covered in cranberries, (it’s a messy process!) he and I were curious to see where the cranberries came from, and the folks at AD Makepeace invited us to come down to their bogs in Wareham, MA to check it out. We were given waders to wear and large rakes to help gather the cranberries for collection. It was an awesome experience to be able to see from beginning to end how the cranberries were harvested. Now, it is time to enjoy the fruits of our labor – with a pint of Grateful Harvest!
I hope you can join us soon and raise a pint of Grateful Harvest to help end hunger in our communities!
Boston, MA – The Harpoon Brewery is proud to bring back Grateful Harvest Ale, a New England cranberry ale brewed in the Thanksgiving spirit of giving back to the community. For every 6-pack of Grateful Ale sold, the Harpoon Brewery will make a $1 donation to the local food bank in the area in which the beer was purchased.
Harpoon Grateful Harvest Ale is a beer brewed with Thanksgiving celebrations in mind. Freshly harvested cranberries, donated by local cranberry farm A.D. Makepeace, lend a subtle tartness to the beer. The cranberry flavor complements the malty character derived by the combination of Munich and Vienna malts. Additions of CaraMunich and Dehusked Carafa III malts enhances the beer’s reddish hue and adds a touch of sweetness, while Northern Brewer bittering hops complement the slight cranberry tartness. A traditional top fermenting strain of ale yeast was used to showcase the malt profile and accent the fresh cranberry aroma. The result is a medium-bodied, malty and mildly sweet amber ale with a bready aroma and a subtle cranberry flavor.
The idea for Harpoon Grateful Harvest Ale was born out of the relationships the brewery has cultivated with New England food banks throughout the years. This beer will help raise desperately needed funds for the fight against hunger, with $1 from every 6-pack sold going to the local food bank in the area in which it was purchased. Since the beer was first released in 2010, Harpoon has donated more than $84,000 to local food banks from the sales of Grateful Harvest alone. A blog post about the beer can be found here: http://www.harpoonbrewery.com/blog/2338/Grateful-Harvest-is-Here.
Harpoon Grateful Harvest Ale will be available on tap at the brewery’s Boston, MA and Windsor, VT facilities. For every pint of Grateful Harvest sold at the breweries, Harpoon will make a $1 donation to their local food bank. In addition, a special pumpkin spice pretzel will be sold at the Harpoon Beer Hall in Boston, with $1 for each pretzel sold going to the local food bank.
On Sunday, November 10th, Harpoon will host the Harpoon Helps Grateful Harvest Dinner at their beer hall in Boston. It will be a twist on the traditional Thanksgiving meal, with recipes for each dish developed by Harpoon employees. 100% of ticket sales will be donated to the Greater Boston Food Bank.
Harpoon was founded on two principles: to make great beer and to be good neighbors within their community. Since the brewery bottled its first beer in 1986, Harpoon has endeavored to make meaningful contributions to causes that are important to them and their customers. What started as beer donations here and there, hosting fundraisers for friends from time to time, and producing small fundraisers, has developed into one of the brewery’s most cherished programs: Harpoon Helps. So far in 2013 alone, the Harpoon Helps program has raised more than $445,000 for local charities, donated more than 50,000 pints toward local charity events with approximately 300 local non-profits supported, and has performed thousands of volunteer hours at local organizations.
Harpoon Grateful Harvest Ale Specs:
- Style: Cranberry Amber Ale
- OG: 15.5
- ABV: 5.8%
- IBUs: 30
- Pairing Suggestion: Turkey with all the fixings
Harpoon Grateful Harvest Ale will be available in bottles from early October through early December. This beer is an ideal beer for the Thanksgiving season.
For additional information about the Harpoon Brewery, the Harpoon Helps program, and Harpoon Grateful Harvest Ale, please contact Liz Melby at [email protected] and Merrill Maloney at [email protected].
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