limited edition: Dark Apis

Berkley Beer Company Black Ale Project 2020

The Black Ale Project is a country wide craft beer initiative to raise money and awareness on behalf of US War Veteran’s. Their tagline sums it all up. “It’s simple: buy a beer help a Veteran!” For more information about the Black Ale Project, click here. We also recommend following them on Facebook to see what other breweries are doing to help and support Veterans!

For Berkley Beer Company’s Inaugural Black Ale Project, we chose to support a collaborative project between the Berkley American Legion Post #21 and the Bee Informed Group of Bristol County. The Bee Informed Group whose goal has been to educate the public on the benefit of pollinator’s. Click here for more information. This organization has over the past 4 years supported a Veteran with PTSD by providing them with beekeeping equipment, education support and bees; the program is called Bees for Vets: Quiet Minds Therapy. The local program was based off program first started by Bill Reynolds from Northern Beekeeping Association in Minnesota who writes: “Hello, I'm a USAF Veteran of 16 years and now a retired disabled citizen who is suffering with PTSD. I have found a way that helps me with previous life issues and would love a chance to share this way with other military members to help quiet their minds. I call it ‘ Bees for Vets: Quiet Mind Therapy.’” Through the world of Beekeeping, I've found that the busy Honeybee can help calm the noise and thoughts of the past. This is what I would love to be able to share with others, the joy of Beekeeping and the peace and quiet that comes from the hive. In the military, I was an Instructor, which I loved doing, but now I am a beekeeper with a good number of years keeping bees under my belt. My goal is to marry the two together with hopes of helping others.”
The American Legion and Bee Informed groups have joined forces to set up a bee training yard for Veterans. The training yard set up efforts are underway for opening in Spring of 2020 on the Berkley American Legion’s property as the next step for Bees for Vets: Quiet Minds Therapy on a local level!

To show our commitment to the project, we took the it to the next level by brewing a Dark Honey IPA. We would like to thank Nick Cochis, a Berkley Beekeeper, who donated 60lbs of honey to the project! To make it even more special we had a group of Veterans/beekeepers come in on March 14th to assist in all aspects of the brewing. This include gathering the ingredients, weighing out the grains, milling, mashing, boiling as well as checking gravities during the process. Everyone had a great time!

The Name of the Beer is DARK APIS, as apis is beekeeping terminology for bee and a honey bee is called Apis Mellifera.

In the setting of the Coronovirus Pandemic, the roll out of this exciting project did not occur with the fanfare and further Veteran involvement that we had envisioned. Regardless, it does not make the project any less important! We were able to donate through our community support of sales from each 4-pack resulted in $734 being donated to this important collaborative project between the Berkley American Legion Post #21 and Bee Informed Group of Bristol County to support their efforts of Quiet Mind Therapy. We are appreciative of the Black Ale Project for helping us to think outside the box to help our community and our planet in a unique way! Cheers to the Vets and the Bees!