At the Sam Adams Brewery up in Boston, a beer named The Eleventh Hour was tapped for Veterans Day.
The timing was ideal since the beer was brewed in honor of the day by two Army veterans, Hopkinsville Brewing Co. owners Kate Russell and Joey Medeiros.
Russell and Medeiros had planned to release the Raspberry Berliner Weisse — brewed in collaboration with Sam Adams brewers in late September — on the same day it became available in Boston.
Unfortunately, it was still in transport to Hopkinsville on Veterans Day and Russell wasn’t sure when it would arrive. But the delay hasn’t dampened Russell’s enthusiasm for the project, which grew out of her selection for the Sam Adams Brewing the American Dream experience earlier this year.
“It was such an incredible experience,” Russell told Hoptown Chronicle. “I can’t say enough good things about it.”
She described the concept for the beer in a Facebook post:
“Named in honor of Veterans Day — observed on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month — this raspberry Berliner Weisse was designed and brewed with the goal of supporting and giving back to veterans in both Boston and Hopkinsville … $1 from each pint sold at Samuel Adams Boston Brewery will be donated to Veterans Legal Services, and the same amount from each pint sold at HBC will be donated to Pennyroyal Veteran Center.”
Sam Adams also featured The Eleventh Hour in a social media post.
For the past eight years, Sam Adams has picked one brewer a year in the United States for its mentoring program, which provides brewing and business advice to brewers getting started in their careers. Russell’s selection put her among an elite group of craft brewers in the country.
Hopkinsville Brewing, founded by Russell in 2016, is on Fifth Street between Main and South Virginia streets.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
