Bell's releasing new Unite beer, Sparkle and SMaSH, to help Michigan women
Women brewing Sparkle and SMaSH (Photos: Bell's)
COMSTOCK, Mich. (FOX 2) - Bell's Brewery's new beer in the Unite series helps Michigan women.
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A portion of proceeds from Sparkle and SMaSH, an 8% ABV Belgian Tripel, will be donated to four West Michigan organizations:
- Helping Women Period – provides no-cost menstrual products to homeless and low-income communities
- YWCA Kalamazoo – driven to eliminate racism, empower women, and promote peace, justice, freedom, and dignity for all
- Red Birth Green – provides accessible, full-spectrum reproductive care to the Kalamazoo area
- Lifting Lucy – supports the most underrepresented communities within brewing industry businesses, including Black and Indigenous women
The beer is Bell's International Women’s Collaboration Brew, and includes ingredients from women-owned businesses in Michigan: hops from Mr. Wizard’s Hops Farm in Monroe and malt from Empire Malting Company in Empire.
Read more Michigan beer stories here.
Women from the company made the beer recipe and brewed and packaged it.
"Women's contributions to craft beer are vast and go back to the beginning of brewing, but their stories are often missing from the narrative, said Courtney Simmons, the Equity and Inclusion director for Bell's. "Our participation with Unite started as a collaboration beer and has become much more: an opportunity to create community, learn, and amplify stories from the myriad of important contributions women make every day to craft beer."
A release party will be held Sunday at Bell’s Eccentric Cafe & General Store in Kalamazoo from noon to 4 p.m. Sparkle and SMaSH will be tapped, cans will be available to buy, and there will be live entertainment, as well as food specials.
Menstrual product donations are also being collected at the General Store through April 24. These will be donated to Helping Women Period.
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"This beer and others like it, are part of our commitment to connect what we do best: brew amazing, delicious beer with something that our industry needs to continue to strive to do," said Carrie K. Yunker, Bell’s Executive Vice President.. "We need to ask whose voices and ideas are being represented in our business then seek out and amplify underrepresented perspectives to both the brewing industry and our wider communities."
Other beers in the Unite series have included LGBTQ+, military, Black, and Latin causes.