Established in 2014, the Beer Endowment is a collaboration between breweries and artist-run organizations. The beer recipes describe qualities of the artist-run projects and serve as a way to promote and raise funds for them.
Beer Endowment beers include:
Poor FarmPils supports The Great Poor Farm Experiment which hosts annual exhibitions. The german-style pilsner sales contribute to the programing budget.
The Green Gallery IPA supports ephemeral arts programing in Milwaukee. Named after Milwaukee conceptual contemporary art gallery the beer serves as a venue for an evolving concept of what an IPA can be. Sales proceeds are dedicated to supporting ephemeral art with a progressive nature.
Friends of Blue Dress Park Mild Porter benefits programing for the Friends of Blue Dress Park Board, a group organized around preserving values of an unsanctioned conceptual park in Milwaukee deemed such by artist Paul Druecke. The English ale oscillates between being the taste of an English Mild and looking like a porter, much like the un-attributed public space bordering on being and not-being a park.
Riverwest Radio Red supports community talk radio station WXRW 104.1 FM h ps:// www.riverwestradio.com/, initiated by artist Xav Leplea. The hop profile is as diverse as the the voice of the community.
MicroLights Micro-Lite is a light and mildly sour beer which supports Milwaukee Experimental Cinema, Micro Lights run by artists Ben Balcom and Jesse McClean.
Mary’s Fondest which benefited the Mary Nohl Fellowship for Individual Artists and used fresh harvested local hops.
Sala Diaz Double Dry Hop IPA, a collaboration with Freetail Brewing used regional barley and experimental hops to describe qualities of Sala Diaz, a nonprofit venue for contemporary art based in San Antonio TX operating locally and engaged internationally founded by artist Alejandro Diaz. Spring 2017.
FRONT Experimental Kölsch, a collaboration with Platform Beer Co. to benefit FRONT International Triennial in Cleveland OH who’s creative director was artist Michelle Grabner, summer of 2018.
The Luminary Counterlager for Counterpublic Triennial was brewed with Earthbound Beer in Saint Louis MO.
Fred Smith Lager with the John Michaell Kohler Arts Center Art Preserve.
Company Brewing is the home-base for Milwaukee's Beer Endowment. Since 2015 we've brewed ten beers to promote and fund artist-run initiatives including neighborhood gems like Riverwest Radio, MicroLights Cinema, Blue Dress Park, and The Green Gallery. We've also collaborated on beers with breweries around the country. The project is organized by artist John Riepenhoff and contextualizes quality beer production (with a purpose) in the company of art. Look for the Beer Endowment logo on beers from this series that work for artists, and ask about the projects they support.
Here are some links of articles that mention the Beer Endowment:
https://news.artnet.com/market/john-riepenhoff-milwaukee-art-beers-312801