Breweries and community groups unite to create new beer flavors and host events in Love, Milwaukee collaboration

Under the name Love, Milwaukee, seven local breweries and eight community organizations are uniting for a series of events and a six-pack of new flavored brews.

The community organizations in Love, Milwaukee include Barley’s Angels, BU Social, Collective Flow, ElevAsian, Girls Pint Out, Hispanic Professionals of Greater Milwaukee, the LGBT Community Center, and MKE Black.

The local breweries are 1840 Brewing, Company Brewing, Component Brewing, Gathering Place Brewing Company, MobCraft Beer, New Barons Brewing Cooperative, and Soul Brew Kombucha.

Together, the breweries and community organizations will hold events to brainstorm for beer flavors and for one non-alcoholic kombucha. The creations will be sold in a six-pack at each brewery. 

Here are the Love, Milwaukee events:

• Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.: Black Business Market at Beerline Plaza, 3356 N Holton St., by MKE Black and MobCraft Beer. 
• July 10 time TBD: Barley's Angels, Girls Pint Out and 1840,  a combined event with Hispanic Professionals of Greater Milwaukee and Component Brewing. Location TBD.
• July 30 time TBD: LGBTQ Community Center and New Barons Brewing Company event. Location TBD.
• July 31 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.: Pop-up Beer Garden featuring Food Trucks at Gathering Place Brewing, 811 E Vienna Ave., by ElevAsian and Gathering Place Brewing Company.
• August 13 time TBD: BU Social, Collective Flow, Soul Brew Kombucha and Company Brewing event. Location TBD. 

"We wanted to look at a lot of aspects and perspective of what diversity is," said Ayrton Bryan, director of strategic partnerships and initiatives for MKE Black. "I know at MKE Black, we don't say that we have the deciding voice of what our community likes, so we wanted to include the public as much as possible."

Love, Milwaukee made sure to have groups that represent different races, sexual identities and genders. Then each group got to work on how to best include their broader community through events. 

The idea began last year when MKE Black, which highlights black-owned businesses, collaborated with MobCraft Beer on their version of Black Is Beautiful beer, as part of a national initiative to create a beer that supports the country's Black communities. 

More:Looking for a way to support Milwaukee's black community? Buy this beer.

"I know when we made Black Is Beautiful, many people in the community said they liked it and sharing the process with brewers was great. They are so passionate about what they do," Bryan said.

Bryan wanted to work with a brewery again to create a new batch of community-inspired beers, while inviting more groups to participate. 

Each group is finding different ways to represent their community for the event that will inspire the beer. 

For example, Gathering Place Brewing Company and ElevAsian are hosting a pop-up beer garden with food trucks Tatay's Truck (Filipino), C&D Thai Food and Taste Amir's Roti (Malaysian).

"We feel like a food is a really easy entry point for people, and to create inspiration for the beer you think about what you want to drink the beer with," said Shary Tran, co-founder of ElevAsian. 

Tran was excited to be a part of Love, Milwaukee. 

"A lot of times our Asian communities aren’t as present in these conversations," Tran said. "It gives us an opportunity to support one and other in way we haven't been able to before."

As far as Bryan can recall, Love, Milwaukee is the first times this many organizations are banding together. 

"There's this idea that we all have to compete for things like money, but instead we can work together and build social capital," Bryan said. "We're helping to bring together people of all these different communities while we achieve our diverse interests." 

Bryan said the breweries will split profits from the six-pack evenly. For the community organizations, it's mostly a chance to share exposure and have a chance grow their network to other local groups.

Bryan said he hopes to continue to use Love, Milwaukee as a medium to get various community groups together in the future. 

"We are hitting it hard with the first one, with it being a beverage, but we really see this as a collaboration in different forms with the same core mindset to bring impact, change and engagement to the community," Bryan said. "It has multiple looks, like maybe a bike race or a street clean up. The intention is that it has as diverse of events and pursuits as the groups that make it up." 

For more information on Love, Milwaukee and for updates on planned events, visit www.facebook.com/Love-Milwaukee.

Jordyn Noennig covers Wisconsin culture and lifestyle.  Follow her on Instagram @JordynTaylor_n. Find her on Twitter @JordynTNoennig. Call her at 262-446-6601 or email Jordyn.Noennig@jrn.com.