http://www.theatlantic.com/food/archive/2010/03/help-the-world-drink-beer/37326/Help the World: Drink Beer
Clay Risen
Mar 11 2010, 8:41 AM ET
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I should have kept in touch. Mark has spent the last several years building toward his dream of starting a brewery. His first shot was a victim of the recession, but his second, Jubilee, is just getting off the ground—his first release, a nut brown ale, is already available in Nashville beer stores, with an official launch set for today, March 11.
I haven't tried the beer, but
what makes it worth noting is that 50 percent of Mark's profits will go to the Oasis Center, a one-stop-shop nonprofit for at-risk youth in Nashville. Why Oasis? In part because another classmate of ours, Anderson Williams, is a director—oh, and also because it's an amazingly successful effort to bring real change to the lives of Nashville's lower-income families.Mark's not making a one-off charity beer, though. He plans to turn Jubilee into a viable brewing business, and the mid-South craft-beer market—which the few regional brewers, including Yazoo, in Nashville, and Old Towne, in Huntsville, are much too small to fill—is a great place to start. At the same time,
he hopes to keep his commitment to Oasis, thereby proving that craft beers can be good for the palate and the community at the same time.Mark's new ale isn't the first charity beer—Louisiana's Abita Brewing Co. gives a 25-cent donation to St. Joseph's Abbey for each bottle of its Abbey Ale sold—but
Jubilee is, as far as I know, the first beer company to donate a sizable chunk of its entire profit flow. Looked at one way, it's a horrible way to get rich. But for those who go into brewing for the love of the beer, it's a great way to give back to the community. Let's hope it can catch on.