One of the best facets of the craft beer movement has been the embrace of beers for a cause in which small brewers brew a beer to help raise funds for a nonprofit partner. One of the latest examples in Milwaukee in Component Brewing’s Rare Disease Day Celebration and Beer Release.
The event, slated for Tuesday, Feb. 28 at 5 p.m. in the Bay View taproom, 2018 S. 1st St., shines a light on Rare Disease Day.
"We welcome you to celebrate Rare Disease Day with a new beer release, Fancy Genes, and music,” says Component’s Jonathan Kowalske.
“Able Milwaukee (Audio & Braille Literacy Enhancement) helped us put together a menu in Braille for this event. Representatives from Able will be on-site during the event and diverse cover musicians Max and Whitney will be providing the jams.”
Kowalske says the cause is one that’s close to the heart of the Component family.
“One of the brewery team’s son, Mac, has an extremely rare disease called Malan Syndrome,” he says. “He is one of 200 in the world with Malan and the only one in the world with his exact gene duplication that is the cause of this disease. He is truly a unicorn!
“Mac’s favorite hobby is to visit brewery taprooms, drink a Coke, watch a sports game and socialize with the locals.”
The event will feature Pete’s Pops popsicles and a special pickle frozen pizza from Flour Girl & Flame – pickles and popsicles are Mac's favorite food – and SHAW Hockey will unveil its Special Needs Hockey flag. Hockey is Mac’s favorite sport to play and watch, and he is on the SHAW Pirates Specials Hockey team.
And then there’s that beer.
Fancy Genes is a heavily oated 8.3 percent ABV New England Double Hazy IPA dry-hopped with Strata CGX and El Dorado and fermented with Cosmic Punch thiolized yeast.
“All of that beer jargon means that this IPA is dripping with saturated hop flavors and aromas,” says Kowalske.
“Expect candy peach ring, orange marmalade and a slight dankness to tie it all together. We used advanced hop products and techniques to help signify the advanced research that is going on to help cure all rare diseases worldwide!”
You can find the Facebook event here, and for more on National Organization for Rare Disease (NORD) Rare Disease Day, click here.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
