Good morning and happy Friday!
Hopefully none of you are working today, and instead finding a way to celebrate America's b-day. 250 but not looking a day over 21 ;)
In today’s issue:
Mt. Fuji x Mt. Hood international beer festival collab
What American royalty drinks at their wedding
A history lesson but we promise we'll make it fun
[ 01 // THE FLIGHT ]
Our faves from this week
🏔️ The biannual beer festival you cannot miss: Fuji to Hood is a cross-cultural beer experience with 25 beer and cider collaborations between Japan and Oregon. Iconic.
🪐 Calling all celestials: imagine floating through space with foosball tables, comedy nights, and out-of-this-world beer. That's what having a pint at Bad Astronaut feels like.
🎮 Ever Rage Quit your game because player two is kicking your a**? Lucky for you, Sun King made an official beer for this, to be enjoyed at none other than Gen Con.
🗽 Recent highlight of this year's NYC March-madness style beer bracket: the beer showdown that tests which brewery can sell the most pints. Watch out for it next March.
💖 Are you ready for it? Garage beer will be served at the American Royal wedding of the summer between football star Travis Kelce and pop-icon Taylor Swift. Cheers to the lovers.
[ 02 // THE PINT ]
America's Founding Fathers Were Homebrewers 🇺🇸
In case you haven’t heard, America turns 250 this week. Here’s a fun fact for ya: the guys who signed the Declaration of Independence were 100% beer people. Buckle up folks, we’re doing history today.
George Washington brewed his own recipes at home (one of them survives to this day as a handwritten recipe kept safe in the New York Public Library). James Madison pushed for a national brewery. And Thomas Jefferson brewed 15 gallons every two weeks with his wife Martha right at home at Monticello (the OG power couple).
That wasn't just a hobby for them either. In 1776, brewing your own beer was an act of independence. Importing beer from Britain meant depending on Britain, so colonists made their beer at home with whatever the land gave them.
So what did 1776 actually taste like?
This year, Sam Adams decided to find out. For America's 250th, they brought back their Brewer Patriot Collection, a set of beers recreated from real colonial-era recipes tied to the Founders.
There's a George Washington Porter that draws on that same New York Public Library recipe, a James Madison Dark Wheat Ale that traces back to brewing advice Jefferson once passed along to Madison, and a honey ginger ale from the Jeffersons' own Monticello records.
The ingredients alone tell you how different beer used to be. We're talking molasses, licorice root, and sassafras, flavors you would almost never find in a beer today.
The cool part is that Sam Adams Brewery itself started as its own act of independence. Back in 1984, Jim Koch was rebelling against the boring, mass-produced beer of the era and brewing something bolder because he believed drinkers deserved a choice. Colonial brewers did it out of necessity but Koch did it out of conviction. Same sense of rebellion, 200 years apart.
Now, here’s the most patriotic thing you can do this weekend
Skip the mega-brand that only wraps itself in the flag every July. Go find the independent brewer down the street instead.
That small brewery in your town is carrying the exact same torch the Founders lit. Someone local, making something by hand, on their own terms. Buy a few four packs! Go to the 4th of July event. Shake the hand of the person who actually brewed your pint.
There really isn’t a more American way to celebrate 250 years than raising a glass of something independent.
Happy 250th America, and happy 4th of July! Go find a local spot to make some memories :)