GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The next best beer to flow through the taps at City Built Brewing in Grand Rapids will have a special message to match the flavor, celebrating Latinx culture long after Hispanic Heritage Month comes to an end.
“I feel like there's already a movement," said the brewery's CEO Edwin Collazo. "I'm just joining.”
When you walk into City Built Brewing on Monroe Avenue, you're immediately connected to Collazo's culture. A large Puerto Rican liberation symbol is displayed prominently at the entrance.
Collazo is a Puerto Rican man born in Ohio.
“Quite often people come in and congratulate me on my good English," Collazo joked. "So I always say, 'I don't, you know, don't do too bad for a guy from Ohio.'”
Collazo is in rare company. According to the Brewers Association, just 2% of brewery owners in America are of Hispanic, Latinx or Spanish origin. In Michigan, that number is less than 1%.
“After being in Colorado recently, I was really surprised to meet five other Puerto Rican brewery owners," Collazo said. "I thought I was alone. So, it was neat to know I'm not on an island.”
To spread that message, City Built Brewing teamed up with Batch Brewing Company on the east side of the state to make a new beer — one that highlights their heritage and inspires others to follow in their footsteps.
“More than anything, it continues along the track that City Built tries to be connective," Collazo said. "We have a bridge in our logo for a purpose. We try to be bridge builders. So this just fits right in.”
The beer is called Mi Gente, which means "My People."
“It's such a beautiful thing just to see, specifically again, just being in Denver and being in a space where everyone looked like me, which was special in itself, but then where our culture is being celebrated at such a high level, with fantastic beer and music and dancing and food, and so, like, all in one place ... It was just kind of a cup-filling experience for me," Collazo said.
Pretty soon, cups and cans will be filled with this West Coast IPA.
The design touches on several symbols.
“It's like a skull opening up with a dog coming out of it with an eagle coming out of the top of the dog's head, with a snake crawling through the skull," Collazo said. "It's pretty ... it's pretty crazy.”
He added, “Our thought was that we always put eyes on cans because we think the eyes draw eyes.”
A portion of the proceeds from the beer will go to Somos Comunidad, which helps support local Latinx initiatives in Kent County.
The hope is for the drink's function and flavor to make for the perfect pair.
“First of all, hopefully, they like it," Collazo said. "I think, again, it's just to highlight that there are Latinos, Hispanics in this industry doing really good things. So, we're not just brewing beer; we're brewing beer at a high, you know, at a high level. So, the hope is that they recognize that and get to taste it and appreciate it for what it is. You know, it's just beer.”
Mi Gente will come out on tap on Oct. 27. It'll be bottled that week as well.
Both City Built Brewing and Batch Brewing will share the recipe across America, encouraging others to join the cause.