This week, UK-based craft brewery, Brewgood, launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise £50,000 to turn its beer into clean drinking water.
The company’s co-founders, Alan Mahon and Josh Littlejohn, revealed that they created the concept one evening while drinking a pint and discussing one of the world’s biggest issues – providing developing countries with clean water. They shared:
“We set off on a mission to make a great tasting craft lager to a unique recipe, sell the beer and invest 100% of our profits – every single penny – into clean water projects. This means that when you drink our beers you are providing someone who needs it with clean drinking water.”
The duo is hoping to provide a million people with access to clean water, which will be used for drinking, sanitation and hygiene. The Brewgooder’s Clean Water Lager (4.9% ABV) is described as a drink that is made with malted barley, water, a unique blend of Saaz and Sorachi Ace hops with a touch of wheat resulting in a crisp, refreshing lager with a citrus hit.
During a recent interview, Mahon revealed:
“To reach the scale of production we want, the beer has to be outstanding. I don’t want people to see Brewgooder as a charity beer. We’ve been working with Brewdog for two months on the recipe. We wanted to make a great lager and have that social force behind it. And by plugging into Brewdog’s growing infrastructure, we can guarantee supply.”
He continued:
“By plugging into Brewdog’s growing infrastructure, we can guarantee supply. The initial ambition is to hit the crowdfunding target. If we nail that, we can get people talking about, and we can get to our five-year target of providing clean water to one million people quicker. We’re already quite far down the line with some great distributors, we just need the beer-loving public to buy into us and help get us there.”
Littlejohn commented:
“We wanted to build on the success of Social Bite and develop other models of using business to tackle social challenges. The ultimate ambition is to make a dent in a global water crisis that means 650 million people have no access to clean drinking water and 1,400 children die each day from water borne diseases.”
Mahon and Littlejohn also discussed their recent visit to the Nora Docherty School in Dedza, Malawi, which is part of Brewgooder’s first project. Mahon noted:
“The trip really hammered home the reason we are doing this. When you see a village without clean water it reveals the scale of the problem – you can’t read about that or see it on a screen. Millions of people enjoy a beer on a Friday night – and we’re trying to harness the power of that.”
The Nora Docherty School was also featured in the Brewgooder’s pitch video. The large portion of the funds will go towards the school and then the rest will be given to Oxfam, WaterAid and MercyCorps.
Brewgooder’s initiative is set to close mid-April.
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