CREATING COLLABORATIONS LIBRA AND SERENA RYDER

LIBRA, A B-CORP CERTIFIED NONALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE COMPANY ON A MISSION TO HELP PEOPLE FIND THEIR BALANCE, HAS PARTNERING WITH AWARD-WINNING MUSICIAN SERENA RYDER TO LAUNCH

A LIMITED-EDITION

COLLABORATION BEER - LIBRA LAVENDER SAGE that I thought would be cool. And master brewer, Hogie (Mike Hogan, Co-Founder and Brewmaster of Libra) made it happen, which was awesome.

Brewers Journal: You made the choice to step away from alcohol and now you are involved in this project. Can you tell us how you came up with the idea for your beer?

Serena Ryder: Well, it was actually kind of an idea with Libra. We ended up partnering. How long has it been? Hast it been over a year?

Mitch Cobb: It’s coming up to two years in the spring.

And Mitch and you can be honest here, Mitch, what’s it been like working with Serena?

ALE. THIS IS THE STORY BEHIND IT.

CREAM

The launch celebrates Serena’s 4-year sobriety journey. It is a balanced cream ale with floral notes of lavender and sage, a slight honey character, and a gentle finish. It has 30 calories, and a 12pack retails for $34.99 and is available at drinklibra.ca.

“I know firsthand the feeling of being an outsider at shows drinking water while everyone else is having alcohol. Non-alcoholic options allow people like me to enjoy something special on a night out just like everyone else,” says Ryder.

Brewers Journal caught up with Ryder and Mitch Cobb, Co-Founder and CEO at Upstreet Craft Brewing and Libra Non-Alcoholic Craft Beer, to talk about their collaboration.

S. R.: Totally. And for me, deciding to not drink, I don’t really identify as an alcoholic or anything like that. I may drink at some point in my life. I may end up moving to a vineyard and making my own wine one day. I don’t know. But for right now in my life, it feels like the right decision. And so around that time, I had gotten together with Libra and had a bunch of talks about working together. And for me not drinking had really been the thing that had helped with my mental wellness, and it really kind of made my life better. The more that I didn’t drink, the better my life was getting. And it was really important for me to keep doing that and then got together with Libra, and our values aligned so well that I was like, okay, let’s keep going. And then I don’t even know whose idea it was to make the beer. Do you remember, Mitch? Was it you guys or was it me? I don’t even know. Oh, maybe it was me.

M. C.: We were having, like, a brainstorm, and were talking about different patios. Yeah, and you should do a beer. Yeah, totally.

S. R.: So I just played a gig out east, and we were backstage. I was like, oh, it would be super cool if I could make my own beer. I was thinking more about making the design of the actual can because I was really excited about that and thinking we could put a rainbow on it. It’s going to be so cool. But then we ended up creating a beer together, which was really awesome. It’s like I just kind of threw out some ideas of flavors

M. C.: Oh, it’s been terrible! Seriously, it’s been incredible. Like she said when we first started talking because initially Serena had just put out her album “The Art of Falling Apart”, www.arthausmusic.com/shop/serena-ryder-the-art-of-falling-apart and we had seen that. And so we’re like, hey, you know, we can send her some samples of Libra. Maybe she’ll mention us on Instagram or something. And so we sent her some samples and, you know, her team kind of came back and said, maybe there’s, like, a bigger partnership that we could do here. The more we started talking, the more we really began to see how aligned our values were and how were both very much focused on mental wellness and promoting mental wellness, especially in the arts and culture community and in the music community. I think the partnership has been awesome since then. Serena is a super creative person and we like to think that we’re really creative as well at Libra. So it’s great when we get together and we start talking about ideas.

And this question is for both of you. How has the reception been? What you’ve been hearing about your product?

S. R.: My friends love it. But I think it’s kind of something that’s new that’s, like I don’t even know if it’s in store yet. Is it? I’m not sure.

M. C.: No, not yet. We just did a small batch. It’s a small batch beer, so we’re selling it through our online store primarily. The reception has been fantastic. People really enjoy it. I think they’re really intrigued by the lavender and the sage and how those go together. And when you try it’s a really great tasting, really well balanced beer.

S. R.: I mean, I love it. I think it’s amazing. And my band loves it, too, which is great. We’ve had it stocked on tour while we’re having it backstage, so that it’s there for everybody. And so that’s been amazing.

I have a quote here from Mike Hogan, and he was saying that writing that creating a beer is like writing a song. Would you guys agree with that? Serena, did you find that to be true, or did you find different creative challenges in this endeavour?

S. R.: Yeah, well, I think for Hogie, that’s really beautiful that he said that. I didn’t know that he had that quote because his existing beer is like.

Yes, he said the process was like writing a great song. “We had a lot of fun bringing the lavender sage cream ale to life,” said Mr. Hogan.

S. R.: Oh, that’s so cool. Yeah, conceptually, it can be very similar conceptually, where you think of this you have this dream and you have this idea, and then you actually make it into something that is everything starts out as an idea. And I feel like that’s the beautiful thing about art in a lot of ways, where it’s like that beauty and that art of making and creating something that is done with a dream, but actually it turns into something that’s physical, that’s like a flavor.

Mitch, nonalcoholic beer has really picked up in the past few years. I would not have thought that to be the case, which is why I don’t do investing, but I would never have guessed that it would be as power. Are you seeing that trend as well?

M. C: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, non-alcoholic beer is growing every year. You know what? I think it really has a lot to do with this whole shift in people’s minds around, like, a shift from sort of abstinence to more of moderation, where in the past, there hasn’t been a whole lot of really great non-alcoholic options. So there was really sort of a hard line in the stand, and either you drank or you didn’t drink. And now people are really choosing moderation.

It certainly gives consumers more choice.

M. C.: It sure does, it gives people the option to be able to go out with their friends or go out for dinner in an evening and choose not to drink and not feel ostracized for drinking water or drinking pop. They still feel like they’re part of the community. They’re still having that same social experience that everyone else is having. They’re just doing it without alcohol.

I think one of the things I love about Serena as well is and I’m going to sound like a bit weird, but I would never have thought about putting lavender in beer. You talked about how you found It to be a calming experience to use lavender before one of your shows. This might be a crazy question but do does your beer give you the same calming effect?

S. R.: I think that’s a really great question. Nobody has actually asked me that one yet, which is great. That was the whole purpose of it. Absolutely. It does relax me. I get the scent of it more than the taste of it, which is really cool.

So this product is online right now, Mitch, and then do you plan to move it out at a certain time to the public? What’s your plan for this?

M. C.: Yeah, so right now it’s sold in our online store and through our own retail shops. It was just like a kind of a single release, small batch beer. And so we haven’t really talked about next step anymore.

Can we look forward to any more collaborations with you guys or will this just ride for a little while, you think?

M. C.: I’m sure there’ll be lots more in the future.

S. R.: Yeah, we’re pretty tight, and I feel like every time that we hang out and we talk, it’s turning more and more into kind of like a family feeling. And so with that, there’s a lot that’s going to go on. I feel like in the future, we definitely have some years ahead, so it’s going to be really great to figure out different ways to work together and the different things that come. It’s just like when I’m writing a record, I don’t know, or before I make my next record, I don’t know what’s going to come or what it’s going to be about. I feel like living your life kind of creates that. And I feel like we have a few more albums together, for sure.