Over the years, GTA Brews hasn’t really taken an active role in advocating for diversity in the homebrewing community. We’ve mostly taken a passive approach by trying to remove barriers that may hinder a feeling of inclusion for women and racial minorities. The vast majority of our club leadership is composed of white men, and in the past we didn’t feel like it was our place to speak out.

After witnessing the racial injustices that have been brought to light over the past few weeks, we have decided we can no longer be passive on this matter. We are ready to help in the fight for real change.

Black is Beautiful is an initiative founded by Weathered Souls Brewing in San Antonio, TX. This initiative is mainly focused at craft breweries and beer drinkers, and encourages them to collaborate in raising awareness and funds for local charities fighting against racial injustice. The initiative is centered around a single stout base recipe, and each participant is encouraged to put their own creative spin on it.

Chosen Charity: CAFCAN

CAFCAN is a registered charitable organization whose primary focus is on building and strengthening the service framework for African Canadian children, youth and families through culturally safe individual and group counselling supports, case management services, employment services, youth mentorship, and youth outreach programs.

Donate Here

How We Will Help

As a homebrew club, we don’t sell beer, so we aren’t able to dedicate a certain portion of each bottle sold. Instead, we will do the following:

• Raise awareness for a local charity (CAFCAN) focused on the black community
• GTA Brews will donate $10 for each member that brews the Black is Beautiful recipe
• GTA Brews will match member donations to CafCan, up to $1000 total

As a small, non-profit, membership based organization, we don’t have deep pockets, so this $1000 is a considerable part of our bank account. Brew and/or donate before July 31st to qualify!

Update: Our good friend Toronto Brewing has joined the initiative, and will match what the club donates. This means that for every dollar donated, it gets multiplied by 3!

Final Amount Raised:

$2965

• Batches Brewed by Members: 16
• Member Donations: $965
• Club Donation: $1000
• Toronto Brewing Donation: $1000

How to Participate

To make a difference, we need the help of you, our club members! We need you to brew the beer, and we need you to consider making a monetary donation if you are able.

• Donation: Please email proof to info@gtabrews.ca, the club will match your donation
• Brew the Beer: Please notify info@gtabrews.ca after brew day, and we will donate $10

The Recipe:

Weathered Souls said it best:

For the beer we thought it be appropriate to brew a stout, as it is in the name of the initiative, Black is Beautiful. Weathered Souls will provide the recipe for the stout base, please place your own spin and love into this. The sky is the limit as far as creativity.

The Black is Beautiful website includes a link to a Dropbox containing several versions of the recipe and label art. We felt we could make the recipe a bit more accessible to homebrewers by converting it into our standard BeerXML format.