'Till the Battle is Won - Requiem
Most of you know, I am an Army veteran. I did two tours of duty as a combat engineer in Iraq. It is something that I rarely open up about in our taproom unless another veteran comes in or I know you fairly well. My goal has always been to make my service more of a background thing than a reason to head to our taproom. In other words, I want my brewing to merit your trip out here, not the fact that I served. It is a part of me that I constantly struggle with: to do my best to remember that it is in the past and has helped me become who I am today instead of it controlling who I am (which it has in the past). We named our Midwest IPA '“‘Till the Battle is Won” after the UK fight song and (most people do not know this) to remind ourselves that soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airman are always in harms way every day.
I bring all of this up because we are brewing a variant of ‘Till the Battle is Won. This whole idea started as something we have wanted to do since the beginning due to a friend but haven’t found a way to properly institute it. Some of you know, we have contributed heavy to veteran based charities, in particular, Deep Sea Valkyries and Wounded Warrior Project. Right before we started construction, I had a friend commit suicide. He started defriending everyone on social media and quit contributing to a Facebook group we were both active participants in. All of which should have been signs but all of which no one saw until it was too late. About 8 months later, another veteran from my old Army unit, a guy I had met only in passing, did the same thing. Since then, I have lost one more brother to suicide.
The purpose of this ‘Till the Battle is Won - Requiem is to shine light on the crisis fscing the veteran community. The statistic is that on average, 22 veterans commit suicide a day. I am sure most everyone has heard this statistic by now. We want this beer to be a reminder of the number 22 and how important it is for any veteran to seek help instead of leaving this world. This beer is brewed with the Veteran Blend hops put together by YCH Hops. We want this to be a reminder to everyone who has a veteran in their life to check in on them at least once a month. Other things you can do to help them are to get them involved in something with you; a charity, dragging them to the gym every other day, or something to keep their mind off things work best. Just remember to avoid huge crowds as this tends to have a bad effect. I was fortunate in finding a hobby that became a passion that became a business. I had something to throw myself into when my wife couldn’t be home and I was alone. I was also fortunate enough to have a wife that stuck with me in my darkest days and pushed me into the Wounded Warrior Project. I won’t lie, there were some rough days but there were also days when I was out in 15 degree winters brewing to distract myself from some of the bad thoughts I was having. The biggest hope I have in brewing this beer is that people will encourage veterans to get the help they need and that it is okay to seek help. In my experience, the military works so hard at convincing its members that any form of emotion is a sign of weakness that it gets in the way of veterans actually admitting they need help once they are out of the service. It feeds this continual loop of “if I feel this way, I must be weak”. Social support and having something like Alexandria Brewing Company is how I deal with my demons. If the first part was all I had, I would still be fine. When you drink this beer, please remember the best thing you can do for a veteran is be that support.
Look for this to be released around Veterans Day.
Cheers,
Andy Reynolds