Beer Kulture and Colorado’s Primitive Beer Team Up to Fund Scholarships

A peach on a beach, packed in a bag in a box.

Not a Dr. Seuss couplet, but the latest collaboration from non-profit organization Beer Kulture, which teamed up with Belgian-inspired, Longmont, Colorado-based Primitive Beer.

Peach on a Beach is a spontaneously fermented ale aged in bourbon barrels on Colorado peaches and Tahitian vanilla beans packaged in Primitive’s signature bag-in-box. Primitive, which specializes in lambic-style blends, serves and packages its younger offerings without carbonation, co-owner Brandon Boldt told Brewbound.

“Anything that’s really less than two or three years old traditionally is served still,” he said. “We had some experiences with that — young lambic and even older lambics served from the barrels from a cask or, in some instances, from bag in box — in Belgium and that really blew our minds in terms of the method for serving or for packaging a beer.”

The bag-in-box package format comes with several advantages for both consumers and brewers. The beer inside doesn’t go stale quickly, and there’s no carbonation to worry about losing. Boxes are easily packed and carried for outdoor occasions. On the production side, they’re easier to procure than cans at the moment, due to the worldwide can shortage that is expected to last years. They’re also lighter to ship than bottles.

The collaboration began with an email, Boldt said. He and wife and co-owner Lisa Boldt admired Beer Kulture’s mission of bringing diversity, equity and inclusion to the beer industry and contacted co-founder, CEO and president Latiesha Cook to work together.

“We were really excited to work with Beer Kulture, especially given that this is their first spontaneous fermentation Kollab,” Lisa Boldt said in a press release. “We’re big believers in their movement and think spontaneous beers are a great vehicle to introduce new people to the beer industry.

“Given the similarities to wine, spontaneously fermented beer and its depth of flavors can serve as a nice entry point to the world of beer, showing there’s more to experience than macro lagers and IPAs,” she continued.

Peach on a Beach, which was released during the last week of December 2020 and is available on Primitive’s e-commerce site, was intended to remind drinkers of happier, more relaxing times, Cook said in the release.

“This has been such a challenging year for so many people,” she said. “On the heavier side, there have been lives lost, jobs lost, sickness, and division. But we’ve lost little things too, like the ability to travel and go on vacation. To us, Peach On A Beach offers an opportunity to have that beach vacation, at least mentally.”

Through proceeds from its collaborations, such as from Peach on a Beach, and donations, Beer Kulture is able to further its mission of diversifying both beer consumers and beer industry employees by offering quarterly scholarships for Certified Cicerone Program testing and an internship with Hop Culture magazine.

This week, Beer Kulture announced winners of its most recent rounds of both.

Dedrick McFadden received a scholarship to study for and take the Certified Cicerone exam, the second level of the program’s certification, valued at $754. Mary Johnson, Jennifer Choi and Diamond Bell each were awarded scholarship packages for the Certified Beer Server Exam, the first level certification, valued at $200.

“Each of these candidates have fought hard to be here, have impressed our voting team with their essays and we are just flat out freakin’ excited to support them on their journeys,” Beer Kulture wrote on Instagram.

For Q3 2020, Beer Kulture awarded two Certified Cicerone scholarships and three Certified Beer Server scholarships. Applications for Q1 2021 scholarships are being accepted through March 1.

Through a partnership with beer community publication Hop Culture, which was acquired by Untappd parent company Next Glass in early December, Beer Kulture selected Eric Jackson for an editorial internship during Q1 2021, which comes with a $1,000 stipend. To support the internship, Beer Kulture and Hop Culture sold a Teku glass featuring artwork by Amika Cooper.

In November, Beer Kulture launched a job board for breweries and other beer industry companies to recruit talent from typically untapped audiences. Since its launch, 12 job seekers have advanced through the application process in jobs found on the board.

To accomplish a more inclusive industry, Cook and Beer Kulture’s board engage with both drinkers and breweries. The hard work and sometimes difficult conversations are paying off, Cook said.

“I have definitely noticed that the way breweries are speaking to consumers have changed,” she told Brewbound. “When Beer Kulture first stepped into the industry in 2017, a lot of our conversation was based around representation. I am seeing breweries become more inclusive and welcoming by the way that they represent themselves.

“When I go to a brewery’s social media page, I no longer see the white man in a flannel shirt drinking with his buddies,” she continued. “I see women, people with ‘disabilities,’ Black people, people who represent the LGBTQ community, non-binary people — I am seeing a world of representation which is a great place to start.”

An earlier version of this story incorrectly described Peach on a Beach as sold out, but it is still available.