Ruse Brewing joins Native Land project
The land we live on is not our own. A new beer program is highlighting the history of native people while raising funds for indigenous organizations through collaborative craft beer outreach. When Portland, Oregon’s Ruse Brewing heard about the project created by Bow & Arrow Brewing they immediately reached out to participate. The Native Land Hazy IPA by Ruse Brewing will be released in cans this Thursday, and is based on a recipe created by Bow & Arrow but with Ruse’s own signature style of hopping and inspired by the culture and people that called our land home hundreds of years ago.
Albuquerque, NM’s Bow and Arrow is the first Native Woman-owned brewery in the country as well as one of the few LGBTQ ones. Founded in 2016 by Shyla Sheppard who is part of the Mandan, Hidatsa & Arikara Nation, and her wife Missy Begay of the Navajo (Diné) Nation, Bow & Arrow is considered one of the leaders in the Southwest American craft beer movement.
Bow & Arrow Brewing founders Shyla Sheppard and Missy Begay - photo by Minesh Bacrania
Ruse Brewing co-founders Shaun Kalis and Devin Benware knew of Bow & Arrow’s reputation for rustic mixed culture sours, and lagers, pales and pastry beers that tap into locally grown and foraged New Mexican ingredients but were still blown away by how good they were when their wholesaler Day One Distribution dropped off a few samples. “We absolutely love their beer! Also a great representation of diversity in our industry,” says Kalis. So when they heard about Bow & Arrow’s Native Land project from Ruse team member Jessica, they knew they wanted to get involved.
Similar to the Black is Beautiful beer campaign, the Native Land project is a national collaboration brewed up to acknowledge the contributions and history of Native American People in the United States. Bow & Arrow announced the project on Indigenous Peoples Day in October, the plan to center around an IPA recipe and label template they designed for collaboration with breweries across the country. Each brewery who chooses to participate is asked to acknowledge whose ancestral land they are located on and recognize the tribe on the label, while committing to donate proceeds from the beer sales to Native organizations whose work focuses on ecological stewardship and strengthening Native communities.
“We want to do our part to give back to the Native people of our lands. We did not know too much personally so it was great to read more and educate ourselves” says Kalis, echoing a common sentiment that most of us have no idea about who resided in our region before us. After doing some research via the easily accessible web tool http://native-land.ca/ Ruse Brewing determined their brewery is located on the ancestral lands of the Clackamas and Multnomah tribes, these tribes have now been included under the Grande Ronde tribe confederation. Before embarking on the beers production Kalis and Benware reached out to the tribe to learn more. “They were happy that we were educating ourselves about the native land and tribe where our brewery lies.”
Based on the recipe created by Bow & Arrow Brewing, the Ruse Brewing Native Lands release is a Hazy IPA that uses the pre-designed grain bill but the brewers own unique hop schedule. Malted Oats give a creamy soft backdrop, from which it was then double dry hopped to the moon with the new and elusive Eclipse hop from Australia, complimented by the well known pacific northwest varieties Strata and Mosaic to give the familiar juicy notes. The Eclipse variety was actually first released as an experimental prototype called HPA-016 in 2004, but only became commercially available in 2021. Eclipse is said to be bursting with big fruit flavors of sweet fruit, fresh pine, and zesty citrus, with a red berry note according to the brewers.
Ruse / Bow & Arrow Native Land Hazy IPA will go on sale in 16oz cans at Ruse Brewing on Thursday, December 23rd, all proceeds of this beer will go to The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and Ruse Brewing hopes more pacific northwest breweries will get involved. The Native Land project got underway in November during Native American Heritage Month and concludes in March 2022, plenty of time for more breweries to get onboard with the project just as Ruse has done.