From 1,000 miles away, it can be hard to know how to help victims of Hurricane Harvey. But two Colorado breweries have halted beer production and are instead canning up water to be sent to Texas.
Thanks to
Oskar Blues Brewery in Longmont, 88,000 cans of safe drinking water are on their way to victims of Hurricane Harvey, after the brewery stopped beer production on Tuesday, August 29, and switched to canning water. And they're not the only one of our Colorado breweries to pitch in: MillerCoors is also in the midst of preparing about 55,000 cans of water to be sent south from one of its north Texas plants.
“Unfortunately we’ve done this enough times that we’ve developed a routine," Oskar Blues spokesman Chad Melis said, referring to the other calamities for which they've provided drinking water over the past few years through their
CAN'd Aid Foundation. "We’ve gotten pretty good at this.”
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Though Oskar Blues has a plant in Austin, Texas, the equipment for pretreating the water with nitrogen is only at their Longmont location. Broomfield-based can manufacturer
Ball Corp. donated the cans, and the brewery was able to fill them with water on Tuesday afternoon. They'll be shipped to Texas this week.
It’s kind of a no brainer for us to make that effort," Melis said. "People are willing to kind of grab the bull by the horns and put a little extra effort in to get it done and make sure that we can help.”
When natural disasters strike, there's often a shortage of clean drinking water, due to water sources becoming contaminated. That's why Oskar Blues founder Dale Katechis, inspired by the historic fooding that Colorado communities Lyons and Longmont experienced in 2013, first started the CAN'd Aid Foundation, in hopes of taking proactive steps in advance of natural disasters. The organization has since been able to distribute 600,000 cans of safe drinking water to people in Michigan, South Carolina, and now Texas.
Canned water is an ideal option for helping people affected by disasters because aluminum beverage cans are transport-efficient, durable and infinitely recyclable," CAN'd Aid's website states.
Ball Corp. has also donated cans to Colorado company
MillerCoors, whose Revolver plant in Texas switched to canning drinking water as well. They will then partner with The Red Cross to distribute the cans to shelters in the Houston region.
“We periodically shut off our brewing production to
produce water to be able to have it right on hand,” said Gloria Schoch, a member of the Community Affairs Management department at MillerCoors' Denver office.
What a great way for these Colorado breweries to support those who have been devastated by Hurricane Harvey! We are proud of our local companies for taking initiative and assisting in the ways that they can!
