The introduction of a new beer is not an unusual event in this brewery-rich part of the city. Still, a recent IPA launch at 56 Brewing attracted interest for more than just the brew’s body and balance.
Solarama Crush is 56 Brewing’s latest craft beer, made with the help of its head brewer Nick Chute and Spoon & Stable restaurant’s executive chef Christopher Nye and bar director Rob Jones. The restaurant team’s objective was to concoct a beer that paired with foods on their menu. On March 29, the brewery’s tap room began selling Solarama Crush in cans and on tap. It will show up on Spoon and Stable’s beer list on April 22.
What sets this new beer apart is its claim to be the “World’s first craft beer made with ‘Solar Honey.’” Solar honey is a trademarked term, and is defined as honey harvested from apiaries located near land-based solar panel arrays. The honey produced is the end product of a chain of arrangements between solar developers, clean-energy advocates, beekeepers, and now, breweries. It is also an outgrowth of the passage of The Pollinator-Friendly Solar Act, signed by Gov. Mark Dayton in May of 2016, after Fresh Energy, Audubon Minnesota, and the Minnesota Corn Growers had worked with agricultural and business leaders to establish the nation’s first statewide standard for vegetation on solar sites.
Connexus Energy has a solar panel array in the northern suburb of Ramsey, and 130 subscribers for the electricity it generates. Last year, the developer began planting wildflowers and native grasses on the land around and beneath its panels, land that had been covered with gravel. Using their own money, the solar company covered the costs to hire ecologists and landscapers to plant and manage the site. This work was done by Prairie Restorations, Inc. of Princeton, which manages more than 1,500 acres of solar arrays in six states.
Then came the husband-wife team of Bolton Bees, placing 15 bright blue hives in the midst of all the pollinator-friendly crops. Travis and Chiara Bolton said their goal is to be a source of local bees and location-specific honey within the Midwest. At harvest time, Connexus got six hundred jars of custom-labeled honey, and the Boltons sold the rest. Connexus saved the cost of the gravel and maintenance, and another small but useful bit of prairie was recovered.
Fresh Energy, a non-profit energy-policy group, has been a leader in pursuing local alternatives to traditional energy production. Rob Davis is the director of the Center for Pollinators in Energy and Media & Innovation Lab at Fresh Energy and is something of an evangelist for the connection between solar power and preservation of pollinators (both birds and bees.) He said that part of his job is “working with landscapers, entomologists, ecologists, solar companies, stormwater engineering firms, local and state officials, solar companies, farmers, pollinators advocates, beekeepers, food producers, brewers and many others.” He is concerned about the diminished amount of pollinator-friendly grasses that are so necessary for the chain of agricultural growth, and the fact that 40 percent of bee and butterfly species may be facing extinction.
It was Davis’ group that put the solar developers and beekeepers together. He noted, “We saw an opportunity for a win-win for solar, conservation, and agriculture with pollinator-friendly solar. Now, solar sites are planted with deep-rooted native flowers and grasses (black-eyed susans, purple prairie clover, partridge pea, butterfly weed, among others) that provide abundant habitat and healthy food for bees and insects that benefit agriculture, as well as benefiting butterflies, birds, and other wildlife that help make Minnesota great.” This spring, multiple solar sites around the state will be planted using similar plants, and many more bee hives will be placed.
56 Brewing’s CEO Kale Johnson said his brewery in the Marshall Terrace neighborhood is already a customer for Bolton Bees’ honey, using it in their Northeast Nectar beer. The brewery’s Solarama Crush uses Solar Honey exclusively (around 4 pounds per 15-gallon keg). Johnson said the beer comes in 24.5-ounce cans, called “crowlers.” Profits from the opening day’s “Happy Hour” were donated to Fresh Energy.
Below: 56 Brewing’s founder Kale Johnson and Fresh Energy’s Rob Davis are seen together on the left. At right, Chiara and Travis Bolton of Bolton’s Bees enjoyed a couple pints of the product of their contributions. (Photos by Mark Peterson)