Miami’s Beat Culture Brewery and Florida International University Collaborate on a Beer

When Alan Espino was learning biology as an undergraduate at Florida International University, one in every of his favourite moments was when he realized about anaerobic respiration in microbiology class.

“I bear in mind considering, How cool. So that is how alcohol is made. Looking again, it was one of many first issues to spark my soon-to-be obsession with beer,” Espino tells New Times.

Call it destiny when — years later — that inspirational second from a category helped to carve the FIU ’07 alumni’s future profession as co-owner of Miami’s Beat Culture brewery.

The native brewer has taken his inspiration one step additional, collaborating with FIU to craft a brand new beer — and beer fashion — with a function.

The FIU Sunblazer golden ale is a mission almost two years within the making, first dreamed up through the FIU’s annual Brew Miami, the craft beer pageant organized by college employees and the Miami Brewers Alliance.

According to Espino, the beer represents a novel branding alternative for the college and his Miami-based small enterprise.

“For FIU, this beer is about discovering a inventive method to help and promote the college’s alumni base, the town, and its philanthropic endeavors, in addition to spotlight the assorted departments,” says Espino.

The beer, which made its official debut on the 2023 South Beach Wine & Food Festival, is known as for FIU’s first mascot — the Sunblazer — and gives a style profile designed to signify the college’s numerous pupil inhabitants of greater than 58,000 and 290,000 Panther alumni.

To replicate that range, Espino stated he and the Beat Culture crew labored to create a completely distinctive beer, which he calls a “hybrid ale-lager” that provides the complexity of an ale with the sleek, quaffable physique of a beer. The ensuing beer is golden in coloration, has a pillowy foam, and has an aroma of sunshine grain with citrus notes from the natural hops.

“It’s a lightweight beer that is straightforward to drink however extraordinarily flavorful, and there is actually nothing fairly prefer it in the marketplace,” shares Espino.

This month, the beer will likely be obtainable at Vicky Café and Chili’s places, FIU’s West Miami-Dade campus, and FIU baseball, basketball, and soccer dwelling video games.

And — in fact — you could find it at Beat Culture, the place it is at the moment on draft within the Miami taproom and on the market for $14 in  4 packs of 16-ounce cans. Moving ahead, Espino hopes to see it turn out to be one in every of Beat Culture’s year-round choices. It will quickly be obtainable at native retailers and eating places throughout Miami-Dade and Broward Counties whereas provides final.

“This is a beer for anybody who believes in seizing alternative and hustling laborious to make it occur,” sums up Espino. “FIU performs an enormous function in Miami’s tradition and financial growth, and this ale is now a part of that story.”

Beat Culture Brewery & Kitchen. 7250 NW eleventh St., Miami; 786- 431-5642; beatculture.com.