Photo: © Rogue Ales
No-Shave November is a campaign to grow your facial hair to raise awareness for the hair that many people lose during cancer treatments. You can do this by letting your beard grow wild and untamed or by finally letting that dirt ‘stache turn into a full blown old timey mustache. You then donate any money that you would have had earmarked for shaving supplies to help in the education of cancer and help people who are currently battling the disease. Set up your own page at No-Shave.org to donate and let others donate to a great cause.
If you’re already participating in No-Shave November, you’ll probably want something to drink during the times when you would normally be shaving. That’s where Rogue Beard Beer comes in.
The official beer of No-Shave November, Rogue Beard Beer is brewed with yeast that is cultivated from Brew master John Maier’s actual, bushy, magical beard. Surprisingly, Maier believes this is the first beer ever brewed with yeast from the brew master’s beard. “We’ve never heard of it before,” says Maier. “Brewers have been using wild yeast since the beginning. I don’t think they questioned where it came from – in our case, we’ve named the source.” He began growing his whiskers back in 1978 and has had his beard for more than 19,000 brewing sessions. Clearly, there was ample time for some pretty good yeast to form on and around his facial hair.
© Rogue Ales
The recipe for Beard Beer itself is fairly simple. It consists of Beard yeast, Munich, C15 and pilsner malts as well as sterling hops and free-range water from the coast of Oregon. It’s clearly most special because of the yeast involved, thereby making this brew an extremely rare, unique beer that you won’t find anywhere else in the world. That is unless someone grabbed some yeast from Maier’s beard while he was asleep to use in their own version. There’s one big question: is it safe? “Not if you can’t drink beer,” says Maier.
The beer came to be because Maier had the idea to create a unique beer made from wild yeast, similar to a lambic. They began by taking a look around Rogue Farms, but didn’t find a yeast strain that they thought was right for brewing. On a lark, they decided to look into taking yeast from Maier’s beard and found that it was perfectly suited for brewing. Never at any point did they think what they were doing was crazy. “To find an ingredient, in this case Beard Yeast – that cannot be duplicated – and use it to create a completely unique product is revolutionary, not crazy,” says Maier.
© Rogue Ales
Although the yeast is perfect for beer production, it carries no specific flavors because of the proximity to Maier’s face. “Probably not what you’d imagine. Try it. We think you’ll be surprised.”
During November, Rogue will be donating a portion of the money made from Beard Beer to the No-Shave November Campaign. He campaign works with the American Cancer Society, Prevent Cancer Foundation, St. Jude Children’s Hospital and Fight Colorectal Cancer. It’s distributed across the US and in several countries. “People like it,” says Maier who recommends pairing the beer with proteins such as beef, poultry and pork. “Although it goes great with deserts as well.”
