Woods Boss brewed an IPA to boost environmental education

By Kristen Kuchar

Woods Boss Brewing is teaming up with Living a Stout Life and Cottonwood Institute to raise money for public school students.

Woods Boss will brew a limited availability IPA, and the proceeds from the beer will go to the Cottonwood Institute, an environmental education non-profit that works with public schools in Boulder, Lafayette, Aurora and Denver. “Our vision is to awaken the changemaker within every student,” explains Carly Winner, Community Adventure Program (CAP) instructor and event manager.

The CAP program is offered during the school day for academic credit. During CAP sessions, students meet in class 3-5 days per week, and challenge themselves on hikes and overnight camping trips, while exploring inspiring solutions to hyper-local environmental issues. Students choose an issue to address as a class, and then collaborate with other local organizations to design and implement a student-directed Action Project to positively address their issue, Winner explains.

CAP students have tackled wildfire mitigation projects, organized bike-to-school days, completed organic gardening and composting projects, created projects to help save native bees and other pollinators and more.

Living a Stout Life’s April Pishna was an employee of the Cottonwood Institute, and her husband Ken was a volunteer. The duo has been traveling around the country in an RV for the past four and one-half years.

“We tell the stories behind the breweries, their founders and brewers, and other interesting folks we’ve met along our travels on our website LivingAStoutLife.com and our podcast Craft Beer Travel & Adventure,” Ken says.

While back in Denver, the Pishnas had the idea to brew a beer that raises money for the Cottonwood Institute and turned to their friends at Woods Boss Brewing.

“Woods Boss has always been very community and fundraiser minded, so that’s when we decided that a fundraiser for Cottonwood Institute, especially at Woods Boss, just made sense,” Ken explained.

The Pishnas, Cottonwood Institute Executive Director Ford Church and Woods Boss Head Brewer Ryan Logan got together to imagine the beer. They wanted something easily approachable and highly drinkable, so they settled on a West Coast / East Coast IPA hybrid.

“Ryan came up with the base recipe for the beer, but then walked me, April, and Ford through selecting the hops, which is what can really make an IPA unique,” Ken says. “Ryan brought out numerous different hops for us to smell and discuss their flavor and aroma profiles to come up with what we feel is a rather fun beer with some uncommon hops.”

Hops include Argentinian Willamette, which presents as herbal spice with some notes of pineapple, Ken adds. “Willamette is a common hop from the Pacific Northwest, but the Argentinian variety we used adds the pineapple notes that aren’t prevalent in the Pacific NW variety.”

They also used Argentinian Victoria hops, which add a lot of tropical character, as well as some notes of tangerine and pine; French Barbe Rouge, which provides notes of currant, raspberry and strawberry; and Belma hops, which come across as melon, tropical and strawberry.

This collab beer, known as CIPA, will be released at 5 p.m. tomorrow at Woods Boss Brewing, 2210 California St., in Denver. Revenue from the beer will be donated to the Cottonwood Institute, and $1 from every other beer will be donated as well.

“This collaboration is an opportunity for people to come out and learn what Cottonwood Institute is all about,” Winner said. “The money raised from this collaboration will support our CAP programs, specifically things like transportation and food for students on our field trips.” Cottonwood Institute provides free programming for students that includes the trip, transportation, food and gear (jackets, snow pants, snowshoes tents). In the 2021-2022 school year, the Cottonwood Institute worked with 785 students along the Front Range, logged 21,475 program contact hours, and recorded 7,168 service learning hours.

Kristen Kuchar is a freelance writer covering food, libations, music and other Colorado gatherings.