Celebrate the cranberry harvest with A.D. Makepeace and Harpoon!
By: Linda Burke - A.D. Makepeace Published:
A couple years ago we came up with an idea: brew a beer using local ingredients that celebrates the New England Thanksgiving and supports local food banks. What could be more perfect for a New England Thanksgiving beer than local cranberries? We can’t think of anything either. So we reached out to our local cranberry growers at A.D. Makepeace to see if they would be up for providing the cranberries for the beer. Without hesitation – and much to our delight – they said yes, and a new partnership/friendship began. And Harpoon Grateful Harvest was born.
We invited Linda Burke, Director of Marketing for A.D. Makepeace, to share her thoughts on our blog about the season, the beer, and some big things they have coming up to celebrate the fall. Take it away, Linda!
After many years of quietly enjoying Harpoon beer, we joined forces with Harpoon, our fellow Massachusetts icon, to create Grateful Harvest Ale, in 2010. The beer uses Makepeace cranberry puree in some magical formula that is reminiscent of a New England autumn day -- crisp, bright, and refreshing.
It's not just a great beer, it's a generous concept. Harpoon donates $1 to the food bank in the area where each sixpack is sold. Now that's an approach that really appealed to us at the A.D. Makepeace Company, given our 158-year history of giving back to our community in a big way.
But the best part is how we introduced this great new beer together. You see, every October, during Columbus Day weekend, we invite the world in for a big celebration of the cranberry harvest. We offer bog tours -- at bogside, by wagon, or by helicopter, and have a bunch of other fun, old-fashioned family events. Our friends at Harpoon came down and poured two-ounce samples of Grateful Harvest, and it was a big hit.
Come to the festival this year! We're conveniently located at the place where Interstates 495 and 195 meet, and of the 32,000 people who attended last year, every single one of them seemed to have a great time. Visit www.cranberryharvest.org for directions and to learn more. Hope to see you this weekend!
About A.D. Makepeace: The A.D. Makepeace Company is one of the world's largest cranberry growers. Founded by Abel Makepeace in 1854, they were one of the companies that came together to form the Ocean Spray co-op. They currently farm about 2,000 acres of bogs in Wareham, Plymouth, Carver and Rochester. Above all, they are a wonderful group of people who share Harpoon’s commitment to being a good neighbor within the community. We have felt so fortunate to work with them on this beer.
