This year’s current Blue & Gold brewing team, consisting of five undergraduate Marquette students and mentors from partner breweries, decided to bring back the “nostalgia and memorabilia” through this release, referring to it as “The Can, The Myth, the Legend.”
On National Marquette Day, Feb. 10, Blue & Gold Brewing Company is releasing their second beer, “The Beer Can,” inspired by Marquette’s old dormitory, McCormick Hall, that used to house first-year students until it was demolished in 2019.
Students over the age of 21 can purchase the beer at Fiserv Forum during the Marquette basketball game vs. St. Johns. Joe Yeado, a founder and president of Gathering Place Brewing and mentor, said the plan is to have the beer available after National Marquette Day as well, at the retail stores listed on their website, such as Avenue Liquor Store, Caffrey’s Pub, Discount Liquor, Broken Bat Brewing Co. and more.
The dorm itself was around for over 50 years and used to be where the O’Brien business building currently is.
“The Beer Can” nickname was given to McCormick because of its architectural structure shaped like a beer can and its location in the heart of Milwaukee, a prominent brewing city.
Stella Quinlan, director of graphic design for Blue & Gold, said during the brainstorming process they had to come up with ideas to either match or surpass the hype and excitement that last year’s ’77 Golden Ale brought.
“Through a few conversations as a team and with the rest of our beer board, including our mentors and partners, we landed on the idea of McCormick because it is something not solely unique to just basketball fans,” Quinlan said. “It is unique to the Marquette identity as a whole, especially our alumni.”
For the can design itself, which features a faded white picture of the notorious McCormick Hall on a navy blue background with gold lettering, Quinlan said she wanted a retro vibe to distinguish this year’s can from last year.
“I wanted to find something that encouraged that nostalgia and brought back those memories for alumni… so I was thinking more vintage collegiate. Then through some visual research and mood boards and playing around, we landed on this very sleek, dark can that has very vintage vibes,” Quinlan said.
For the flavor, the students began by taste-testing varieties of different beers with their partner mentors at Gathering Place Brewing Company, Good City Brewing and Broken Bat Brewery Company, all Milwaukee-based breweries.
Sarah Richardson, director of engagement and promotions, said this past Halloween they went to the Gathering Place where they tried multiple beer samples that already exist, primarily from Broken Bat and Gathering Place, and some from Good City.
Richardson said their team also had discussions on how long it takes to brew beer. Since it takes almost a month to brew a lager, they decided to do an ale again for their beer of choice.
“We want to set us up for next year if the company wants to expand more on the types of beer next year, but for now we essentially tried the flavors and took notes down on what they liked and didn’t like,” Richardson said. “We went to brewers and were like, this is what we want the beer to taste like,’ and from there they went to their brewers to start the flavor.”
“The Beer Can” is a cream ale has fruit and citrus notes, with hints of chinook hops.
“We’re giving back to the people before us, while also giving back to the people before us and the people who will come after us,” Quinlan said. “This kind of legacy of like what is Marquette at its core and celebrating around that.”
D’Angelo Alvarado, director of entrepreneurship and finance, said they hope to sell out and have high expectations for this year’s product.
“We are satisfied with what’s coming out and we just hope that the student population and the alumni appreciate our efforts to make a little bit of memorabilia come back,” Alvarado said.
Owen Krappman, director of logistics and operations, there has been sales meetings to bridge the gap between the tap rooms, the brewers, the distributors and the retail locations.
Yeado was introduced to the project by Broken Bat owner Tim Pauly.
“It all seemed to fit so perfectly for this second iteration of the Marquette beer project that we would honor the building thousands of students called home over the years,” Yeado said.
As a mentor, Yeado said they provide the students with guidance on what the industry looks like, such as the landscape of the beer industry, who are big players, what is craft beer and more.
“We give them some background information on some of the issues that go into pricing and distribution and how we get the beer from the factor, from the brewery, out into the consumer’s hand,” Yead0 said. “We’ve built relationships, and we share those relationships with retail accounts, bars, restaurants.”
As far as what the future holds, Krappman said a priority goal is to be profitable and build on the solid foundation that was established from last year’s Golden Ale. He said their canning day is Jan. 30, when they will see their product in its full form.
This story was written by Trinity Zapotocky. She can be reached at [email protected]
