Freedom of '78

Origin Story

Freedom of '78: Pure Guava IPA was the first collaboration brew ever created at Short's. Brewed in conjunction with 1/2 Acre Brewing Co. form Chicago, IL, the very first batch of Freedom of '78 was brewed at 1/2 Acre's facility in June of 2010. The beer was packaged in 22oz bottles and sold exclusively by 1/2 Acre. The second batch of Freedom of '78 was brewed on October, 29, 2010 at the Short's Brewing Company Elk Rapids production facility. This batch was packaged in 12oz bottles and sold exclusively in 6 packs throughout Michigan. It was a small yield of only 572 cases and 16 1/2 barrels. mm For each of the first two batches, members of the respective breweries visited each other on the actual days that the Freedom was being brewed to, literally, collectively participate in making the beer, as is the nature of a collaboration brew. Collaboration brews are a sign of respect that two breweries share with each other. When Joe first met the guys who owned and operated 1/2 Acre, while touring their facility during the Craft Brewers Conference in 2010, he realized that they had a lot in common with himself and Short's. The owners of 1/2 Acre were the same age as Joe (born in 1978), were big Ween fans, and were experiencing similar growing pains that are often associated with owning, and operating, a successful brewery. The name, Freedom of '78: Pure Guava IPA, is a play off of a couple of different Ween references. On one of their albums, called "Chocolate and Cheese," there is a song called "Freedom of '76." The guys changed it to '78 when naming the beer, to reference the year that they were all born. "Pure Guava" is the name of another Ween album, and since both breweries shared an affinity for hops, they thought that making an IPA with guava nectar could be really awesome. They were right! When Joe visited 1/2 Acre to brew the inaugural batch in June of 2010, they celebrated by going to a Ween concert that night, in Chicago at the Aragon Ballroom. When the 1/2 Acre guys came up to brew the first batch of Freedom at Short's, on the day before our Halloween party in 2010, they decided to celebrate that batch with us by attending our annual Hallo-Ween bash, complete with the Ween cover band, Code Brown. Short's fans across Michigan loved our version of the Freedom of '78 and frequently requested that we brew more of it. On August 23, 2011, we made another small batch of Freedom of '78 at our Bellaire brewery, where we featured it on draft at the pub and took a handful of 1/2 bbls to select events throughout the state.On March 14, 2012 we brewed three batches of Freedom of '78 at our Elk Rapids production facility, with the intentions of once again releasing 6 packs throughout Michigan. Brewed with real pink guava puree (also referred to as ectoplasm by the brewers), there is approximately 2oz of guava in every 16oz pint of Freedom of 78'!!!