Beer of the Week: As You Wish

From the Beer Writer: As a brewery employee, there are certain things you hope to be furnished with in return for your hard work. Among them: sufficient compensation, beer, respect, beer, camaraderie, beer and appreciation. In the best cases, a beertender, brewer, salesperson or someone fulfilling the many other roles within a brewing company gets all of the above. Then there are special cases when a brewery is able to give back on a different level, to get behind something meaningful to their staffer. Such is the story behind this week’s featured beer. A while back, a retired gentleman who took a shine to the beers and team at Hopnonymous Brewing asked if he could get behind the bar and help out. Comfortable in his post-vocational life, he wasn’t looking for much of the aforementioned compensation. It was more important to him to do something fulfilling and worthwhile, and the Kearny Mesa brewery’s owner was happy to oblige him. It’s worked out well for both parties, enough that when the kindly walk-on asked if Hopnonymous would brew a beer in memory of a dearly departed friend, one which would raise money to help fund research to cure the disease his friend passed away from, he received an instantaneous and enthusiastic “yes”. Enter, As You Wish, a hazy IPA built to be lower in alcohol for the sunny season. Each sip conveys a layered stone fruit flavor profile reminiscent of peaches, apricots and nectarines. That’s all well and good, but so, too, is the charity behind the beer. For more on that, I’ll hand things over to the Hopnonymous crew.

From the Brewer: “Giving back to the community is integral to our mission at Hopnonymous. In September 2020, we did a collaboration with the ladies from Mujeres Brew House for Breast Cancer Awareness Month called Remission Possible. That fruited sour double IPA became our first fundraiser beer, and a percentage of sales were used to help a local woman in her battle against the disease. Then in January, an early supporter of our brewery told us the story of his best friend, Scott, who lost a tough battle with a rare form of aggressive non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Scott spent summers working at Coors in Golden, Colorado, while attending CU and he loved pounding ‘silver bullets’. Later on, he moved to San Diego, got married and had two incredible children, raising them just across the freeway from us in Tierrasanta. Scott had a free spirit and positive attitude; he was loved by all who met him. He also gave back to the community in many ways, including coaching and administering youth sports. One endearing memory was watching The Princess Bride with Scott and his kids. That’s where we came up with the name for As You Wish, an inconceivably hazy 6% summer IPA that’s double dry-hopped with copious amounts of Citra, Zamba and New Zealand Cascade. Ten percent of sales from this beer will be donated to the Lymphoma Foundation of America, which provides resources to those afflicted while also funding the critical research to find a cure. This non-profit has an extremely low overhead, so 99 cents of every dollar donated is used for these purposes. We’d like to invite everyone from the community to come out to our tasting room for a special toast next week. We’ll post more details about that on our Instagram account, so please stay tuned. Many of us have painful experiences with good friends who have been unexpectedly ripped from our lives. The voids they leave cannot be replaced. As You Wish was brewed with love to honor all of them.”—Hunter Mannix, Head Brewer, Hopnonymous Brewing