One of the best annual charity campaigns involving breweries is back for another run. The One for 5 campaign, now in its fifth year, returns starting today (Thursday) at the three participating breweries and Albertsons Market and Market Street locations throughout central and northern New Mexico.

One for 5 features three breweries — Second Street, Sierra Blanca, Steel Bender — collaborating to create a special beer that is sold in cans at the taprooms and grocery stores, with a little available on draft as well. This year’s version is a juicy IPA, albeit clear, not hazy. I got the chance to enjoy a pint a day early when I met up with Steel Bender co-owner/marketing director Shelby Chant.

“I will say, personally, that this is my favorite one we’ve done,” she said. “I think it tastes absolutely fantastic. It’s a beautiful, beautiful beer. Rod (Tweet) was able to get Yakima Chief to donate completely the HBC 630 hops, which was a hefty price tag. Definitely a shout out to those guys, who definitely love contributing to a cause like this.”

The result is a truly unique IPA, with flavors of stone fruit and citrus, and minimal bitterness.

“First and foremost, it’s a beautiful beer,” Chant said. “We don’t do the lagers because we like to brew it, ferment it, get it out. Doing a long lager or something like that is something we’ve never done. This year we went with a juicy IPA, which is all due to Rod. We had the initial meeting with Storehouse and the other partners. It’s just fantastic. It’s a great style to be doing for year five, because it’s not something we’ve done before.”

The Storehouse is the beneficiary of One for 5, as it has been since the beginning. As Chant noted, 100 percent of the proceeds from four-pack sales at Albertsons Market and Market Street, as well as the taprooms, go directly to the Storehouse. Every $1 equals five meals. In addition, $1 from every pint sold at both Second Street taprooms, Sierra Blanca, and Steel Bender will go to the Storehouse.

“I think this year is special, not just because it’s the fifth year, it’s that commemorative year,” Chant said. “We were able to come off of year four with these remarkable numbers, having raised at that point $40,000 over four years to provide 200,000 meals. It’s just so mind boggling to know that a beer, a concept that we developed back in 2019 was able to do that. We’re really proud of this campaign, we really are.”

The partners were rewarded back during the Craft Brewers Conference in Nashville in early May, when the Craft Beer Marketing Awards were also held.

“Two big wins for this particular beer,” Chant said. “Steel Bender won in the first-ever Bigger than Beer category. We won platinum. Ethan and I actually got to be at the ceremony this year. That was going to be a sentimental win for us, for sure. The partners put a lot of work into this campaign. For a concept that came up over a salad with someone from the Storehouse over at Nick and Jimmy’s, and for it to be come this.

“Ethan and I were sitting at the awards ceremony, and they were going through all the winners for Bigger than Beer and we thought they had gotten to the end. We’re like, you know what, it’s all good. We had been hearing about huge breweries that had been raising half a million dollars in one year. We’re three small breweries and there’s no way we can compete with that. What do you know, they got to platinum, and it was ours.

“I’m not going to lie, there were some sweaty eyeballs there. It was really cool, because we could tell that there were other people at the ceremony who knew what it was about. We were sitting in the back row and they turned around and they were really excited and were clapping for us.”

Second Street director of art and branding Mariah Cameron Scee then took home her own award in the collaboration beer category for the can label design, a Global Crushie. Once again this year, Scee handled the label design, and she told us a little about it over email.

“This year’s can design is an evolution of the 2022 One for 5 label, which coincidentally just won a Global Crushie in the Craft Beer Marketing Awards in May,” she wrote. “I wanted the art to be recognizable, but fresh. The colors in the art utilize Storehouse New Mexico’s brand colors: teal, green, red and yellow.

“As always, creating a label for a collaboration beer with so many partners is a unique design challenge — there are no less than eight logos on this year’s can! We want to feature all the partners without overwhelming consumers; the art needs to be simple enough to exist with all of these logos, but bold enough to stand on its own.

“I’m very happy with this year’s design and hope we raise a lot of money for Storehouse NM this year. It’s such a great project and Storehouse is an amazing organization.”

Now that the 2022 can design pulled in some big awards, Chant said that the 2023 beer will be sent up to the Great American Beer Festival for judging in the collaboration beer category.

Everyone is more than welcome to visit Second Street, Sierra Blanca, or Steel Bender to get a pint and/or a four-pack of One for 5 starting today, but the supply will be limited.

“We are going to follow last year’s model in terms of distribution percentages in the taprooms,” Chant said. “We want to push people to Albertsons Market. Albertsons is this humble supporter of Storehouse (and) many, many non-profits, but Storehouse especially. Albertsons does a lot for them all the time. They are sending food over there all the time. They’ve got the ability to move the beer very quickly. But, we also want people to go over there and support Albertsons. There’s absolutely no reason to do your grocery shopping anywhere but Albertsons over the next month. Give them your business and pick up a couple four-packs while you’re at it.”

The beer will be available at 17 Albertsons Market and Market Street locations in the Albuquerque area, Los Lunas area, Santa Fe area, and Taos area. There will be a launch event featuring some of the partners at the Albertsons Market at Wyoming and San Antonio this afternoon, but otherwise, head to your nearest store or taproom and pick up some really good beer for a great cause.

Thanks to Shelby and Mariah, as always.

Keep supporting local!

— Stoutmeister