This year’s beer is an Organic Red Rye Ale, once again brewed in cooperation with Bison Brewing in Chico, CA. It is a reddish-amber colored beer, with a pronounced malt forward profile balanced by the delicate spices of the hops and rye. It is 6.5% alcohol by volume.

The beer will be distributed through the SBS-Imports distributor network, to approximately 20 states, suggested retail price of $4.99-$5.99 per 22 ounce bottle.

Consumers may also mail order (starting mid-February) via the Michael Jackson Rare Beer Club. 100% of the profits generated by SBS-Imports will benefit the Institute for Myeloma & Bone Cancer Research (IMBCR). Donations to IMBCR accepted via Reunion Beer or directly at the IMBCR site. Bottle and label art available upon request. Full press release to follow in early February.

If you missed this story last year, here’s how it started.

Once upon a time, Pete Slosberg created Pete’s Wicked Ale. And the brown ale was good. He had help spreading the word, of course, and in the early days Alan Shapiro and Virginia MacLean also helped Pete’s become a nationally known microbrewery. Pete, of course, moved on to chocolate and Alan Shapiro worked for a time with Merchant Du Vin and now heads his own import company, SBS Imports. Virginia MacLean, in the meantime, left the beer business but as she approached her fortieth birthday was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, which is a type of bone cancer that currently has no known cure. For more information about the disease, see the MMRF or the Institute for Myeloma & Bone Cancer Research.

Last February, Pete Slosberg and Alan Shapiro got together and decided to help their friend by creating a new beer to help raise awareness and money to fund research into this disease. The beer was named “Reunion,” and it was a big, imperial brown ale and was the first commercial beer Slosberg had done since selling Pete’s Wicked Ale to Gambrinus in 1998. He worked with award-winning brewer Daniel Del Grande at Bison Brewing in creating the organic beer.

Unfortunately, last June Virginia McLean passed away in her home in Mountain View, California. But Pete and Alan decided to continue the fight against the disease that took their friend in her name and in her honor. When you start seeing this beer again this February, please buy a bottle or two to support this worthy cause.