Our friends at Fullsteam Brewery just released a new brew with proceeds benefitting TLC! Ambler is a delicious brown ale, made with roasted pecans and honey. Fullsteam worked with local companies Murphy’s Naturals, Leaf & Limb, Happy Dirt, and Bee Downtown to source the pecans and honey that give this beer its delectable flavor. “Together, we brewed an approachable honey pecan brown ale with a sense of place of the Carolina woods in autumn,” said Fullsteam CEO Sean Wilson. “It’s accessible and enjoyable…just like TLC properties throughout the Triangle.”
Sean is a member of TLC’s board of directors, and Fullsteam has supported TLC for years. “Fullsteam has long been a champion of Triangle Land Conservancy – well before my tenure as a current board member. Our staff and our fans especially appreciate TLC’s mission to connect the community to the outdoors,” he said. Back in 2017, Fullsteam produced the Good Food Award-winning Brumley Forest Baltic Porter, with black walnut and hickory nuts foraged from Brumley nature preserve. Sales from the Brumley Forest Baltic Porter supported TLC the way Ambler will.
With each purchase of the Ambler, money goes directly to TLC thanks to the generosity of Fullsteam, Murphy’s Naturals, Leaf and Limb, and Bee Downtown. “Together, we’re donating $5,000 to help TLC with its mission to improve access to nature for all, especially those who are too-often separated from experiencing nature at its fullest,” said Sean. For each pint purchased at one of Fullsteam’s two locations and for each four-pack bought wherever you already purchase your Fullsteam products, $1 goes to TLC.
Leaf & Limb, a local tree care company whose purpose is to care for trees because they love our planet, has a long-term agreement with TLC at Williamson Preserve for their Project Pando, a volunteer-driven operation that is sustainably growing native trees to give to the public for free.
“A couple of years ago, we reached out to Fullsteam to see if they would be interested in collaborating on special edition beer that would benefit TLC. Our goal was to not only raise money, but to also raise awareness about TLC’s conversation work and the newly launched Project Pando,” said Rebekah Miel, Director of Marketing with Leaf and Limb. “We’re excited that Murphy’s Naturals, Bee Downtown, and Happy Dirt have joined the cause because we’re able to amplify our message to a much larger audience. We’re so grateful for our partnership with TLC and want to sho
ut from the treetops about their good work. This collaboration is just one way to do that.”
Murphy’s Naturals, a long-time supporter of TLC, is an outdoor lifestyle company headquartered in Raleigh that manufactures, among other products, natural plant-based mosquito repellent products. They focus on effective alternatives to DEET and other chemical-based repellents. They worked with Bee Downtown to harvest honey from their rooftop beehive to contribute to the Ambler. “This collaboration was so much fun for us,” Audrey Henderson, Murphy’s Naturals’ Director of Sustainability & Social Mission, said. “All of the collaborators have a connection to TLC in some way, but one of the things that we have most in common with TLC is celebrating nature. This is what that beer aims to do, celebrate nature through the ingredients and support Triangle Land Conservancy’s work of creating access to quiet spaces for everyone to interact with nature.”
Murphy’s Naturals was one of Bee Downtown’s first partners. This year, their bees made over 400 pounds of honey. Audrey White, Bee Downtown’s North Carolina Events Manager, noted that, “Murphy’s has always been great supporters of Bee Downtown, and clearly their bees feel that love as well. We are so excited for the Ambler collaboration and to see all the great things Murphy’s Naturals continues to do.” Bee Downtown is also a supporter of TLC and keeps some of their bees at the Bailey & Sarah Williamson Nature Preserve.
In addition to how these organizations came together to care for and protect access to critical natural resources, the story of the origin of the Ambler ingredients is compelling. “The honey used came from our five beehives we have on our rooftop in a very urban area just outside of downtown Raleigh,” shared Audrey. “The hives are maintained by Bee Downtown, which aims to bring these micro-agricultural farms, beehives, to urban areas to help regenerate the honeybee population.” She continued, “The pecans used in the beer are sourced from a black-owned farm, New Communities, through Happy Dirt in Durham. New Communities was founded in 1969 to create a safe-haven for Black farmers that were driven from their land for participating in the Civil Rights Movement. So, we had these two ingredients with their own unique stories, one very urban and one rural, and we loved the story they were starting to tell.”
Audrey added, “These urban and rural ingredients reflect TLC’s work on land equity and creating access to quiet spaces for everyone to enjoy. That’s where the skeleton on the label comes in. No matter where you come from or what you look like, we all have a deep human desire to connect with nature on some level. We are so thankful for the work that TLC has done in the Triangle to conserve these lands for everyone to interact with nature.”
“This latest collaboration, Ambler, is all about equal access to the outdoors. The desire for all of us, to our bones, to be outside…to have lasting experiences and moments like I’ve had with my family and with the Fullsteam community,” said Sean. “My now-grown children are forever shaped by formative experiences at Johnston Mill and, later, at White Pines. Those experiences fortified a forever love of TLC’s protected properties and its mission. I want to share these experiences and this access — that feeling I get being in the Carolina Wild — with all Triangle residents.”
We hope that you consider purchasing the Ambler! It is the perfect beverage for holiday gatherings and presents a perfect opportunity to support the places that you have grown to love.
Photos by Stacey Sprenz Photography
