Joe Maddon’s Try Not To Suck German-style Lager is a Beer for the People
Apr. 30, 2019
Story by Paulina Cajigal
Photos by Annaleah De Masi
The importance of the work Respect 90, Haymarket, RnR Brews, Veteran Roasters and Rags of Honor are doing can be seen directly on the canning line.
Army veteran Nathan Reeves and Navy veteran Sterling Johnson helped package the first few cases of Try Not To Suck. When Nathan and Sterling are asked about their experiences with the different organizations, their responses echo in solidarity.
“Just being around other vets — there's a similar mindset and work ethic,” Nathan said. “You only know them for a day or two, but you instantly connect.”
“I’m honored to be part of the team, part of this family,” Sterling said. “Just working with some of these guys, I found a sense of family and a sense of purpose again.”
It’s unclear what comes first when veterans get involved with RnR Brews, Rags of Honor and Veteran Roasters — the sense of family or the sense of purpose.
But the sentiment is the same; they go hand-in-hand and one cannot exist without the other.
Trying to survive post-military is more taxing and arduous than most people realize, and the five organizations involved recognize that.
“Transition’s hard whether you were in for four years or 40,” Branden said. “Without that support system, you’ll get lost quickly.”
“People don’t understand what you’re going through,” Mark said. “You don’t have another veteran you can talk to and nobody knows what it’s like to be away from your family for four years just to then lose your job and live in your car. You can’t even afford new shoes.”
When Pete talks about how Haymarket became involved, there’s a stream of consciousness and an obligation to honor. He just wants veterans to get the recognition they deserve.
“You can’t expect them to do all the amazing things they do just to come back and be ignored,” Pete said. “(Mark, Kip and Branden) are trying to create job opportunities for people who don’t have them, and that’s extremely important.”
But with Veteran Roasters, Rags of Honor, RnR Brews and now Haymarket Brewery and Respect 90, veterans and other marginalized communities are rebounding.
And Try Not To Suck is their rallying cry.
(Picture left to right: Branden, Kip, Mark)
“I’ve seen men and women cry when we offer them a job,” Mark said. “Our whole mission is to help make that transition from hopelessness to that next step where there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”
(Pictured: Haymarket employees and military veterans work the Try Not To Suck assembly line.)
Kip has never served in the military, but she is familiar with it.
On RnR Brews’ website, there’s a photograph of her ex-marine father in Iwo Jima, enjoying a beer with some friends. For Kip, the photo reflects how a soldier spends his or her downtime — a part of a soldier’s life that is never really forgotten.
“As my dad got older and older, he talked a lot more about his days in the military, his sense of being a part of the brothers he never forgot,” Kip said. “So, it’s about that. It’s about grabbing a beer at the end of the day, whether with folks you’ve served with or if you’re just reflecting.”
“It’s also a cheer,” Kip said. “Let’s salute those who have given and served for us.”
The communities Rags of Honor, Veteran Roasters, RnR Brews, Haymarket Brewing and Respect 90 have built aren’t small, but they also aren’t large.
They’re a small platoon in the world benefitting from an even smaller platoon of people who just want to do and see good.
(Pictured left to right, top row: Kip Doyle, Peter Crowley, Branden Marty; Pictured left to right, bottom row: Sterling Johnson, Mark Doyle, Nathan Reeves)
“We can’t change the whole world, but we can change the world around us,” Mark said. “Whether we’re brewing beer, roasting coffee or screen-printing t-shirts, that’s what we’re trying to do.”
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Joe Maddon’s Try Not To Suck German-style Lager tastes like “baseball and summertime.”
There are few things in life that are just as pure — or wholeheartedly American — as nine innings on a sunny day but when it comes to intentions, Try Not To Suck has that in its flavor profile too.
The summertime brew is a collaboration between Rags of Honor, Veteran Roasters, RnR Brews, Haymarket Brewing and Respect 90. The five have one common goal: help their communities survive and thrive.
For Rags of Honor, Veteran Roasters and RnR Brews, their community is their brothers and sisters in arms. On a single night, at least 37,800 U.S. military veterans experience homelessness.
So, Mark and Kip Doyle founded Rags of Honor, a screen-printing and apparel organization, to combat that number after Mark came back from Afghanistan a few years ago.
“I found when we started Rags of Honor, on top of the fact these veterans lost the camaraderie of being in the military, some of them lost everything else,” Mark said. “So, we try to build a safe space for them.
Rags of Honor produces apparel for vets made by vets. It has about 80 employees on its roster, all veterans. Veteran Roasters is a coffee roaster also founded by Kip and Mark, co-owned by Branden Marty, a Navy veteran with nine years of service under his belt. Together, they formed RnR Brews, a beer brewery.
With their trifecta of organizations, Branden, Kip and Mark are trying to give back a sense of dignity to those who served — not only by helping them get back on their feet but also by welcoming them back into the brotherhood.
“When veterans come back from service, they lose that sense of camaraderie and that’s when they become unwound,” Kip said. “That’s why we keep building and hiring more, so they never feel like they’re alone.”
The partnership with Respect 90 and the Maddon family came naturally. Joe and his wife Jaye established the foundation to help children and families “develop championship attitudes through sports, academics, and community involvement.” Their community involvement exposed Joe and Jaye to the homelessness in the neighborhoods they served.
“We want to help veterans and we want to help homeless people with Respect 90,” Mark said. “If you had to boil it down to the lowest common denominator, every time you buy a can of this beer, you're going to help somebody.”
Haymarket’s role in the philanthropic five’s alliance was one it’s held a few times. Throughout Brewmaster and co-founder Peter Crowley’s career, he’s always made it a point to use beer to bring people together and he had that front-of-mind when creating the recipe.
“I think people are going to be surprised at how refreshing and clean it is,” Peter said. “When you finish one, you want another one.”
The proceeds of Joe Maddon’s Try Not To Suck German-style Lager directly help veterans and disenfranchised communities.
Cracking open a can is a homerun — and a 21-gun salute.