Dark Charge is the name of a high-powered, barrel-aged, imperial stout crafted by the Braxton Brewing Co.
It’s one of the Covington brewer’s most popular beers and is the centerpiece of a December celebration called Dark Charge Day.
Dark Charge Day usually occurs the first Saturday of December. In the past, thirsty beer aficionados have lined up hours before the event started to be among the first to get a taste of the special release.
This year, in late March, the company put cellared bottles of the dark brew up for sale online under the condition that a portion of sales would be returned to its furloughed employees.
On a typical Dark Charge Day, the brewery will go through about 6,000 bottles, the company said.
For each bottle sold, Braxton will put $5 towards a relief fund for employees who were recently let go due to the coronavirus.
It became one of Braxton’s largest online sales days to date, garnering nearly $25,000 for the Braxton Family Relief Fund.
The fund has been supported by hundreds of customers, as well as by matching donations from partners such as Stagnaro Distributing and the Northern Kentucky Homebrewers Guild, as well as individual donors.
To date, the Braxton Family Relief Fund has enabled the brewery to offer direct payments to affected employees and continue to provide health insurance for them through May, the company said.
The fund was created in conjunction with the Center for Great Neighborhoods.
“Our team is single handedly the most important part of our growing company,” says Braxton CEO Jake Rouse. “The toughest decision we ever had to make was to furlough a vast majority of them.”
Continued COVID-19 coverage has been supported by a grant from the Facebook Journalism Project, a program run in partnership with the Lenfest Institute for Journalism and Local Media Association.
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