First Line Brewing has released a new lager to benefit the former employees of the Sumitomo Rubber Plant in Tonawanda, which abruptly closed in November.
Burnin’ Rubber Pilsner, a 4.2% lager brewed with Saaz and Hallertau Blanc hops, is available on tap now at First Line’s taproom in Orchard Park.
“After hearing the devastating news of the Sumitomo closing we feel gutted for everyone that worked there. Especially close to the holiday season this has brought unimaginable stress and hardship to all of their loyal staff,” the brewery said on social media. “We decided to brew a beer where proceeds will be donated to them so that they can still have their annual reunion party one last time. We know the power of community in Buffalo and how people band together to help those in need.”
A portion of proceeds from beer sales will be donated to the employees to help fund their annual reunion party one last time.
First Line Head Brewer Russ Haentges says that Burnin’ Rubber was born out of happenstance, a chance encounter with a then-Sumitomo employee, Andrew Rogowski, during a brew day for the CollaBEERation Festival. From there, beers were had, a plan was hatched and Burnin’ Rubber was born, although it ended up turning into something bigger than even had had originally intended.
“Beer has a funny way of bringing people into your life,” he explains. “A couple years ago, during a CollaBEERation brew day, I befriended Andrew Rogowski, along with Nate and Nick, our Pitmaster at Lassos [Chicken & BBQ]. Andy raved about Sumitomo and said it was a great job and the people there were great to work with.”
“Fast forward to this fall – Andy reached out to our group and said that they were shutting down out of nowhere and he was out of a job, along with everyone else at the plant. We were having beers one day and he had brought up how he would like to have a small party at First Line for the group of mechanics that he had worked with. So, we had some beers and ended up actually coming up with a way bigger idea than we had thought.”
“We had a couple new beers coming out and I had suggested giving them some proceeds to help fund their annual Christmas party somehow. He said he would throw it out to the Facebook group from Sumitomo and see what they had to say. The response was amazing. He said they were super excited about it and loved the idea. We pitched it to [First Line Brewing owners] Shane and Mike a week or so ago. They loved it and we ran from there. It’s always important to help out the community that helps you do what you love in our eyes.”
In early November, Sumitomo Rubber USA announced plans to close their manufacturing facility in Tonawanda and lay off 1,550 employees, citing “mounting material and logistics costs, dated infrastructure, intermittent financial performance, and changing market conditions.”
Brian Campbell is co-founder and Brand Manager of the Buffalo Beer League, and writes the weekly Buffalo Beer Buzz column. If you have beer news that should be included in the Beer Buzz, Brian can be reached at brian@buffalobeerleague.com, on Twitter (@buffbeerleague), Instagram, Threads and Untappd (@buffalobeerleague), and Facebook (@thebuffalobeerleague).