When you drink and buy local, things like beer and ice cream can make worlds of difference for those in need. If you don’t believe me, just ask New York Beer Project and Perry’s Ice Cream, whose years-long partnership and donations from sales of ice cream-inspired beers has just helped to ‘Complete a Room with Care’ in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at Oishei Children’s Hospital.

The ‘Complete a Room with Care’ campaign makes it possible for every patient room in the hospital to be a private room designed specifically with the needs of the mothers and children we care for, their parents and their dedicated care givers.

The unique partnership of locally crafted beer and ice cream, which began May 29, 2017, surpassed their original donation goal of $20,000 this past September. For the past three years, the Lockport-based brewery has been donated $1 from every pint sold of their Perry’s Ice Cream-inspired beer flavors, such as Panda Paws Porter, White Christmas Belgian Blonde Ale, Death by Chocolate Imperial Stout, and the current offering, Superhero Sour, brewed for all the superheroes at Oishei.

“We are beyond happy to announce with this $20,000 donation, Oishei Children’s Hospital has just dedicated the New York Beer Project Treatment Room in the NICU,” NYBP Owner Kelly Krupski says. “The whole community – everyone who bought one of these delicious Perry’s beers should share in this honor, and know they have #madeadifference in Western New York.”

This marriage of beer and ice cream isn’t slowing down anytime soon. The brewery will be donating $1 from every crowler sold of their Superhero Sour at their Lockport location throughout the month of April to Oishei, with the donation matched 100% by Perry’s. And if that isn’t enough, $1 from every pint of the collab sold at the NYBP Victor Beer Hall will go to benefit Camp Good Days and Special Times in the Finger Lakes.

“The goodness continues as the community gets to enjoy the fruits of this delish collab, and make a difference while they drink, because $1 from every pint (beer, not ice cream) goes to Oishei Children’s Hospital,” Krupski continues. “With the new addition of the NYBP Victor Beer Hall outside of Rochester, $1 from every pint of the NYBP / Perry’s collab sold there, such as Superhero Sour, goes to Camp Good Days and Special Times, in the Finger Lakes. The Perry’s Family will be matching the donation dollar for dollar for every pint sold during the entire month of April, so by just enjoying a pint of the collab you’ll send $2 to help these respective worthy community charities.”

The objective of the unique ‘Mash Up’ series was to give back to the community and let craft beer drinkers make a difference by donating $1 for each pint sold at the NYBP Lockport location to Oishei. The original goal of raising $10,000 by Memorial Day 2018 was celebrated in March of 2018.

Krupski adds that she and her husband couldn’t be prouder of their team at NYBP and what they have been collectively able to achieve by brewing this unique series of ice cream beers. Speaking of, she also drops a spoiler about the next one coming this summer, so make sure you read the following quote to the end.

“Kevin and I, and the entire team at New York Beer Project, love making delicious beer for our community, but things like this are what we’re most proud of. This amazing collaboration between NYBP and Perry’s truly has been an amazing collaboration for everyone involved. It’s great for us to pick one of Perry’s delicious flavors and have the brewers recreate the flavors using the elements in beer.  We use things like cacao beans to mimic the chocolate in our Panda Paws Porter, fresh herbs to bring out the mint flavors in the perennial favorite White Christmas Belgian Blonde, and (spoiler alert) we’re now brewing pilot batches of Grasshopper Pie Ale, which features the flavors of mint ice cream with fudge swirls and crème filled cookie pieces, hitting our taps sometime in the summer!”

For more information, please visit https://www.facebook.com/NewYorkBeerProject.

 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 buffalobeerleague@aol.com, on Twitter (@buffbeerleague), Instagram (@buffalobeerleague), and Facebook (@thebuffalobeerleague).