Austin's Oskar Blues Brewery canning water for Louisiana flood victims
The Oskar Blues Brewery in North Austin is back to kegging and canning their signature craft beers this week.
But last week, after the devastating floods in Louisiana, they put the beer-making on the back burner to can drinking water for those who need it in Louisiana.
"It's the right thing to do," said Clay Battin with the CAN'd Aid Foundation, a non-profit started by some Oskar Blues employees that wanted to help out in their hometown.
"The CAN'd Aid Foundation started 3 years ago in response to flooding in our home base of Longmont Colorado. There were a lot of residents displaced and there was a need for drinking water," Battin said.
Since then they've sent water to Flint Michigan and when disaster hit Louisiana the Austin facility had empty cans on hand ready to go.
"Monday evening, I spoke with our head brewer. Tuesday morning we were able to clean out one of our big brite tanks and fill it with water," he said.
By Wednesday evening, Battin says they had about 900 cases or 17,000 cans ready to ship.
Oskar Blues shipped the water Monday and Battin says it arrived in Louisiana Tuesday morning.
"The brewery in Longmont actually shut down for close to 8 days to can that water for Flint the first big run. And you know that costs money when you're in the beer business and you're not making beer...but it was the right thing to do and we'll always do that," Battin said.
The folks at Oskar Blues say they are planning on sending more water to Flint as well.
If you want to check out the brewery they are open to the public but their grand opening is September 17th.