Brothers & Sisters of the Planet Earth,

Every year as we approach the Summer Solstice, the longest day of sunlight for the year, we here at IBW try to take time to assess where we've come and where we are going. That this year's Solstice coincides with a Ring of Fire solar eclipse brings more gravity to our retrospection. That it comes half-way through what is, hands down, the most mind-bending year our little cult has ever persisted through only makes sense.

A global pandemic and an economic stand-still were enough. But then, on the heels of that stress, pain & anxiety, we have been asked to, after far too long, take a long, unblinking look at our country's extremely troubling history of human trafficking and the subsequent systemic oppression of our black brothers and sisters.

The cards are on the table. The past is alive in the present. And we can weave the future only from these threads. We can do this consciously with intent on improvement or we can continue sleep walking, heading towards an inevitable nightmare fugue.

IBW is a cult of fun-loving, knuckleheads running a scrappy and imperfect beer company as best as our feeble minds allow us. We started this business because we saw a world of career choices we did not want to participate in. We believed our gifts were more important to share with the world than to let thaw out in a cubicle as trade for financial security. While we are tiny and predominantly wildly insignificant, we also know that every light shining can make a difference. And we hold respect, love, creativity and equality as some of our highest aspirations.

As we asked ourselves, our friends, our families, our colleagues, our cult members and our customers what we could do, in any meaningful way, to participate in the healing of our planet's wounds and our countries abhorrent past, we found consensus among several choices.

We will be changing the name of our flagship beer, Fruit Slave.

Now, reading the bottle it is clear that the name Fruit Slave is in no way making reference to the unforgivable history of the kidnapping and enslaving of human beings for the betterment of the American economy. In fact, Fruit Slave, the name, and the long, rambling screed that bubbles out of the goats mouth is an indictment of Consumer Culture and the blind and thoughtless ways that people chase trends and material goods as a means of filling an empty hole in their heart, a need that far too many people have today.

Fruit Slave was created as a light hearted way to invert the consumerist drive for super hoppy IPAs and playfully shine a light on some ills of our culture. What we have come to understand as of late is that the mere use of the word “Slave” - even removed from the context of human-trafficking - is difficult to be seen by some as separated from its most troubling context.

At Illuminated Brew Works we have worked incredibly hard to build a company from scratch, on our own terms, as an entity that celebrates the best parts of the human spirit and to create a place where people - many of whom are hurting and full of pain in one way or another - can come and find a moments rest from a very difficult world. We never want to be an agent of that pain for anyone, quite the contrary. This is why, after much consideration, we have decided to change the name of Fruit Slave. We do not know what we will change the name to at this time but we will not be making this beer any more until we land on a suitable improvement.

Obviously our work doesn’t stop there, but we are happy to add it to the list of actions we have taken personally and as a company to bring our light to the world in hopes for a better, more equal and more righteous world for everyone who chooses to participate. We are strongly averse to promoting our philanthropic actions to the public, however, should you have any questions about the actions we have taken you can feel free to email info@ibw-chicago.com and we will discuss those with you on a one-to-one basis.

If any of you would care to discuss this in further depth and detail, we are happy to make ourselves available to chat in person, human-to-human, in the way that constructive community change happens.