Broken Wing hosts debut of Desert Gold ale
Hollister resident Joe Godbout has a busy night ahead of him. At
9 p.m. tonight his beer Desert Gold will debut for the first time.
It is a pale ale brewed by the Butte Creek Brewing Company, but
labeled and distributed by Godbout.
Broken Wing hosts debut of Desert Gold ale
Hollister resident Joe Godbout has a busy night ahead of him. At 9 p.m. tonight his beer Desert Gold will debut for the first time. It is a pale ale brewed by the Butte Creek Brewing Company, but labeled and distributed by Godbout.
“Back when I was on active duty at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, there was a 24 hour PX that sold beer,” Godbout said. “Budweiser had a camouflage refrigerator truck and I always thought it would be awesome to have a camouflage beer.”
The idea was in the back of his mind for years and in 2002 he came up with a green camo label.
“But then I got called out and sent over to Iraq for a year,” he said. “I came back, picked up the project and started with a desert camouflage label.”
Godbout didn’t want to brew his own beer so he looked for a brewing company that would work with him. He found Butte Creek Brewing in Chico. The company brews organic ales and lagers.
“It’s a pale ale and what happened was they had me taste all their beers and formulas,” he said. “I went down there with a couple of army buddies and we tasted it and decided what we liked.”
He hosted one tasting at Fort Ord and said the feedback was positive.
From there, Godbout created his label and has been paying rent on a warehouse in Cottonwood for a year. His first draft of the label had a picture of an eagle, a beret and dog tags, but it wasn’t approved because of the use of military symbols.
“I’ve been doing it all on my own,” he said. “I haven’t had any loans and that’s why it’s taken so long.”
He is starting small. The beer will be available just for the night at the Broken Wing, starting at 9 p.m. After that, locals will be able to purchase it by the six pack at Righetti’s Liquors.
“I went in and told them my story and said I would just put it in his store for a couple months and see how it goes,” Godbout said. “The ultimate goal is to get it onto military bases he said.
