Taking Donations Update

It has come to our attention that bottles of Taking Donations have been compromised by lactic acid bacteria. If stored warm all three bottlings develop elevated levels of acid. While these beers are fully safe to consume, this was not our intent. Highland Park Brewery desires to put out the highest quality product and wants to address this issue head on.

A few things to be fully transparent:
1) This is not the beer we set out to make.
2) We will make it right for anyone who experienced compromised bottles.
3) We are taking every measure necessary to minimize issues such as this in the future.
4) Lastly, though this was a collaboration with Alex Kidd from DontDrinkBeer, these beers were 100% brewed, aged, and packaged at Highland Park Brewery and thus we take full responsibility for the compromised bottles.

At Highland Park Brewery we believe in innovation. With innovation comes added variables such as new ingredients, unique processes, and barrels from outside sources. All of these variables increase our chances of coming in contact with unwanted microorganisms. These are risks we are willing to taketo push our beer forward, but with these risks must come the highest attention to quality control. We have always made quality control a focal point of our brewery, but obviously, there is always room for improvement.

We are taking this humbling moment to increase our quality assurance program. In the future, in addition to passing rigorous sensory tests, we are having all bottles in our barrel aging program, and anything utilizing adjuncts, tested by an outside lab (both pre- and post-packaging) to assure microbial stability. We believe these added measures minimize our risk for releasing an inferior product.

In reviewing the supply chain path of Taking Donations, we believe the root of our problem to be a set of barrels procured and used for aging the beer. These barrels have tested positive for unwanted lactic acid bacteria. Though at the time of packaging we felt confident in the beers stability, we take full responsibility for putting this beer out into the marketplace.

To Receive Your Refund:
If you are yet to open or pickup your Taking Donations bottle(s), or if you drank your bottle(s) and feel the beer had been compromised at the time of consuming, please provide the following to friends@hpb.la to receive a full refund:

  • Which bottles & quantity you purchased.
  • Where the bottles were purchased (In person or Eventbrite, if both, provide breakdown of how many from each location).
  • Proof of purchase (receipt/bank statement) & last 4 digits of credit card used.
  • If unopened, Please also send a picture of the bottles (showing the entire bottle) with the 9 digit Eventbrite order number written across the label.

If you have not yet picked up, please include all above information and include that you have yet to pickup your bottles.

You will be able to request your refund until 4/30/19, during this period please allow additional time for a response and refund to process.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. In moving forward we hope we can win back your trust with excellent beer and uncompromised quality. Beer!!