A Cambridge, Mass., brewery is producing a beer for Sean Collier, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus officer who was shot and killed shortly after the Boston Marathon bombing.
The beer -- being brewed by the Cambridge Brewing Company and by the Rocky Mountain Brewery in Colorado Springs, Colo. -- will be a dry Irish stout, the "Collier Stout," and is expected to be ready by mid-June, the Boston Globe reports. The initial run will be about 2,000 pints.
Phil Bannatyne, the owner of Cambridge Brewing, told radio station WBUR, "This seemed something that was personal, specific to Kendall Square in many ways ... You want to help when this stuff happens and we just needed an avenue for that, and this was right up our alley."
Cambridge Brewing plans to sell the brew for $5.50, with $1 going to the Jimmy Fund, a nonprofit that supports cancer care and research, to which Collier regularly contributed.
Chris Vossmer, an Arlington, Mass., native, came up with the idea for a brew honoring Collier while having a beer himself.
"I had spent 24 years of my life dedicated to military service and protecting our rights and freedoms, and to have terrorists hit my hometown, it still bothers me," Vossmer, a retired Air Force first sergeant, told the Globe. "I took a drink, and said this would be something that would be fitting."
Collier was also honored this week in a ceremony at his alma mater, Salem State University, which, according to the Globe, will establish a scholarship in Collier's name and is planting a memorial tree for him on its campus.
Other tributes to Collier have included a memorial service attended by thousands, among them Vice President Joe Biden, and those at Boston's Memorial Day half-marathon and the M.O.M.'s Run 5k Run/Walk for Cancer. Collier was also posthumously appointed as a Somerville police officer.
Clarification: This post has been updated to clarify sourcing and to include an additional quote from the brewer and information about memorials to Collier.
Related
Before You Go
