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This Brewery is Helping You Cope with 2020 in a Very Creative Way

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How do you describe 2020? It’s hard no to be at least a little bitter. The year has been one gut punch after another, that’s for certain. But we have found innovative ways to persevere.

To be fair, there are quite a few silver linings. From the return of vending machines to cocktails delivered to your doorstep, it’s not all bad. But it has been stressful and sometimes you just need to vent. And venting can take a lot of forms, from meditation and exercise to running straight into the woods, kicking and screaming.

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An Oregon brewery may have the best means of coping with the troubling year yet. Hop Valley is allowing people to freeze and destroy items that represent the off-the-hinges year. That could be any number of things — an ill-fitting face mask, a travel itinerary (for a trip that never happened), a bottle of hand sanitizer (keep using it, though), a gift from your ex. You can have it frozen and promptly smash it in unbelievably satisfying fashion. It’s like a futuristic version of this iconic Office Space scene.

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“It goes without saying that 2020 has been a crazy year, so we wanted to help people ring in 2021 on a positive note and leave the bitterness behind,” said Megan McKenna, director of marketing for Hop Valley Brewing Co. “Our inspiration for Cryo Drops was our beer –  we use a special brewing process and Cryo Hops, hops that are frozen at subzero temperature, to create a less-bitter IPA. Now, we’re taking that same idea and freezing and extracting the bitterness from people’s physical objects that represent 2020.”

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The brewery is utilizing the same technology it uses on some of its hop varieties on the belongings you despise and wish most to destroy. You simply mail in the thing you loathe from 2020 the most, and the brewery will do the rest. You can even watch as that water bottle or pair of sweatpants you associate with this wonky year is pulverized as Hop Valley will be streaming things later this month.

“We’re saying goodbye to bitter 2020 memories with the same technique we use to brew our beer and showing drinkers who we are and why we deserve a spot on their shelf next year,” McKenna continues.

What’s McKenna leaving behind? “For me, it’s my TV remote that represents all the hours I spent on my couch while stuck at home, but I’m looking forward to seeing the items we get sent and the stories behind them.”

Some years, you leave time capsules to document the mood. Other years, like 2020, you just want to get through, if not break a few things along the way. To partake or learn more about this healthy bit of chaos, check out this website. There will be a livestream of the many objects being obliterated on New Year’s Eve, a fitting way to say farewell to 2020. The hardest part may just be picking a single object for the job.

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Mark Stock
Mark Stock
Contributor
Mark Stock is a writer from Portland, Oregon. He fell into wine during the Recession and has been fixated on the stuff since…
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