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black wolf ramen beer

Top left, Adam Band, marketing manager with Full Circle Brewing Co.; clockwise: Derrick McElroy; Desiree Washington, owner of Grumpy Burger Lady’s; and Eddie Garcia, creative director of Full Circle Brewing Co. Photo by Edward Smith

published on October 26, 2021 - 10:56 AM
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A collaboration of Fresno entrepreneurs has brewed a unique beer release party to support the funding of a new food truck.

Fresno-based rapper Aesop — Derrick McElroy — got together with Full Circle Brewing Co. and War Cloud Brewing Co. out of Rowland Heights in Los Angeles County to create a ramen-inspired beer to support the rapper’s new food truck venture.

The beer release will be part of the Downtown Fresno brewery’s Halloween party scheduled for Friday. In addition to live music and McElroy’s own DJ set, he will also be serving his signature ramen along with burgers from Grumpy Burger Lady’s, operated by Desirae Washington, formerly of Take 3 Burgers on Fulton Street.

Operators at War Cloud in the San Gabriel Valley had reached out to McElroy about doing an Asian-inspired beer and he decided to incorporate his ramen specialty into a Kolsch, which is a hybrid between an ale and a lager. In keeping with the theme, they added ramen noodles to the mash before it was brewed.

The event Friday will feature live music from The Box and MC Wicks. In Halloween fashion, people are also dressing up.

A portion of beer sales will go toward McElroy’s purchase of a food truck out which he hopes to serve his ramen.

What excited McElroy was the convergence of Black entrepreneurs including himself and Washington to Full Circle Brewing Co. and War Cloud Brewing Co., both of which are Black-owned breweries.

“In the way the world has been going it’s awesome that I can actually make a Japanese brew from a Black-Japanese ramen chef with the owner of a Black brewery,” McElroy said. “And of course with Dez [Washington] being one of the top owners of Black businesses in Fresno, these marriages all start to become real and true to me.”


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