Try Love: Storm Peak Brewing Puts a Fruity Twist on Yampa Valley Pride

In Colorado’s rural Routt County, Pride Month started flowing from the taps of Storm Peak Brewing Company in Steamboat at a collaborative fundraiser party between Yampa Valley Pride and the Steamboat Women’s Rugby. 

“Every year the Women’s Rugby Team does a fundraiser. Yampa Valley Pride is pretty new in town, and we thought it would be awesome to show allyship and donate money to Pride,” Sarah Tiedeken O’Brien, president of Steamboat Women’s Rugby, says. “We did that last year, and after that, we thought, why don’t we actually collaborate and all do a beer together with Storm Peak?”

Chereon Leong Schwarz, event coordinator for Steamboat Women’s Rugby, worked with her husband Rob Schwarz, head brewer at Storm Peak Brewing, to bring that idea to fruition, and on Thursday, June 1, Storm Peak Brewing Company launched a new seasonal beer, Try Love, to benefit Yampa Valley Pride.

“We wanted to do something easily drinkable and seasonably appropriate, and something that a lot of people would like,” Rob Schwartz says. “We went for a pilsner with tangerine zest added—a little extra fruity twist besides just hops.” 

Try Love is a fruited pilsner with an ABV of 5.1%. Storm Peak Brewing produced 120 cases and 16 kegs of the seasonal beer to serve at their two tap house locations and to distribute to other commercial vendors throughout the month of June. A portion of all proceeds from the beer will benefit Yampa Valley Pride. 

“I’m hoping that this brings bigger awareness to the Yampa Valley Pride community and hopefully just brings more awareness that these people exist and they enjoy doing the same stuff we all do,” Rob Schwarz says. “It’s hopefully a way to introduce more people to each other and also encourage people to be better allies.” 

The event packed Storm Peak’s tap house as members of Routt County’s LGBTQ community, rugby community, and ally community converged to “try love” in support of Yampa Valley Pride. 

“It’s really well-balanced for a beer with some fruit notes,” Steamboat resident Nick Holt says. “It’s going to be great for watching rugby.”

Storm Peak Brewing Company launched Try Love in the midst of a national culture war that has proven hostile to companies collaborating with the LGBTQ community or elevating Pride Month merchandise. In April of 2023, two executives of Bud Light were put on leave after the company launched a marketing collaboration with TikTok’s famous trans advocate Dylan Mulvaney and Target recently removed items from their Pride Month collection after a conservative boycott. 

“I’m not particularly worried because I’d rather us be supportive of the people who need it and supportive of the things we believe in rather than go unpunished for things we don’t say,” Rob Schwarz says. “Ultimately, the rights that people are worried about here are human rights. We’re happy to be able to support these people and causes through our products.” 

Storm Peak’s decision to launch Try Love has received overwhelming support in Steamboat and the surrounding Routt County and is a refreshing symbol of progress for residents like Evan Hardesty and Renzo Walton.

“There’s been a lot of flip-flopping at the corporate level,” Hardesty says. “It’s good to see that (Storm Peak Brewing) wasn’t worried about losing business because of national news, and I think our community supports that. 

For Walton, who has lived in Steamboat for 14 years after immigrating to the United States, the event and beer launch was a promising sign for the growth and longevity of diversity in Steamboat and Routt County. 

“It says we recognize you as part of the community and you’re welcome to come here and enjoy just like everybody else,” Walton says. “Every year is growing. I’m interested to see who shows up and what else is provided for the community.” 

Yampa Valley Pride, a fiscally sponsored Pride organization under Steamboat Springs’ Better Tomorrow, has big dreams for how funds raised from Storm Peak’s Try Love can better serve the Routt County LGBTQ community. After organizing a small Pride event at the County courthouse in 2021, Yampa Valley Chair, Cheslie Holmes, immediately recognized the need for more events and more services as interest in building the LGBTQ community snowballed. 

“Last year we did a survey and round table of the LGBTQ community locally because we saw gaps in services and health equity problems,” Holmes says. “We wanted to capture that in data so we could justify the need for getting a resource center.” 

In the fall of 2022, the Steamboat Springs Planned Parenthood Health Center abruptly closed, significantly exacerbating already present health inequities for the Routt County LGBTQ community. Residents of Steamboat rallied and Holmes and Yampa Valley Pride were approached by members of the Steamboat Community Foundation about a matching fundraising donation through the Out and Proud Yampa Valley Fund. 

Deb Benak is one of those six community members who rallied to initiate the fund.

“We didn’t know there was a queer community so it’s been wonderful to see Yampa Valley Pride doing what it’s doing,” Benak says. “There was nothing here in town so we called up the Community Foundation and they put us on this path to start this fund.”

Benak has split her time between Arizona and Routt County since the 1990s and got the idea to raise funds for an LGBTQ resource center in Steamboat from the Arizona organization One N Ten. One N Ten is a nonprofit that serves LGBTQ youth across the state of Arizona through various satellite offices. 

“We collaborated with One in Ten to try and bring one of their offices here to Steamboat going through Better Tomorrow,” Benak says. “We are matching $25,000 to open up this resource center, and One N Ten is going to come in and offer training and give them access to all sorts of resources and materials” 

Yampa Valley Pride hopes the resource center can be a hub of activities, resources, and advocacy for Routt County’s LGBTQ community, and for Yampa Valley Pride Vice-Chair Andi Worthem, that hope is particularly personal. 

“I was born with cerebral palsy, and in 2002, there weren’t many opportunities for people in wheelchairs to go out and participate. I was born here but spent a lot of time growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio. I moved back here because of a Steamboat program called STARS, which stands for Steamboat Adaptive Recreational Sports Program,” Worthem says. “I’m hoping (the resource center) gives people more of a safe space and is able to educate people. I do hope that Yampa Valley Pride can help uplift marginalized communities, from the queer POC community to the queer disability community. I want everyone to be a tight-knit family. I want people who are queer and trans to know that they don’t have to run away and go to another town.” 

Yampa Valley Pride will continue its community-building and fundraising efforts all month long. For more information on their events or for information on how to support the development of a Routt County LGBTQ resource center, visit their website. 

Photos Courtesy of Michanae Edwards