{"id":86698,"date":"2025-08-18T13:22:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T20:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=86698"},"modified":"2025-08-18T13:23:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T20:23:10","slug":"hasta-la-raiz-beer-jessica-salas-ism-brewing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/food\/hasta-la-raiz-beer-jessica-salas-ism-brewing","title":{"rendered":"After launching in Long Beach, this line of beers is raising money for immigrant aid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Jessica Salas saw social media videos of protests against recent immigration raids in Los Angeles, she felt she had to do something, so she turned to a topic she knew well: beer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salas, a daughter of immigrants who has been in the beverage industry for 14 years, said she was heartbroken and angry by the Trump administration’s aggressive actions that the Department of Homeland Security says have led to more than 4,000 arrests in the Los Angeles<\/a> area since June 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy community was being attacked, and it was scary,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspired by other fundraising programs like the Native Land Beer Project<\/a> and the Black is Beautiful Project<\/a>, Salas started her own movement: a line of beers called Hasta La Ra\u00edz<\/a>, which brings breweries from across the nation together to raise funds to support immigrants facing detention or deportation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea quickly took root in Long Beach, where she\u2019d lived before moving to Portland, Oregon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ISM Brewing & Kitchen in downtown was the first to launch a beer as part of this project. Since then, over 60 breweries nationwide and one in the UK<\/a> have joined in by launching their own. All participating breweries agreed to donate a portion of their proceeds to the cause<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Link<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wanted to create something that would bring people together and give the beverage industry a way to take meaningful action for immigrant justice. As the child of immigrants, this is deeply personal to me, and I wanted to channel that into a project that builds solidarity and makes a real impact,\u201d Salas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The money collected through this project is going to Freedom for Immigrants<\/a>, a nonprofit that has been working to end immigration incarceration since 2012. Freedom for Immigrants offers a plethora of resources, including a national immigration detention hotline, help finding an immigration attorney, mental health resources, and tools for advocacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’m proud to just be a small part of it,\u201d Ian McCall, the owner of ISM, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His brewery made a small batch of their Hasta La Ra\u00edz West Coast Blonde, a light and refreshing brew with a slightly floral aroma and hints of citrus. It sold out in about two weeks. McCall isn\u2019t sure yet if they\u2019ll make another batch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ISM donated $1 for every pint of their Hasta La Ra\u00edz sold, totalling roughly $1,500 in donations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salas started working in the beer industry in 2011 and has witnessed firsthand how the beer community comes together to support people in need. Though she stepped away from the industry last year to focus on her mental health, she reengaged her connections for this project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jessica Salas and ISM Brewing’s head brewer Gene Wagoner share excitement over the launch of the Hasta La Ra\u00edz West Coast Blonde. Photo courtesy of Jessica Salas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been sober for a little over a year, but the beer industry still finds a way to pull me back, and I love it,\u201d Salas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salas found the first few participating breweries by reaching out to people she had worked with in the past to see if they would be interested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Salas contacted McCall, an old friend and former co-worker from her time working at Beachwood Brewing, he immediately said yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cISM Brewing is all about family, friends and fresh beer. That’s our motto. So it really is vital and so important to me and to us as a business, that we live up to that, that we stand for our community whenever we have the chance,\u201d McCall said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jessica Salas assists in the dry-hopping process of ISM Brewing’s Hasta La Ra\u00edz West Coast Blonde. Photo courtesy of Jessica Salas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once the word was out, breweries started reaching out to Salas to ask how they could get involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salas said there\u2019s \u201calways room for more people to join,\u201d participating breweries are just asked to release a beer with the Hasta La Ra\u00edz logo by October and donate an unspecified portion of the proceeds to Freedom for Immigrants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m deeply grateful to every brewery, sponsor, and supporter who has joined. This project works because people believe in it and take action,\u201d Salas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can learn more at hastalaraizbev.org<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brewers across the nation, starting with ISM in Long Beach, are donating portions of their Hasta La Ra\u00edz beers to the nonprofit Freedom for Immigrants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":86697,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[32346],"class_list":["post-86698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86698"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86704,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86698\/revisions\/86704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86698"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=86698"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=86698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}