Broadway Hit 'Hamilton' Inspires A New Beer

It is virtually impossible to get tickets to see Hamilton, the smash hit Broadway play that sets the life story of founding father and first U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton to hip-hop music, but fans of the show who can't get tickets now have an appropriate beer to cry into, because there's now a Hamilton beer.

According to Time Out New York, the new beer by New York's Gun Hill Brewing Company is called Rise Up Rye. "Rise up!" is Hamilton's rallying cry in the show, and brewer Dave Lopez says they picked a rye for the Hamilton beer because rye was a major crop in New York in Alexander Hamilton's day.

Rise Up Rye is the first beer to be released as part of the Broadway Brews Project. Mark Aldrich and John Ludwig of The Happy Hour Guys came up with the idea of pairing Broadway shows and craft brewers to create theater-themed craft beers for charity. Hamilton is the first show to sign on, but there could be more in the future. (Legally Blonde: The Musical sounds like it'd make a nice blonde ale.)

Rise Up Rye debuted this weekend at the brewery's tasting room in the Bronx, where customers can also buy it by the bottle. It is available on tap at about 40 different bars around New York, which the brewery lists on its website, and the brewery says they hope to make Rise Up Rye available in other states as soon as possible.  

The beer has been described as "drinkable" and "uniquely American," and if that weren't enough to tempt Hamilton fans, buying the beer is also an act of charity. A portion of the $12 to $15 sales price will go to benefit Graham Windham, a child welfare charity founded in 1806 by Alexander Hamilton's widow, Eliza Hamilton.