A community of flavors, for the community!

Y-Series collab with Shantel “Crema” Mercado(@greatestofalllotions)

La Comunidad is a 7% ABV 35 IBU West Coast IPA that’s greater than the sum of its parts with a sweet, smooth, cracker-like taste in combination with a malty palate and robust caramel taste. Cascade & Centennial hops lend balanced bitterness with bright flavors and aromatics. Ariana Hops bring juicy dark fruit flavors backed by smooth oak, tobacco, and vanilla. Callista Hops bestow stonefruit, ruby red grapefruit, and raspberries.

Shantel “Crema” Mercardo  is a Bronx-born artist who’s lived in East New York and currently resides in Queens. Going to public school in The Bronx  helped shaped Shantel into the creative individual she is today. Drawing as always been a love for Shantel, so much so that as a child she would draw whatever came to mind underneath the dining table of her families home when paper wasn’t available. As time when on, using the computer to create gradients from bitmap images to change her eye colors or create something new entirely became second nature. Being a child of the early internet Shantel got her early design prowess from websites like Neopets & MySpace. At MySpace’s peak Crema was creating custom layouts and coding for bulletins. In the years since High School Shantel has stuck with her love for graphic design and drawing, thanks to programs like Photoshop and ProCreate she can blend the best of both worlds and create seamless works that speak not only to herself but her growing community of supporters and like-minded creatives.

 

“ It was in High School that I totally fell in love with graphic design. I switched my major to communications media and the idea of being able to sell something or capture someone’s attention was always cool because then that meant your work was so good that it put a thought into someone’s mind. “

 

                                                                                                     

 

 

Currenly Shantel is working primarily with digital assets. The idea of erasing and being left with a mistake on page or erasing too hard and destroying work is something that plagues Shantel’s creative vision. It’s truly incredible to just hit “Undo” and not have to deal with all the messes involved in creating amazing art.  It may seem a bit lazy to Shantel but it’s truly one of the greatest perks of our generation to have a workflow that is clean and seamless. The amount of papers crumpled and gone to waste is truly something to think about as we all have to do our part to be as ecological friendly as possible despite your medium of work. It’s not entirely out of the question to use chalk, markers, pencils etc as a means to get preliminary ideas out but Shantel would much rather stick to her Ipad!

La Comunidad’s can design and name came about while having a chat with a member of The Bronx Brewery’s production team and noticing that there wasn’t a beer with a spanish name in quite some time. Friends had suggested that it should be named after Shantel but nothing was really sticking. After some soul searching Shantel figured that it should represent something bigger than herself and that she would have a lifetime to sing her own praises. Growing up there are a multitude of groups and communities that made a substantial impact on who Shantel is today, whether it was graphics or DJing. Adamant in her beliefs that community brings out the best in us, it was a bit of a no brainer from that point onwards. La Comunidad’s can design takes a number of things that mean a lot to Shantel from physical compact disks to the iconic School Metrocard. The blending of such crucial things from her time here in New York lend itself well to the medium of acrylic paints which the can prominently features.

When asked “What do you hope to achieve with your art/platform?” Shantel says:

” I hope it inspires people to do what’s right for themselves, to take risk, to continue putting their work out there because you never know who is watching.”

When asked “If there’s anything else you’d like to let people know?” Shantel says:

” I feel honored. I feel like I went to the Brewery the first time before I started DJing. I went with my friend, Headley whom I met at a vendors event in The Bronx where well-known people like The Bronxer and Empanology were at that I didn’t know at the moment and he invited me to the brewery in January 2020 and I met people like JFuse, My friend Andrew, Tyson, Razzle, Carla, and a bunch of other people then we went to Locksmith where I met DJ Schoolboy after The Bronx Brewery and now I’m working with Locksmith and The Bronx Brewery three years after, so meaning that if I didn’t DJ I would’ve really built a bond with these people or gotten this wonderful opportunity and for once in my life feel like I’m on the right path. It’s overwhelming at times because I know that some might say wow it’s just a beer it’s not that big of a deal but it opens new doors for me and the most heartwarming part is that out of all the people in NYC who are amazing, talented, who have a HUGE following they chose me so I gotta thank them for that!”

The Community collaborator for La Comunidad’s release is Rise Radio. “I thought to myself why don’t I choose a place where I can see that I’m actually making a difference and that’s why I chose Rise Radio. One of the reasons I chose Rise Radio was due to it saving my life during the pandemic. When the pandemic first started I was planning my birthday and then right on the 15 of march is when almost everything got closed down and then people started streaming. The reason I even found out about Rise Radio was because of DJ schoolboy. Schoolboy used to stream and then always post how to go watch a show on twitch or to follow Rise and then I’d see Rise also post DJs on twitch like Yoo Q, Go In, Bembona, Jfuse, and SailorGoon.”

“The first time I ever streamed was on schoolboys Instagram and the first time I ever went to Rise Radio was because of Schoolboy they let me play….with no experience…they streamed it online and I got to keep the content …They let anyone play at rise radio. Meaning that creatives have a space just to play before they reach a bar, if they have no equipment at home or if their neighbor/ landlord doesn’t allow them to play music the thing about rise is that there are time slots for the different creatives so meaning that if you go you are likely to meet other creatives which build a network so from going to rise I’ve met DJs like Danny NYC, Wah Gwan Twon, Dleon, Dj Will Gates, DJ Phantom, LSJ, Delaceiba and it’s a community which leads back to the name.”

Proceeds received from the release of this beer will sponsor various creative endeavors at Rise Radio.