A Lewes Brewery Honors Delaware’s Role in the Apollo 11 Mission

Crooked Hammock and ILC Dover, known for developing NASA space suits, will release the “One Giant Leap” stout on Oct. 17.

One Giant Leap, brewed with Apollo hops, chocolate malts, vanilla and space ice cream sandwiches is set to release on Oct. 17 at 4 p.m. at Crooked Hammock Brewery./Photo courtesy of Crooked Hammock

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Crooked Hammock Brewery is paying homage to Delaware’s involvement with the Apollo 11 Mission by releasing a special brew.

On July 20, 2019, the U.S. celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Mission—and a crucial part of the historic mission involved the First State. ILC Dover, a special engineering development and manufacturing company based in Frederica, is responsible for the development and creation of the first space suits worn by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969, according to a news release.

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Lewes’ Crooked Hammock Brewery collaborated with ILC to honor that history the way it knows best—through beer. On Oct. 17 the brewery will celebrate and honor the anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission with the release of “One Giant Leap,” a suborbital stout brewed with Apollo hops, chocolate malts, vanilla and space-ice-cream sandwiches.

The release will take place at the brewery’s Lewes location at 4 p.m. The first 100 guests will receive a commemorative glass and a pint of the suborbital beer for $12. Members of the ILC team will be present with pieces of their space suits, a moon backdrop for photos and more information on the making of the Apollo space suit.

On brew day, Crooked Hammock was joined by some of the ILC Dover team./Photos courtesy of Crooked Hammock Brewery

“One Giant Leap is really meant to bring together and share a piece of the nation’s history and Delaware’s part in creating it,” said Jon Schorah, Crooked Hammock’s head brewer in a news release. “All of the advancements that ILC has made in science over the last half of a century, right in our backyard, is pretty incredible —so here’s a beer to cheers for that.”

ILC and their team first won the contract to develop and produce the Apollo space suit in 1962. The unique suits offered greater mobility compared to others, giving the underdog the longstanding contract with NASA to be the provider of all the extravehicular space suits. Since the Apollo Missions, ILC has continued to create high-performance, flexible materials, including the landing impact bags for NASA and JPL that were used by three of the rovers that landed on Mars between 1997 and 2004, according to a news release.

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The idea for the style of “One Giant Leap” came from Alex Linsner, one of the engineers in the Aerospace division of ILC, who home brews in his spare time, according to a news release.

“Collaborating with Crooked Hammock’s team has been fun and having them share our story about this unforgettable time in history is humbling.  There are so many men and women at ILC Dover that take such pride in the work done then and now,” said Stephanie Arthur, marketing communications associate of the engineering and manufacturing company in a news release.


More information:
“One Giant Leap” beer release, Oct. 17 at 4 p.m.
Crooked Hammock Brewery
36707 Crooked Hammock Way, Lewes • 644-7837

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