On May 8, the air inside a white- and glass-walled exhibit room at the National Museum of African American Music had an electric crackle. Like the atmosphere before a thunderstorm, about a dozen people assembled inside, anticipating something powerful was about to burst forth. They were poised, giddy, waiting. Old friends clapped hands and embraced in long hugs; a photographer took formal headshots of attendees. After handshakes punctuated by flashbulbs, the inaugural board meeting of the National Black Brewers Association came to order. The organization, abbreviated as NB2A, formally established itself that night in two phases.
First, a closed-door board meeting laid foundational pillars of the group: its mission, funding, leadership, and goals. The meeting was an acknowledgment that Black beer professionals have long faced specific challenges and celebrated distinct victories. Racial inequality is engrained in the U.S. economy, but the formation of the NB2A is the first time that a coalition of prominent leaders have come together to specifically improve the future for Black entrepreneurs in beer. Other beer trade groups have sought to increase diversity among their ranks, but this group marks the first time such an effort has come from Black brewers themselves.
A few hours after its first board meeting, the NB2A publicly announced itself to the beer world with a high-spirited bottle share at Black-owned pizzeria, Slim & Husky’s. Bottles popped and cold cans dripping with condensation emerged from backpacks and purses. So much heat and energy in one room strained the pizzeria’s air conditioning system, and the party spilled onto the patio despite the humid Nashville night.
Two blocks away from the NB2A bottle share, the lights were dim at the Music City Center convention hall as staff prepared for another day of the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC), an annual gathering organized by the trade group Brewers Association (BA) that this year drew 12,000 attendees. The two brewing industry events felt threaded, yet distinct. CBC has been held in some form for 40 years; the NB2A only established itself this year.
While becoming more diverse than in years past, CBC attendees are still mostly white and male—a reflection of an industry in which, in 2021 (the most recent year for which data is available), 93.5% of brewery owners were white.
This year, 20% of CBC attendees identified as women, and 1% identified as Black or African American.
In 2019—the first year for which the BA asked attendees for demographic information—13% of attendees identified as women, and 0.03% identified as Black or African American.
By contrast, the NB2A’s board meeting and bottle share were predominantly Black and brown spaces where white faces were the exception to the rule. Still, the NB2A and BA share a common goal: representing the interests of their brewery members. The realities the two groups face in service of this representation, however, differ greatly.
For the NB2A, efforts to support historically underrepresented groups and increase minority ownership have long been subsumed, and diluted, within the larger beer industry. Fewer than 1% of the roughly 9,500 breweries in the U.S. are owned by Black people, and there is no single organization dedicated to advancing the concerns of Black owners and brewers. Those specific concerns include securing brewery financing, addressing racism as a business owner, increasing visibility for Black brewery owners, and more.
The uniqueness of the NB2A’s inaugural gathering can’t be understated: There’s no comparable group in alcohol writ large. The mission of the NB2A places an emphasis on knowledge sharing, recruiting more Black professionals to the beer industry, and promoting the history and legacy of African American brewing in the U.S., which goes back hundreds of years and includes brewers such as Patsy Young and Peter Hemings.
“A trade organization for Black producers doesn't exist in spirits, doesn't exist in wine. That's why we can say we're going to be uniquely positioned in terms of the demographic that we'll support and some of the issues that are uniquely attributed to this community,” says NB2A executive director Kevin Asato, a Los Angeles-based industry veteran who has worked for companies across alcohol and other beverages for 30 years. “There's an opportunity perhaps for this to either be replicated or augmented to the other segments of adult beverage.”
The gravity of the NB2A’s first meeting wasn’t lost on Ale Sharpton (his given name is Dennis Malcolm), an Atlanta-based journalist, photographer, and creative director who also serves on the NB2A’s board of directors. He’s been working to blend Black communities, hip-hop enthusiasts, and craft beer fans since 1997.
“It could have happened a lot sooner, but we needed a chance to grow and understand the industry and know what we need to make it a better, more inclusive industry as a whole,” Sharpton says. “There's some very powerful people in this room who've worked hard to get here, and they were handpicked for a variety of reasons: either what they've been driven to do, what they've accomplished, what their reach is, what their voice is, and what their skills are. This gathering is historic.”
The backdrop of CBC was an apt one for the formation of the NB2A, as the group hopes to establish a give-and-take with other trade groups and organizations. Marcus Baskerville, a member of the BA’s board of directors, and Dr. J Jackson-Beckham, the BA’s equity and inclusion partner, are members of the NB2A board; the BA’s CEO Bob Pease says his organization has served as a “sounding board” for the new group as the NB2A developed its own bylaws and structures.
Pease says the two groups share common goals, including expanding craft beer’s market share and increasing diversity among brewery owners. These have been explicit goals of the BA for years; BA chief economist Bart Watson stated in his CBC state-of-the-industry address that it’s imperative for craft beer to connect with new drinkers outside its traditional fan base of largely white men. But board members of the NB2A—some of which are also BA members—saw a need for a distinctly Black-led organization to take on the task.
“Many of the Black brewers with whom I have spoken over the last year or so shared that they have repeatedly discussed the need to create an organization for Black brewers, but there was no real traction until now,” Kevin Johnson, founder of the NB2A, said via email. “As one of our founding board members shared, the NB2A feels real and is the answer to what many have wanted and spoken about for years.”
The BA says it is eager to collaborate with the NB2A on shared goals.
“We will work with the NB2A so that barriers of entry for Black-owned breweries are reduced and, as a result, we see more craft breweries founded and owned by Black Americans,” Pease said via email. He adds the BA will share more specifics of what this looks like in the future.
Asato says there’s much the NB2A can draw from what has already been established by other trade groups like the BA. The goal of the BA’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Department is akin to those of the NB2A: “fostering an inclusive and diverse craft brewing community for both brewers and beer lovers.” But there is expertise, talent, and perspective that the NB2A believes its members—as part of an expressly Black-led group—can share in ways that haven’t yet been done.
“The reception has been wide open like, ‘Yes, oh my God, we need this.’ Whether it be retailers or distributors or any other people that can be maybe not direct members [of NB2A], but can be affected by this, they're so glad,” Asato says. “I'm realizing this brain trust of knowledge and experience and the pains and tribulations that this group has is yet to really be fully communicated. The power and influence that they have I don't think has been measured yet.”
Following increasing calls for racial justice and equity in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in 2020, existing trade organizations have launched subcommittees and programs to support and recruit a more diverse workforce and consumer base for beer. The BA established its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Department in 2020 (an evolution of the DEI Committee, established in 2017). The National Beer Wholesalers Association hosted its first Alliance for Women in Beer conference this year. However, the most visible, vocal, and tangible results have come from people working outside these systems.
In beer as in other arenas, grassroots change has come organically in recent years as professionals have banded together to chart their own course.
The Michael James Jackson Foundation, established in 2020, has funded technical education and career advancement for Black, indigenous, and people of color in the brewing and distilling industries.
That same year, NB2A board member Marcus Baskerville of Weathered Souls Brewing in San Antonio, Texas started Black is Beautiful, a global collaboration beer to raise awareness of injustices facing Black people and people of color, and to raise money for causes related to the fight for racial justice and ending police brutality. It’s since raised more than $4 million and helped launch the Harriet Baskerville Incubation Program, a professional development opportunity for brewers from underrepresented groups.
A grassroots #MeToo movement in beer that began in May 2020 has also led to the formation of groups specific to women and non-binary beer industry professionals, such as Women of the Bevolution and Brave Noise. Mutual aid models and labor organizing have also emerged as frameworks for improving not only representation but working conditions for beer industry professionals.
These groups share disparate memberships and goals, but all share a genesis and an orientation that’s not tied to existing organizations or institutions. The most powerful responses to challenges in the beer industry over the past three years have come not from established institutions, but from new groups that aren’t beholden to existing hierarchies and structures.
Asato says the NB2A was created as a separate entity because it had to be; however, the group does plan to collaborate with other trade groups where goals align.
“We're building this from ground zero as a necessity,” Asato says. “There's been challenges and opportunities that are unique to this community that just may not necessarily hit the radar screen for the larger trade organizations. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with what they're doing. Quite frankly, we benefit from so much of the work that they do and we will essentially pick up and augment the work that they're doing.”
The legal formation of the NB2A on Dec. 13, 2022, owes itself to brewers, storytellers, and advocates working in their own spheres of influence across business, media, and social justice. The group’s mission going forward is to unify and concentrate those efforts. In the coming months, the NB2A will sponsor and promote existing Black-focused beer events, such as Barrel & Flow Fest in Pittsburgh and the Peoples Jubilee Beer Fest in Sacramento.
The concept of the NB2A was first a spark in the mind of Kevin Johnson, who was himself inspired by a documentary about underrepresented groups in craft beer, “One Pint at a Time,” produced by NB2A board member Aaron Hose. Several of the people featured in that film are board members alongside Hose. Johnson, a former NBA player and past mayor of Sacramento, is also the owner of Oak Park Brewery. He’s used his professional network to recruit members to the board, set up NB2A with 501c6 business league designation, and to solicit funds—including $250,000 from Boston Beer Company’s Brewing the American Dream platform—to sustain the group. Johnson says the NB2A is one third of the way to its $1 million fundraising goal, a figure that would sustain the group for its “first few years” of operations.
“I don’t think you can attribute the idea of forming an entity to support Black brewers to just one person,” Johnson said via email. “Instead, it has been readily apparent to Black brewers that there weren’t many of them in the industry and that there was an opportunity to bring the few that there are together as well as a need to support those who want to enter the craft brewing space.”
Black entrepreneurs have distinct experiences as small business owners as a result of their racial identities. That’s why members of the NB2A say the solutions to problems—and the celebrations of accomplishments—must begin within the Black beer community itself. It’s another reason that the NB2A needed to establish itself as a stand-alone entity, separate from other organizations already in existence.
“We're stepping in now and having people that are closest to the struggles and triumphs of certain communities help and propel everyone forward,” Hose says. “Being a consumer of color in the beer industry, and being among the only people of color in taprooms everywhere that I went, those are shared experiences with the people that are sitting behind me or standing behind me right now. With my storytelling, it’s like the saying: Not about us without us.”
The NB2A supports existing Black brewers and business owners, but will also invite the next generation to be a part of its growth. Central to the NB2A’s mission is creating pathways for knowledge among members of the Black brewing community, as well as increasing the opportunities available to Black brewery owners until their numbers are proportionate to Black people’s share of the overall U.S. population (13%). If these figures were to be on par today, that would mean about 1,250 breweries in the U.S. would have Black ownership. Instead, that number is less than 100.
Zack Day, co-founder of Chicago-based Funkytown Brewery, which hopes to open a brick-and-mortar location in 2024, says it’s important that guidance for Black brewers come from fellow Black brewers. He’s not a member of the NB2A’s leadership, but Day says the creation of the group will benefit Funkytown and other Black-owned breweries as a whole.
“To me, [the NB2A] is almost equivalent to an HBCU [historically black college or university],” Day says. “It’s focusing in on the struggles that Black brewers have, the struggles that Black beer businesses have, and how to work around that, and resources and information that's specific to us. And I think that's super important, especially in an industry that's dominated by bearded, white guys.”
Black business owners have been excluded from traditional modes of funding, real estate, and professional development: In America, Black people as a whole are underserved by banks and financial institutions, and they’re also less likely to be business owners. In addition to a lack of business and growth opportunities, it’s only been recently that BIPOC-specific programming has existed in the beer industry. When Day has a question about his business, he says it’s always fellow Black brewers or business owners he’d prefer to turn to.
“If you have your first cousin and a stranger, and you have a question, which one would you feel more comfortable asking? The stranger can give you the same answer as the other person, but who do you feel more comfortable with? I think that matters,” Day says. “It's more comfortable asking that question to somebody who you share similarities with. You share visions, you share goals, you share a lot.”
Other Black brewery owners have indeed been in Day’s shoes, including Denise Ford-Sawadogo, who has co-owned Montclair Brewing in Montclair, New Jersey, with her husband for five years.
“There were times when we felt alone, and there were most likely others that felt the same way,” says Ford-Sawadogo, citing challenges with start-up paperwork and compliance, which Montclair Brewing completed without the help of a lawyer. “What would've helped me during that time was someone who had been through it, who also did it on their own, who was an expert in it, and someone who I knew, so then I could trust the responses that I'm getting.”
Ford-Sawadago sees the formation of the NB2A as a major signpost for Black brewery owners, and a harbinger of even more to come. This year was her fifth attending CBC, and her husband’s sixth; she says she saw the most diverse group of attendees this year.
Ford-Sawadogo and Day agree that representation matters, and as a result, the formation of the NB2A is worth celebrating at this early stage. Promoting, celebrating, and supporting today’s Black brewers will have ripple effects for future generations.
“It can only get bigger, hopefully, and better from now,” she says. “It’s wonderful to see that we're not alone, that there's other people that look like us that want to open up a brewery, that want to be in this business. It's always a great feeling when you feel like there's others like me who want to do this. There's others that can relate to our experience."
“I'm excited to see what NB2A can not only do for us but what it can do for people five years from now who decide to get into brewing,” Day says. “There's somebody right now, 12 years old, looking around like, ‘My uncle or my brother or my dad is brewing. I wonder what this is like.’”
Words by Kate Bernot