Craft Breweries Toast To Equality With New Beer

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By Sabrina Lynch

  • 249 craft breweries will be launching the “Black’ is Beautiful” beer to raise awareness for social injustices
  • African-Americans account for 12% of weekly craft beer drinkers

Breweries are throwing the full weight of their beer barrels behind the stand for justice to reach new, conscious consumers. Across the U.S. craft breweries will be launching a new beer, aptly named “‘Black’ is Beautiful”, in the wake of police violence towards African-Americans. Weathered Souls, a Black-owned brewery in San Antonio, Texas, created the base recipe for the beer and has recruited more than 249 brewers nationwide so far to release it. Some have questioned if the product will be used by breweries as a marketing ploy to gain a bigger share of the $29.3 billion U.S. craft beer market, or if this is indeed a genuine act of solidarity?

Why This Matters: Even though African-Americans account for 12% of weekly craft beer drinkers, ethnic minorities own less than 50 of the 8,275craft breweries in the U.S. In fact, the craft beer industry has been facing workforce scrutiny for years, since 76% of U.S. brewery employees are white. This inexcusable gap in diversity across the global beer sector led to the creation of “Black is Beautiful’, which will be released nationwide and internationally.

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Ethnic minorities own less than 50 of the 8,275craft breweries in the U.S.

African-Americans are investing in the craft beer business and finding common ground with other small start-ups to challenge beer giants with new flavor profiles. Black Brew Culture, a coalition of Black Brewers founded in 2015, has also created a safe space for people of color to learn from each other and grow their operations, avoiding the pitfalls of systematic racism experienced within the craft beer industry. There are many milestones too overcome before the beer industry’s consciousness can be wiped clean of inequalities.

What’s Next: Black-owned businesses such as California’s Crown and Hops, MontClaire Brewery and Soul Mega have shown how successful diversity in the industry can be. To get a taste of what it’s like the Black is Beautiful stout will be released in July as it raises awareness for social injustices, and the consequences of racial disparities.

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