10 fantastic Black-owned breweries and wineries in the USA

Owner Clarence Boston may be the most multifaceted brewery owner in America. After opening the first Hippin Hops location in April 2021 (the first brick-and-mortar Black-owned brewery in Georgia), he and his wife and co-owner Donnica expanded to two more facilities. Clarence, originally a mortician, was a homebrewer for years before launching Hippin’ Hops Brewery and Oyster Bar, whose menu is supplied in part by Boston’s own oyster bed in North Carolina.

If you’re looking for a strong opening statement, the Black-owned Black Calder launched their first beer—a Black IPA—on Black Friday, and that batch sold out within days. Michigan’s first Black-owned beermaker has since rolled out a sweet potato pie stout with African vanilla and a hazy IPA with Ghanaian honey. While the pandemic put their plans for their own location on pause, co-founders Terry Rostic and Jamaal Ewing are making Dope Beer for Dope People out of Broad Leaf Brewery while collaborating on beers with other breweries like Eastern Market and Speciation, with a forthcoming barrel-aged pecan pie stout with Chicago’s Goose Island.

No brewery knows that Black is Beautiful better than San Antonio’s Weathered Souls. Following the murder of George Floyd, co-founder and head brewer Marcus Baskerville launched a worldwide collaboration beer project called Black is Beautiful to raise awareness about injustices faced by people of color, as well as to raise funds to support police reform. To participate, all you had to do was brew the Black is Beautiful imperial stout and commit to donating the proceeds to charities appropriate to the cause. To date, over a thousand breweries in nearly two dozen countries have participated; the beer recently hit the shelves of 300+ Walmart stores as well. 

Not many beermakers start through Tinder dates and marketing companies, but LA’s Crowns & Hops isn’t like most other beermakers. Founders Beny Ashburn and Teo Hunter met on the dating app and decided they made better business partners than romantic ones. They launched a marketing company called Dope & Dank with the intent to build a bigger beer-loving culture amongst communities of color, and that naturally transitioned into making their own beers as Crowns & Hops in 2019. Since then, they’ve released a variety of stouts, IPAs, and lagers through partners like Three Weavers Brewing while working towards opening their own facility in Hunter’s hometown of Inglewood.

Several Black-owned beer companies came on the Chicagoland scene in 2021, but none have hit with the force of Moor’s. Launched on Juneteenth by Damon Patton and Jamhal Johnson, Moor’s offers three different beers (including a lavender-infused Imperial porter), and each can features the steely gaze of Moorish conqueror Tariq ibn Ziyad looking back out at you. They’re already also celebrating more than just beer culture by hosting concerts with performers like Rakim and as well as documentary screenings celebrating Chicago’s house music and hip-hop history.