15 Black-Owned and Black-Led Breweries You Should Know

The craft beer industry has a problem with a lack of diversity. In the Brewers Association’s 2019 survey, it found that 88 percent of brewery owners were white. From there, American Indian or Alaska Native owners were 4 percent, followed by Asian and Hispanic owners both at 2 percent, and Black brewery owners stood at just 1 percent. Hispanic employees make up about 7.5 percent of brewery service staff and Black employees sit at just over 4 percent of brewery service staff.

These numbers are not OK, and we start to change that by lifting up and supporting those who are forging paths for others to follow. In honor of Black History Month, we compiled a list of 15 breweries either owned by Black folk or led by a Black brewer. This is by no means a comprehensive list or a best of — the following is simply a collection of some notable Black-led breweries in the country that you should know and support.

Green Bench Brewing Company

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From: St. Petersburg, FL

Green Bench is one of those rare, world-class breweries that’s able to brew any style of beer really, really well. That’s because of co-owner and head brewer Khris Johnson’s impeccable brewing prowess — he’s also a founding faculty member of USF St. Petersburg’s Brewing Arts Program. Khris’ vision and abilities have transpired to Green Bench being known for everything from IPAs to mixed-fermentation beers to lagers and everything in between.

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Weathered Souls Brewing Co.

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From: San Antonio, TX

In 2020 it was the Black Is Beautiful initiative from Weathered Souls that made one of the biggest impacts on the craft beer world. Conceived by co-founder and head brewer Markus Baskerville, the collab brought together nearly 1,200 breweries from around the world, designed to raise awareness about the inequalities and injustices Black people face every day. Baskerville and Weathered Souls are rising stars in craft beerdom with deep stouts and thirst-quenching IPAs.

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Crowns & Hops

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From: Inglewood, CA

Founded by Beny Ashburn and Teo Hunter, Crowns & Hops has been focusing their work on closing the racial and gender gap in craft beer for years. Brewing beers that recognize historically Black colleges and universities or are done in conjunction with other Black-owned proprietors like Red Bay Coffee is at the center of what Crowns & Hops stands for. Their diverse portfolio of beers range from pilsners to West Coast IPAs and more. Crowns & Hops is currently building its first brewpub.

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Four City Brewing Company

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From: Orange, NJ

Founded out of Roger Apollon Jr.’s passion for home brewing, Four City Brewing Company aims to be a place where all can come to enjoy good beer. The microbrewery produces all kinds of delectable, citrus-forward IPAs and other styles that tie into the local Orange community — its flagship Citrus City is the epitome of this homage to home.

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Harlem Brewing Company

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From: Harlem, NY

Celeste Beatty has been a true pioneer in the brewing industry since the ‘90s. She officially founded Harlem Brewing Company in November 2000 and has since established her three flagship beers (Sugar Hill Golden Ale, Renaissance Wit and 125 IPA) as staples for any New York City drinker. Weaving together the heritage of Harlem, Beatty has also expanded to a sister brewpub in Rocky Mount, NC, dubbed Harlem Brew South. If you can find it, Renaissance Wit is one of the best American Witbiers out there.

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Urban Roots Brewing

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From: Sacramento, CA

Urban Roots Brewing has quickly asserted itself as a favorite among craft beer nerds and casual beer drinkers alike. That’s not just because they double as a Texas-style smokehouse, but it’s because of co-owner Rob Archie’s long-standing acumen in the craft beer. He’s also the owner of the Pangea Bier Cafe which helped establish Sacramento’s blossoming craft beer scene. Urban Roots excels at IPAs, pilsners and porters.

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Rhythm Brewing Co.

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From: New Haven, CT

Rhythm Brewing Co.’s owner and founder Alisa Bowens-Mercado is a one-woman workhorse. She started Rhythm Brewing Co. in 2018 to focus on unfiltered craft lagers since lagers were the drink of choice of both her grandmothers. The flagship Rhythm Unfiltered Lager uses South African hops and is just what you’re looking for in a crisp, easy-drinking beer.

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Union Craft Brewing

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From: Baltimore, MD

As Union Craft Brewing says on its website, “Beer is the union of water, barley, hops and yeast. A brewery is the union of beer, its brewers and the community it serves.” This is the driving philosophy behind what director of brewing operations and co-owner Kevin Blodger has established (he’s also the chair of the diversity committee for the Brewers Association). Duckpin Pale Ale was the brewery’s first beer and continues to be the backbone of its offerings to the blossoming craft community in Baltimore.

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Brooklyn Brewery

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From: Brooklyn, NY

While Brooklyn Brewery is not Black-owned, it has been Black-led from its very inception. That leader is brewmaster, James Beard Award-winning brewer and author of The Oxford Companion to Beer, Garrett Oliver. He has been a stalwart in the craft beer world for nearly five decades now and arguably is one of the best brewers in the world. His nuanced approach to brewing has not only established Brooklyn Brewery as an international icon, but he has also provided a path for others to follow. Oliver furthered this recently by launching The Michael James Jackson Foundation for Brewing & Distilling that aims to diversify beer and spirits.

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Chula Vista Brewery

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From: Chula Vista, CA

Founded by Navy veteran Timothy Parker and his wife Dali, Chula Vista Brewery focuses on creating quality craft beer for its neighbors in Chula Vista and the surrounding San Diego County areas. Being a pillar in the community is key to what the brewery does, and that includes offering an inviting taproom where all are welcome to enjoy key American styles like IPAs and pale ales while building a stronger community together.

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Down Home Brewing Co.

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From: Atlanta, GA

Down Home Brewing Co. is an Atlanta-based blossoming brewery that is Georgia’s first Black-owned brewery. Founders Chris Reeves and William Allen Moore started production in 2017 and have aimed for diversity and innovation in craft beer. Currently, the brewery has three beers out in the Atlanta market (Georgia Hooch IPA is a go-to, and the T-Pom Pomegranate Wheat Ale sounds like a unique twist on a wheat ale) with plans on finding a pub location soon.

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Montclair Brewery

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From: Montclair, NJ

Montclair Brewery, like most breweries really, was established out of a passion for home brewing. Leo Sawadogo and Denise Ford-Sawadogo founded the brewery in 2014 and officially opened the doors of its current location in 2018. Inspired by their diverse upbringings (Leo in West Africa and Denise on Long Island, as the first in her family to have been born outside Jamaica), the brewery offers eclectic brews like Hibiscus Dream (a pale ale brewed with hibiscus flowers). Since 2019, the brewery puts out a special Black History Month Beer Series inspired by African culture and prominent Black figures.

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Métier Brewing Company

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From: Woodinville, WA

It was a passion for beer and bicycling that led owner Rodney Hines to open Métier Brewing in 2018, thus becoming Washington’s first and only Black-owned brewery. The mission statement “to brew damn good beer and build stronger community to inspire bigger dreams for all” sits at the heart of everything Métier does — that includes sourcing materials and ingredients from minority- and women-owned businesses whenever possible. Some standouts from Métier include a Kölsch, a Coconut Porter and the Trail Blazer Pale Ale.

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Hella Coastal

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From: Oakland, CA

Hella Coastal aims to “build equity and ownership in the craft beer industry as producers and not just consumers.” Founders Mario Benjamin and Chaz Hubbard started Hella Coastal to also raise, address and educate the public on the historical, economic, social and health issues facing communities of color. They’ve not only done this through their own stable of beers, but also through collabs with other Black-owned breweries. Most recently, Hella Coastal released a Black History Month IPA four-pack with Full Circle Brewing, Oak Park Brewing and Hunters Point Brewing featuring civil rights activists on each of the cans.

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18th Street Brewery

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From: Hammond, IN

Founder and president Drew Fox has grown 18th Street Brewery into the second largest brewery in northwest Indiana since opening in 2013 — he had started the label as a home brewer in 2010. Brewing everything from Saisons to double IPAs and everything in between at multiple locations, Fox is meticulous about recipe evolution and creation. Whether it’s a flagship beer like Devil’s Cup or a barrel-aged one like Silver Spoon, Fox and crew are a must-try from Indiana.

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Who Owns Your Favorite Whiskey Brand?

Despite the folksy stories behind so many whiskey brands, many are run by companies with market caps approaching $100 billion. This doesn’t mean brands don’t have histories of their own, of course, or that those highly marketable histories aren’t based in truth, but it does provide some perspective. For the vast majority of America’s favorite whiskey labels, the image of a gruff whiskey man toiling away in a rickhouse, building the perfect whiskey, is, in 2021, high fantasy.

Instead, they use their billions in capital smartly. The modern macro-whiskey production site is an array of measuring instruments and gauges with computers monitoring everything. To different degrees, this is how Jim Beam, Heaven Hill, Jack Daniel’s, Four Roses, Buffalo Trace and the rest bring about consistency, incremental quality improvements and experimentation. In the aggregate, this is excellent for whiskey drinkers.

That said, to better understand who’s making what whiskey and how it’s all related, one must know who owns who. These are the parent companies of the brands who hold court in the modern whiskey world.

(Note: not every whiskey brand is represented in the images for each respective parent organization. Brands were chosen by popularity. For comprehensive lists, visit each company’s brand page.)

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Formally founded in 19th century by a French businessman in New Orleans, Sazerac is one of the largest privately owned spirits businesses in the world. Its asset sheet is a who’s-who of whiskey mania — Buffalo Trace, Weller, Blanton’s, Pappy (technically a joint venture between the Van Winkle family and Buffalo Trace Distillery) and on and on. Its whiskey holdings aren’t limited to high-profile, high-price whiskeys, though; the company owns Fireball and Southern Comfort, too.

For most whiskey drinkers, it’s Buffalo Trace Distillery and the products made under its flag that demand the most respect. The Frankfort, Kentucky distillery was previously called the George T. Stagg Distillery and has become home to what is likely the most robust lineup of premium bourbon in the world. The fact that the bourbons made there (and elsewhere in the Sazerac portfolio, like at the Barton 1792 Distillery and A. Smith Bowman Distillery) are all near-household names is a testament to Sazerac’s deftness in the art of the acquisition. Starting in 1989 with a handful of former Seagram’s Distillery products (one of which eventually became Fireball, one of the best-selling booze SKUs of the 21st century), Sazerac has bought up, rebranded, repositioned or remade brands into superior versions of their past selves.

Full List of Brands: Here

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Campari Group, named after the Italian apéritif that launched the company, is one of the less prolific players in the whiskey world, but it does own Wild Turkey, one of the most iconic brand names in American whiskey.

Campari purchased Wild Turkey and its various sub-brands (Russell’s Reserve, American Honey, Rare Breed, etc.) in 2009 along with its Lawrenceburg, Kentucky distillery. As far as impact on the whiskey world, Campari Group is a lightweight; but the company’s breadth of brands in nearly every booze category has made it one of the world’s foremost drinks companies.

Full List of Brands: Here

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Debatably the world’s single largest distilling companies, Diageo is a corporate behemoth whose highest-profile brands seemingly reflect that. They are the mainstream of the mainstream: Bulleit, Crown Royal, Johnnie Walker, Lagavulin and more (and while obviously not a spirit, they also own Guinness).

More than American whiskey, Diageo is known for scotch whisky; the brands under the Diageo umbrella also produce more scotch whisky than any other company in the world. After Johnnie Walker, the company also owns Oban, Talisker, Lagavulin and a number of smaller labels and brands exclusive to other parts of the world. And this is all before mentioning the might of Crown Royal, the best-selling Canadian whisky, which Diageo purchased in the early 2000s for $5 billion (Captain Morgan rum was also part of the deal). When you think Diageo, think big.

Full List of Brands: Here

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Beam-Suntory is an American company that makes scotch whisky, bourbon whiskey, rye whiskey, Japanese whisky, Irish whiskey, Canadian whisky and even Spanish whisky. Beam-Suntory itself is a holding of a Japanese company called Suntory Beverage & Food Ltd., which is, of course, a subsidiary within Suntory Holdings. By volume, the company is the third largest distiller in the world (behind Diageo and Pernod Ricard). A lot of that is whiskey.

The North American wing of the company owns Maker’s Mark, Knob Creek, Booker’s, Basil Hayden’s, Canadian Club and more. Its list of scotch whisky is slightly shorter, but no less gaudy: Laphroaig, Bowmore, Auchentoshan and more. Then there are the Suntory-produced whiskies, which have come to embody both the extreme capabilities of whiskey makers from non-traditional whiskey regions and, for some, the pinnacle of whiskey hype culture. You’ve got a better chance at seeing a unicorn than finding bottles of Yamazaki, Hibiki and Hakushu whiskies at their retail prices. Generally, Beam-Suntory is responsible for a serious amount of excellent whiskey.

Full List of Brands: Here

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Along with Sazerac (to a certain extent), Heaven Hill is something of an outlier on this list. It is a privately held, family-owned company that is the only Kentucky whiskey maker that remains locally owned. The Shapira family helped found the distillery (with a member of the Beam family, no less) and steadily bought out its other founders. Today, Max Shapira is the CEO and a number of other Shapiras work within the company.

Though the company has greatly expanded its brand sheet in recent years, it’s most known for its collection of fabled whiskeys; award winners like Elijah Craig, Heny McKenna, Old Fitzgerald, Larceny and Pikesville Rye, as well as unbeatable value brands like Evan Williams and the inimitable Mellow Corn.

Full List of Brands: Here

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A semi-family affair. The Brown family controls the majority of voting shares in the company, and thereby one of the largest American-owned distilling operations. Its brand lineup is small but powerful, headlined by the all-conquering Jack Daniel’s brand, which remains the world’s best-selling whiskey.

Brown-Forman’s other whiskey lines aren’t as impressive from a numbers perspective, but fill out a healthy whiskey bullpen nicely. Old Forester offers value bottles as well as a number of high-profile limited releases like its Batch Proof offering and Birthday Bourbon, while Woodford Reserve offers well-crafted, lower proof entry points into more premium bourbon. While lesser-known, Cooper’s Craft offers experiment whiskeys for those interested in one of Brown-Forman’s largest assets: its own cooperage. To this day, it is the only major distiller to own its own barrel making shop, lending it the unique ability custom-build barrels and experiments on the fly.

Full List of Brands: Here

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In Kirin’s mighty beverage portfolio, Four Roses stands alone. Four Roses’ history is one of the most unique of all major whiskey makers (there is ongoing debate on where the name comes from, when the company was founded and so on).

By the 1940s and early 1950s, the company which had been America’s most popular bourbon a short time before, was flailing. Instead of folding, Four Roses was fired to emerging markets all over Europe and Asia in search of a new foothold. In Japan, it found one. The Japanese market drank it up and made it the most popular bourbon whiskey in the country, effectively saving the company from ruin (there are Japan-exclusive Four Roses expressions to this day).

While it was dominating overseas, Four Roses had fallen off the horse in the States. The whiskey was, to put it lightly, not good, and also not bourbon. It had been selling Canadian whisky to America while producing high quality bourbon whiskey to sell abroad. After a series of corporate takeovers and handoffs, Kirin secured the Four Roses of today by discontinuing the sale of the lower-end whiskey they’d been selling in favor of Kentucky bourbon whiskey.

(Editor’s Note: for those interested, Jim Vorel’s story on the history of Four Roses is an excellent, detailed overview of the company’s timeline.)

Full List of Brands: Here

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Pernod Ricard is one of the three largest distilled booze makers in the world, and, a bit like Diageo, its brands are glossy. Jameson, Chivas Regal, The Glenlivet are the starters, but the bench is packed with talent, too, with the likes of Jefferson’s, Smooth Ambler, Powers Irish Whiskey, Green Spot and more waiting in the wings. But unlike Heaven Hill, Brown-Forman or Beam-Suntory, Pernod Ricard’s whiskey holdings are a very, very smart part of its enormous alcohol-producing apparatus.

Full List of Brands: Here