Brewers from Ardent Craft Ales and Capsoul Brewing Collective collaborated to create Single Connection, a hazy pale ale that will be available at “Brewing in the Black Community: From African Origins to Craft’s Future,” Aug. 25 at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.
The first Black-owned major brewery in the country, Peoples Brewing Company was acquired in 1970 by entrepreneur and civil rights figure Theodore Mack Sr. in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Its popular pint was Peoples Beer, a crisp lager that California-based Oak Park Brewing Co. recently re-created with the original recipe to honor Mack’s legacy.
“The fact that there was a Black brewing company then, that’s incredible to me,” says Deb Freeman, creator of “Setting the Table,” a podcast that explores African American foodways.
And while Mack’s story may not be well known, the idea of a Black-owned brewery existing more than 50 years ago when today they only account for 1% of breweries in the country, is a revelation, Freeman says.
“Here we are in 2023 like, what is this Peoples Beer? … It probably wasn’t considered that big of a deal back then, but it was groundbreaking. That history is there, it’s just unspoken.”
As Virginia Craft Beer Month comes to a close, some of those untold stories will come to light on Aug. 25 during “Brewing in the Black Community: From African Origins to Craft’s Future,” a program presented by the Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Richmond Beeristoric, and the Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia.
Attendees will hear from a panel of experts including Freeman; beer author Lee Graves; Eric Jackson, co-founder of Capsoul Brewing Collective, Richmond’s first Black-owned brewery; “Dr. J” Nikol Jackson-Beckham, equity and inclusion partner with the nationwide Brewers Association; and Dr. Theresa McCulla, curator of the Smithsonian Institution’s American Brewing History Initiative.
The goal of the event is to guide guests through the past, reflecting on the origins of craft brewing in Black communities and its roots in West African traditions, exploring how present-day Black brewers are navigating the scene, and looking ahead to the future of craft beer and how it will be defined.
For those who think Milwaukee is the birthplace of beer in the U.S., that home brewing gained popularity in 1970s basements or that the presence of Black people in the brewing community is a newer development, there’s a broader story to be told.
“West Africans, with their own rich brewing traditions, came to Virginia and parts of the New World,” Graves says. “No barley, no hops, their brewing was based on native grains like sorghum and millet.”
It was also based on foraging. In the 1700s, when groups of enslaved people were brought to Colonial America, they discovered persimmons, a fruit that shares genes with the jackalberry, an African tree fruit. They used their time-honored techniques to brew with the persimmons, and the result was a delicious, low-alcohol, sweet-tart concoction.
A hundred-plus years later, Patsy Young, an enslaved Black woman, was so skilled in suds that when she escaped, her owner repeatedly placed large ads in the newspaper to find her.
“When you think about brewer, you don’t think about Black women necessarily,” Freeman says, “or let me rephrase — you don’t think about Black people, and more specifically, you don’t think about Black women.”
She continues, “A lot of people mistakenly think that enslaved people, that their work was labor-focused, but there’s a craft to making beer, there’s a craft to distilling. I hope people walk away understanding that all of those have to be in place to produce beer and you had to have a skillset.”
Another key figure was Peter Hemings, a formerly enslaved brewmaster who was responsible for the brewing and malting operations at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and revered for his talents.
The label for Single Connection hazy pale ale
Despite these innate and ancestral connections to beer in Black history, there are only about 100 Black-owned breweries in the country. Jackson of Capsoul Brewing Collective is working locally to change the narrative. On the hunt for a location for the brewing operation and on the verge of launching a funding initiative, he says, “My hope for Capsoul is to have that craft beer consciousness, and that means understanding where that beer comes from,” he says. “I think I really want people to see the single connection that is interwoven in and around history of Black culture and beer.”
That idea resonated so deeply that Single Connection is the name of a hazy pale ale that CapSoul created in collaboration with Ardent Craft Ales that will be available at the event. 1865 Brewing Co., the first Black-owned brewery in Hampton, will also pour its Freedom Ale, while Ardent plans to debut a beer brewed using millet.
“People will be able to try beer that connects with that full heritage of what was going on, and experience a tradition that connects the dots,” Graves says.
Freeman adds, “I hope people also walk away with the understanding that there is a legacy there, that it’s not trendy, whether it be a Black brewery or a Black brewer, it’s not something that just popped up a few years ago, it’s something that existed throughout the entire history of America and also dates back to West Africa as well.”
On Aug. 26, Jackson and Capsoul will host a release event for Single Connection at Ardent Craft Ales from noon to 4 p.m. with an appearance from Graves.
