One of the events capping off Virginia Craft Beer Month, which was officially recognized last year by Governor Glenn Youngkin, is a discussion this Friday around the West African origins of brewing, stories of enslaved brewers, and how the Black community of brewers is slowly growing in Virginia.
The event, dubbed “Brewing in the Black Community: From African Origins to Craft’s Future,” is being sponsored by the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia and Beeristoric, a local nonprofit advocacy group seeking to raise awareness of the Commonwealth’s beer industry.
Panelists on tap include history experts Dr. Theresa McCulla, curator of the Smithsonian Institution’s American Brewing History Initiative and local history beer author Lee Graves; Debra Freeman, a food anthropologist and creator and host of the African American foodways podcast, “Setting the Table;” as well as “Dr. J” Nikol Jackson-Beckham, an equity and inclusion partner with the nationwide Brewers Association; and Eric Jackson, founder of Capsoul Brewing Collective.
In 2019, Jackson started a social events company with a focus on diversifying taprooms. “We focused on energizing and diversifying tap rooms in Richmond,” says Jackson. “We created events at various breweries. They were brewery tours, we did hop crawls, we also released a craft beer magazine. And now moving forward to a year later, our new focus is to open a brewery here in Richmond.”
According to the National Black Brewers Association, a nonprofit advocacy group, less than 1% of craft breweries in the U.S. are owned by African Americans. That tiny percentage skews somewhat better in the Commonwealth, says author Lee Graves. He’s written three books on the history of beer in Virginia, is the founder of Beeristoric and was a former beer columnist and editor at The Richmond Times-Dispatch.
“They’re actually four Black-owned breweries in Virginia,” he notes. “And that’s out of more than 350 breweries in Virginia now. So, you can see that it’s kind of tipped in a direction that we’re hoping to raise awareness about.”
Jackson is also hoping to help increase that percentage when he opens Capsoul Brewing soon. “I think it makes sense for Richmond to have a Black-owned brewery given the history of Richmond and Virginia. I think the city’s ready,” he says, adding that his group will start a crowdfunding campaign Sept. 1 called “Tap in with Soul” for the new brewery.
Historical notes
After the panel discussion, beer lovers can sample a collaboration between Capsoul Brewing and Ardent Craft Ales based on historical brewing techniques found in West Africa using millet, which is sort of like corn, says Graves. “West Africa was the hotbed of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in colonial times,” says Graves. “And they had a rich brewing tradition, but it was not the brewing tradition that we’re familiar with.”
Graves says most beer geeks know that beer is usually all about barley, hops, water and yeast. “They’re the four pillars. But in West Africa, there was no barley, no hops used in the brewing, it was millet, sorghum, and other wild grains native to that area,” he says. “So, when West Africans came to this country as slaves, they encountered a totally different brewing culture.”
The enslaved brewers adapted and became skilled, he says. “They also learned to grow hops in their own gardens and sell them to plantation owners like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.”
Jackson says the collaboration between Capsoul and Ardent Craft Ales will be a highlight on Friday night. “This beer will be as close a representation to that style of beer that is brewed in Africa,” says Jackson. “It’s very different than the historic way that we have come to know and learn as it relates to German beer, as it relates to European beer. It’s going to be educational on both sides. And I think we’re going to learn a lot.”
He says beer fans, especially IPA and hazy fans, can also look forward to another collaboration with Ardent at the brewery on Saturday. It’s a can release of a beer called Single Connection Hazy Pale, which Jackson says is sort of like Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale.
Other beers will be on tap after the panel discussion, including a Freedom Ale by 1865 Brewing Company—the very first Black-owned brewery, which is based in Hampton Roads.
Brewing in the Black Community: From African Origins to Craft’s Future will be held Friday, Aug. 25 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture at 428 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd. Register here.
