Black Is Beautiful Beer (Part 2)

 

From Dave:

Things can change.

When I first started brewing beer back in 1992, most people didn’t know what craft beer was. Trying to sell a beer as black as the motor oil in the crappy Chevy Cavalier I was driving back then would have been a fool’s errand. It was hard enough selling a beer that was red.

 

Twenty-eight years later as I write this, we have on tap 2 sours, super-hopped IPAs, a couple Belgian Ales and we just tapped Black is Beautiful, a 9% ABV Imperial Stout as dark as a humid backwoods Southern midnight.

 

It took a lot of time, but minds were changed about beer.

Even as things have improved in many ways in this country (I think of gay marriage being legal in 50 states, for example), the pace of change of the situation facing African Americans has been glacial at best. I am convinced that things must and can change. Further, the time is now. The groundswell of support following the outrageous death of George Floyd tells me that. Wendy and I believe in this change; we believe the world can be a better place.

How much will our tiny brewery selling this beer change things? Maybe not so much, but there are over 1,000 breweries all across the country also making a version of this beer. In cities all over the country, the beer is a point of departure for a conversation on discrimination, the George Floyd murder, and how things might get better. And 1000 x whatever money we can raise could be a lot of money.

If we each do what we can, even in little ways, things can and will get better.

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