The Wake Up Call, with Crowns and Hops and the National Black Brewers Association

Speaker 1 [00:12] Good morning, everybody. How's everybody doing? Great. Well, I imagine some of you might be a little groggy after such a great party last night, and that is exactly why we are having this conversation right now because we are gonna, we're literally calling this the wake-up call, and if you still need caffeine after listening to Teo Hunter speak for any amount of time, you may not actually be alive. So, you're here to share their journey from founding a brewery to creating a movement are Teo and Beny Ashburn, they're the co-founders of Crowns & Hops, the first black woman veteran-owned brewery in Inglewood, California, and we are also gonna be joined in this conversation by Kevin Asato, the inaugural executive director of the National Black Brewers Association. So, please welcome to the stage, Beny, Teo, and Kevin.

Speaker 2 [01:13] 0 you aren't lying about the energy with this.

Speaker 3 [01:24] We would do this if it was 6 a.m. Damn right.

Speaker 1 [01:28] Welcome to my life. I was going to say, Beny, you've been listening to this for years. How are you doing?

Speaker 4 [01:32] 7 years since 2016, 7 years. What's up, Jess? You look incredible, by the way. God, thank you. Like, come on, make some noise for Jess.

Speaker 5 [01:44] She's bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, everything. I like it. Crazy

Speaker 1 [01:47] lady who brought a baby to a beer conference. So, um, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you're welcome, everybody else building the next drinker base. So the way that I envision this conversation happening is I want you guys to share your story with everybody, and I've got a question that will actually frame this up. I'm just telling you what we're doing and we're probably showing the people a little too much of the inside baseball, but And then Kevin, I want you to talk a little bit about the NB2A, and we'll just kind of get into it from there. But so you know, Teo and Beny, in no way am I trying to make this about me, but I kind of can't help it because you guys won the pitch slam at my first ever Brewbound Live in 2019. Yeah, yeah. So, and here you are as rising stars, and I feel like the three of us are having like a big full circle moment up here. And, you know, in full disclosure, I'm just going to embarrass myself, but I kind of cried at the end of us recording our award winner video a few weeks because I'm so happy for you and also all of the baby hormones, but like just watching your journey has been incredible, so. Walk us through, you know, for everybody else who maybe hasn't really had a front row seat to it. Tell us what the past 4 years have been like.

Speaker 3 [03:01] Oh God, I mean, I think. It's been up and down and all over the place. Um, when we won Pitch Slam in 2019, I think we had just released our BPLB batch one because as you know, you gotta go through a few batches to get to the right one, and, um, that was the first time we were able to pitch our brand to uh a large group of people and potentially get mass criticism about what we were doing. And winning the pitch slam was kind of like that stamp in the ground that everything that we had been working on the four years prior was, was valid, was validated, and it was important and what we were doing was bigger than beer, which we've always said so.

Speaker 4 [03:41] Yeah, I think, um, we, we really started with our why. I think, um, I think every conversation that you've heard, um, over the course of the past 48 hours has been about what is your why. You need to have something bigger than beer. You need to have a reason. It's like, like there are some retailers that are even putting that as a prerequisite to them even considering you as a brand, and that's how Benny and I started. And I think with coming into that pitch slam, we, we just got back from the UK. talking about diversity in craft beer because it's not just a national thing, it is a global thing that we're talking about.

Speaker 1 [04:19] It is a global thing and I think, you know, in the modern era that we're in right now, beer culture flows from the US to other countries, so that's kind of how it all really starts.

Speaker 3 [04:29] And really quick one other thing I will say I think we felt from that day, you know, a lot of people in this room have been doing this for a very Very, very long time and I think what me and Teo brought in 2019 was a new excitement and a new understanding about the industry. So when we won, I like cried. Like it was it was like the Oscars of beer and I was like oh my God this is so exciting and I think everybody in the room, even if they didn't know who we were, were excited to see us win because we were so excited about the opportunity. Be in craft in a new way. Still excited and still excited, and I think over the four years we hopefully have continued to fuel energy back into the why that any of us are even doing this. Who are these new consumers? What are we doing? Why is this fun? Because for a minute it stopped being fun for a lot of people.

Speaker 1 [05:22] So I am so glad you just said that because I feel like you guys wanted a time when You know, the taproom boom had, had happened. It had crested, and everybody was just kind of like adjusting to the situation, and people were, I think, starting to feel a little jaded and beer had become kind of not fun. People were taking stuff a little too seriously, and you guys were a literal breath of fresh air because you were so, your, your enthusiasm was contagious and everybody was so excited. So since then, you know, we're still working on opening the brewery, right? Where, where are we with that?

Speaker 3 [05:54] Uh, where are we with that?

Speaker 4 [05:57] I think if anything it's safe to say that the industry has had to, um, expand and constrict. Um, we are not exempt from that. Um, I think one of the things, you know, being a brand that started in the pandemic, you know, it was very difficult to even pitch a concept of starting a brewery. Um, so being the students of the industry that we were, we knew that we had the ability to contract and in doing that, Benny, our no big deal skill is marketing and branding, so we just poured all of our, our, our, our attention and focus into growing a wholesale. Business, which is what we still continue to do today. Starting out in 2020 we had about 500 barrels going into 2021, 2022, about 1500, and now we're at just about 3000 barrels for a 3 year old craft beer company. I think that's pretty, pretty decent, damn good.

Speaker 1 [06:57] Yay. Uh, more than decent, I would say. So, listening to the journey that you've been on, how helpful would it have been to have an organization like the NB2A from the start?

Speaker 3 [07:08] I mean, it would have been amazing to have an organization like the NB2A and in the small time that Kevin and the whole NB2A team, NB2A team have been uh evolved, a lot has happened, opportunities, resources, training, um, connections, camaraderie that we didn't have when we were starting out, and we had to really actively search and find and and identify. Who are the people going through the same things we are going through from a black stance and then you know what Kevin and his team are doing is really amazing.

Speaker 4 [07:44] Yeah, if you consider we, we are such fans of this industry like we made it a point to visit all of our local craft breweries to champion them, to understand what their, what their ethos was. Anytime we would travel, we not only sought out notable craft breweries, we sought out. up and coming and new craft breweries and then we search for that one black brewer, that one black brewery that may have existed, may have existed in that in that community. So you know it's been an active role for us to establish community with the current community but also with the very fragmented few black brewers that were out in the world, you know. So if you can, you know, imagine. The NB2A is, is literally a lightning rod, you know, um, giving everyone, including this industry, not just other black-owned breweries, but this industry, a way to actually be able to locate and understand how they can ladder into being a part of change. Awesome.

Speaker 1 [08:51] Now, Kevin, when we chatted a couple of weeks ago for our pre-record video, you told me that you were tasked with doing 3 years of work in one to establish the NB2A and just as An observer of everything you guys have been doing minus a good chunk of maternity leave. I feel like, I think I've already seen you do 2 years of work in like 6 months.

Speaker 5 [09:13] So that's a pretty fair statement there, yeah, yeah. Well,

Speaker 1 [09:15] how are you holding up?

Speaker 5 [09:17] Personally, I'm holding up fine. you know, when you find partners like this, you find the community like this, the energy by itself pulls you right up, right? It becomes contagious and you just want to have more of it and you start spreading that gospel, more and more people just start showing their support and you start saying, oh my goodness, yes, I can do more. Want to do more. I will do more and then as more people come into this community, you start realizing wow, we can do more. And so as we start pulling in these resources and building our community, you know, I'm uplifted and reinvigorated you know my career actually started in beer and then I went into the wine and spirits section so this is kind of a coming home, if you will, and had I known this level of excitement could have existed. I would have foregone the 30 years of other spirits side of the business and stayed right here in beer because this feels familial, this feels exciting, and this is fun. That's the biggest thing. Well,

Speaker 1 [10:15] welcome back. We're thrilled that you're here.

Speaker 5 [10:17] Thank you very, very

Speaker 1 [10:17] much. So question kind of for all of you guys, and we talked about this, but you know we've been talking about the need for change in this industry in terms of the amount of diversity forever, but to me this feels like the first time measurable change is actually happening. Why do you think it took this long?

Speaker 4 [10:36] Um, well, well, let me just, I'll ask the crowd, how many people know by a show of hands who Jerry Lorenzo is? Anybody? Uh, you've ever heard of a brand called Fear of God? Anybody, 2, we got about 4 people. Um, does anybody know who J Dilla is? Is people, so we got some hip hop heads in here as well. The, the reality is the answer has always been there. The opportunity for us to expand and understand, um, our opportunity is, has always been there. I mean, I'm rocking some fear of God's shoes right now, FYI, um, but, but, but the reality is there is a culture in a community that this industry has never even tried to have an authentic conversation about. Um, everybody talks about DE and I and and and diversity and inclusion, but rarely do they actually have a conversation around equity, and that's what Benny and I became really passionate about is because as we were, you know, again we started this in 2016, as we were investigating why the industry wasn't more diverse, we realized because it was primarily because we did not see our reflection in the industry, you know that proverb. verb of, you know, you don't give a man fish, you teach him how to fish. Well, the way equity works is you help that man finance a fishing boat so he could change his life, so he could change and give jobs to other people in his community. That's equity and that has been nonexistent in this industry and I think that's something that not only Beny and I stand for with our nonprofit, the Arill Initiative, but also with the NB2A stands for.

Speaker 3 [12:19] I think it it also comes from leadership, right? And if there is no leadership that understand what it means to drive racial equity to be diverse, it's impossible for that change to actually exist. When we started the conversations around diversity were, are there enough women, right? And as a black woman, and I've said this many times before, when I walk in the room, I don't lead with being a woman, I lead with being black because that is the first thing that people see and I'm, I'm a woman secondary to that. So if no one understands fundamentally what the problem is, then how can you fundamentally change it? It, it doesn't really make sense and that's why it took Teo and I so long. Years for anyone to really understand what they could do because first you got to identify, then you understand what, what, what are the problems and then how do we solve them, and we are now 7 years later in the how do you solve it stage of development and in that from Kevin and NB2A it's, we needed the leadership. So now that we have NB2A and we have people really driving it. Who understand the problem, then they can create 2 years' worth of change in 2 months.

Speaker 4 [13:35] I remember we called the BA like in 2019, 2018, sometime around there, and we just had all these questions about like the lack of diversity and or just any understanding of what and they were clueless. There was that there was no Dr. J at the time. There was and it was just like we were like. Crap, we were like, you know, this industry is pretty seasoned, and for there still not to be any conversation or any anyone to actually speak to these issues was jarring, and we just took it upon ourselves to start creating solutions.

Speaker 1 [14:10] That's amazing. And like also, God bless Dr. J. Yay,

Speaker 3 [14:14] we love Dr. J.

Speaker 4 [14:15] We do doc.

Speaker 5 [14:19] You know, and I want to add to that piece there. I mean, when you talk about why it's taken so long, you hear and feel the passion about what they're talking about, right? Bennie and Teo are one of the best icons and examples of why we need to bring this community together. But let's be realistic, they are family people first. They are business owners. Next. Already that would be a plateful spilling over, let alone trying to drive home additional change. Let's be realistic. There's only 24 hours in the day, you know. So until you can get a collective group or a dedicated organization or group of people solely focused on driving that change in awareness, will we actually be able to make systemic and actually successful. Impact. So we really needed an outside group so we can lift that burden off them, focus on their business, focus on their family. We can drive this bit of change.

Speaker 4 [15:13] Amen, Kev.

Speaker 5 [15:16] I like

Speaker 1 [15:16] Kevin. I'm so glad you said that because I mean the onus shouldn't have to be on you guys, but you're such perfect messengers. But you know there's a big gulf between how much people like in the broader industry say that they want to improve conditions and they say how much they're willing to do. But sometimes those two things don't connect. So I think it's on people who consider themselves allies to really call this out and saying, hey, like you pledged this, you made this social media post, you said that, but what are you really doing?

Speaker 4 [15:44] Actually, I want to just directly speak to everybody here. I think the thing that people don't really let sink in is that DENI is not just some like social experiment. It is a strategy for economic success for our country, period. The more people that discover Crowns and Hops and buy Crowns and Hops Brewing Company's beer, the more people that are going to seek out a Firestone beer or a urban jungle beer or a Highland Park brewery beer. It doesn't work like someone just buys one craft beer if they just got one, you know how it is when you get bit by the bug, you're trying to find it all. You're trying to compare your favorite against the next person's favorite. So if you think about it, it's a numbers game. It's a, you know, I don't have a master's in statistics, but, you know, it's a pretty, it's easy math. The more people that know about craft, the stronger our industry is.

Speaker 3 [16:46] When you think about the definition of what ally means, it's not just someone who wants to help, but it's someone who has a common interest. So when you think about Being an ally to your point, the common interest is growing the industry. The common interest is how do we all make more money together. So when we're looking for allies and you want people to help, it can't just be a moment in time that you feel you just did something for the moment if you don't fundamentally understand. Change is going to also affect your business, then you can't be an ally and I think that's what people are now starting to understand is looking at the bigger picture to Tia's point, it's not, it's not just a moment, it's just not a moment we all have to look at the greater picture like the strategies that we're having. But Kevin, the MB2A don't have to just be black breweries. That makes no sense because it has to be everyone. How do we all benefit, you know, when we did our collaborations through our H Hill organization, we don't do them with just black breweries. We do them with everyone because everybody wins from the benefit of us collaborating and working together. So I think people just need to understand what a true definition of ally is before you, you really step in and, and make change.

Speaker 1 [18:03] So what do you need from allies and how can they help amplify the message?

Speaker 5 [18:08] I, you know. Of course, the financial impact of things of just sustaining this organization is crucial, right? So off the bat I have to give mad love to some of those early founding partners that we have, the Boston Beer Company being the first, just jumping out of the gate and just saying I absolutely support and understand your message. And they came out with a 3 year commitment right off the bat, but it wasn't just financial. There was a bunch of additional resources, educational resources, production resources. These type of things are so significant but still so challenging for our community to get. So I have to give mad love to that and You know, when we look at, you know, the National Beer Wholesalers Association coming out and supporting us and the announcement that just came out yesterday, Molson Coors coming out to support us, you know, so mad love to Molson Coors coming out and giving us, you know, love there, even companies like Diageo coming out and supporting us, those early founders, these, you know, icons of some of the beer industry are some of the key pieces that support us that are significant and helpful. It doesn't end there though. I think the other key piece there in terms of what other resources and how you can support. It can be your services. It can be your time. Your expertise is what this community can benefit from. Your access is what we're, you know, looking for. We're all part of the same brewing community. If you think about all the things that go into either producing, marketing, selling, or quite frankly, just being a part of this community. Those resources are also needed right here, so it's not limited to the financial components of things there. Mentorship, right? You can imagine as any new brewery owner or business owner, it can be expensive to learn how to bring yourself from start to finish, and those resources are finite. So imagine if you actually had a community of people that have been down this road before that you can tap right into and say, hey, let's. Not make that same costly mistake, right? I've got a group of people that, you know, if a homebrewer wants to elevate to the next level, we've got a whole community of people that can help them learn and get going much faster in a less costly manner, and that's significant. That's very significant. Both time and financial resources, financial resources come frequently, but time you never get back. So let's not lose sight of the importance. of wasting time.

Speaker 4 [20:35] Yeah, and, and, and, and I'll even break it down even, even more specific, um, one. Um, you can support Krabs and Knop's Brewing Company beer. That, that, that's a really good way to do it is supporting the black owned craft breweries that you know about. Um, that, that is, this is about money after all. This is about capital. So by supporting and if you don't know your, uh, black owned brewery in your city, in your town, in your state, that's an opportunity for you to grow and expand your network, um. To collaborate with Crowns and House Brewing Company because in our collaborations we take the proceeds or approaching into the proceeds and we send it right to our grant program that actually goes back to black owned breweries that may need financial assistance. It's called the Atrial Initiative. We could talk to you about it later on. Um, 3, sign up to be a member of the MB2A like it is. Not just a black organization. The, the NAACP is not just a black organization. It is about an organization that is focused on driving change for the community, period. And we welcome you. I sit on the board, um, as well, and we welcome you to join and everybody has a phone or something to write with right now. Put, put that down in, uh, MB2A. Um, go to

Speaker 5 [21:54] NB2A.org. There we go right now and just on your mobile phone, your iPad, your computer, NB2A.org. Top right of the corner, it says join now. It makes it, we make it so simple for you to do exactly that. How can you help? Become a member, show that you actually support this piece. That's one of the easiest ways for all of you to be able to help today. So I'd love to look forward to you right now. Who's the first one that's going to raise up and say this, because I'm offering a case of slaves right now.

Speaker 4 [22:24] Your slaves almost sold out. I don't know. That was a good Kobe and Shaq. That's pretty good. That was.

Speaker 1 [22:36] Well, so you briefly mentioned atrial pills, but I don't want to gloss over that because that's enormous. So for everybody who might not know, you know, you guys announced the Atrial pills initiative in 2020. It's based on insight from a paper from the WK Kellogg Foundation that $8 trillion could be added to the US economy in the next 30 years if racial equity. I can be achieved. So you guys, you give business grants to black owned beer companies, but the thing that strikes me a lot about this is you did this almost 4 years ago when Crowns and Hops was still so new that you very easily could have marshaled all these efforts around yourselves, but you didn't. So why in the infancy of your own company was it so important to reach back and help others?

Speaker 3 [23:15] You know, people seem to believe or there's this misconception that there can only be one successful black anything in any industry, which is crazy when you look at there's 10,000 breweries in the US and 90, you know. All of them are basically white, so obviously you can have more than one successful brand at the table and as we were going through our struggles and continue to, I mean, as everyone knows when you're in industry any industry, you're always raising money. We're raising money now, so, um, but we knew it was hard to, we have a lot more access. We're also in a city that has a lot more access, a lot more resources, a lot more cultural um accessibility. And there are a lot of black beer brands that don't have that same those same opportunities. So for us it was, it was, of course, if there's an opportunity, especially in the in 2020, the wake of George Floyd's murder, it was a very prime time for black businesses who were ready to be successful. They were the opportunity was now being given to them. And we felt like we wanted to be a part of that even while we continued to raise money on our own. I mean that $100,000 could have easily gone to anything that we were working on, but instead it went to Montclair Brewing. They, they won $50,000 and was able to buy a canning line. Which helped them survive COVID, get them in Whole Foods, you know, etc. and it's and expand, and it's, and now they're opening a second location, and they didn't close during COVID, right? And that is an amazing feeling to know we are, we can help each other, um, and it happens inside the brewing industry all the time and I. There's endless brewery owners who are making millions of dollars that work with, help each other constantly from maybe providing ingredients or doing whatever, so why can't we do the

Speaker 4 [25:06] same? And I think also what Benny and I experienced on our journey was, even though our concept, like literally the case study of. Benny and Crabs and hops is literally the change that we're talking about that's needed in craft beer. We still could not get a loan. We still could not get, uh, at the time, any investors. So Benny and I said, OK, we started an equity crowdfunding campaign and raised a million dollars on our own with the community that we started. That's worth applauding. That's And, and time and time again we bet on ourselves because we know that we're the change that the industry needs. Like we're literally a case study for what needs to happen in order for this, this industry to flourish. So, um, for us, you know, creating the atrial pills grant, the atrial initiative grant literally was laddering into our why, our movement, our, our, our why we exist. And again, one of the things that Came out of being a part of the MB2A is everyone had their initiatives like everyone had some form of initiative because everybody, you know, it's not a cookie cutter solved and what we found and, and what, what Kevin and. Kevin Johnson had been able to do so brilliant with the board is create continuity behind what everyone was doing. You can still brew Black is Beautiful today, and the proceeds from that beer will go to the MB2A. You know, and, and these are things that we realized, you know, that we can work in tandem together. The, the example of Celeste and, and the, and the, and the equipment, um, the, the MJ Jackson Foundation was going to be, uh, donated a, a, a brew if you could share that, tell us the story.

Speaker 5 [27:03] Absolutely. I mean this is a prime example of how the NB2A as an organization can Bring all these separate initiatives and have a centralized clearinghouse, right? That is precisely what this organization would do, whether it be to find a recipient for these resources or just for even organizations to go, wow, how do I help somebody? Well, right here, come right here, we'll talk to it together and we'll put it out. So this is a great example of a Triumph Brewing in in Princeton, New Jersey had a new barrel, a new brew house coming in, and they said, wow, I've got this 10 barrel brew house available. I'm just gonna, I'd love to find a worthy recipient for it. They connected with Garrett Oliver on our board. Garrett Oliver connected with us, saying, one, let's find a recipient. And of course there's costs to decommission that piece of equipment. There's costs to transport it. There's costs to install it. Those costs are real, right? And you know that's real money. But as an organization, if our goal is to help facilitate brewery ownership, Then not only did we find a worthy recipient, but we'll help facilitate the cost to get that in place. And you know, Triumph Brewing, thank you, Adam Resnitz and his team for donating that product, and the lovely recipient is Celeste Beatty, who many of you have seen, but she's been around forever with Harlem Brewing, but she's been a contract brewer. She's never had her own brewery. This is the first First time after 23 years in the beer business that she can actually start to say, wow, I'm getting my own production facility, but she didn't stop there. It's also going to be an education facility. Now that's going to take place in Harlem Brew South and Rocky Mountain. So much love to Celeste Beatty and you know waiting 23 years to get her own house and equipment to really do things her way. So this organization can help facilitate those type of resources and As Tito Mbeni mentioned, there are several other resources, whether it's 8 trill or anyone else's initiative. We end up being that clearing house that that helped put this together. When I can get all the oars in the water pulling in the same direction, this is where we can start really feeling the power and impact of a community coming together. So all these initiatives are necessary because they're specific to a specific action, specific size of an organization or brewery. But we help bring that to life, right? We can amplify it maybe through visibility, right, socializing it to a larger audience or inviting perhaps some of our corporate partners to amplify some of these initiatives, right? So that's the value of we're not looking to eradicate any of the initiatives that have taken place today. We're looking to bring them together and actually amplify it and pour gasoline on the fire that these individual initiatives have created.

Speaker 1 [29:49] That's great. Awesome. Now, before we run out of time, I do kind of want to talk about the consumer piece of this because we've talked a lot about the industry B2B part of it, and that's super important because that's what we're all here to, to really do. But the consumer argument really does need to be made. And, you know, earlier this fall, you know, BA chief economist Bart Watson said at, uh, at the Massachusetts Craft Brewers Guild that craft beers' next stage of growth has to come from gaining new customers, not from expanding or increasing volume in new channels. So in my own decade plus experience in and around craft beer, the consumer craft has worked the hardest to reach white men in their 20 to 40s, and I know, I was shocked too. Sometimes there's beards, sometimes there's flannels, but usually that comes at the expense of reaching anybody else who might ever be interested in the product, and those guys become a smaller part of the population every year just demographically. But also those guys are starting to get interested in other things, spirits, cannabis. There may be no substances at all. So we named the session the wake up call for a reason, and You know, in your opinions, how imperative is it to craft beer's economic viability to make this industry more inclusive?

Speaker 3 [31:05] I mean, I, I, how many conferences have you been to in the last year and has anyone ever not had a panel about you have to diversify the audience? I think at this point, when people come and sit and listen to Us have these conversations, the black people talking about the black stuff. It's not the black stuff anymore. It hasn't been the black stuff for a very long time. If we do, if you do not care about diversifying the audience, you are going to fail. There is nothing else to talk about. There's no other way to look at it. If you do not get involved, your doors will close. It is as simple as that. The, the entire. The world is no longer going to be white or black. We have been multicultural for centuries, and it's only going to get, you know, bigger and bigger. So you've got to make a decision as an entrepreneur and as a business owner where do you, what side of this do you want to be on and how much do you want to care because we're here because we had no choice. We were born black. This is who we are. This is the audiences that we talk to. These are the people that we spend, these are our families. These are our sisters, these are our aunties, these are our cousins, and, and we have a void of seeing ourselves. So for us it means something to us because we just want to be represented. But for everyone else who is not black, your audience has to grow. You need to talk. To an audience of people who want to drink beer, and it is no longer the white bearded man, it is everyone. Find ways to make these people feel comfortable in your space, in your brand, in your world,

Speaker 4 [32:46] and that doesn't mean you have to become something that you're not. Exactly. Like I think a lot of people think, well, you know, all of a sudden, you know, I'm not going to start wearing fear of gods. Like, you know, I love my Birkenstocks, you know, rock your Birkenstocks, it's fine. But collaborate with the dude that wears Fear of God. Like reach out to him, reach out, connect and, and, and build an authentic connection with the community that you're trying to build with. Unfortunately, we are, we are all not consolation and corona and we can't give Snoop Dogg a check to show that we are now all of a sudden dope. Like they could buy, they could buy their audience, but we can't. But that's also what makes us great. Like we, we are great for building community, for establishing authentic connections. Do that. Like do it. It's not difficult. It's not hard. And now we've even made it more easy. You have the MB2A and you have Crowns and Kn Brewing Company with the A trill Initiative. Easy.

Speaker 5 [33:42] You literally can go to the MB2A website and actually find a directory of black brewers in the United States. So when you are looking for that collaborator and you know wherever part, whatever part of the world you're in, and it doesn't have to be. Locally sound to you, it can be anywhere, right? We've done virtual collaborations, but the NB2A is making it easy for you to connect with the black brewer to do a collaboration or even quite frankly, how to reach out to a larger community of black people. And I think that's the key thing about the NB2A. This isn't just about brewers and brewery owners. We're including the entire black beer community. So whether you're in sales, you can be an accountant, but if you're a person of color, you just naturally want to gravitate to this community, and that's who our community. We're asking you to be a part of that community. We're, we're inviting you in an audience that will help your long term business goal. And you know, to Benny's point, you've got to start touching and broadening your reach and reaching out to an audience that's more reflective of the demographic of the consumer base that you work in.

Speaker 4 [34:50] You know, it's funny, we started putting this tag on the bottom of our cans that says your cultural local craft beer. Because also the, the, the bigger conversation is this is in a lot of ways beyond race

Speaker 3 [35:05] in, in some sense it's not a lot of ways it is

Speaker 4 [35:06] it's about culture. Like you go to a Drake concert tomorrow and I promise you the crowd is probably gonna look like the crowd that's out here. Like the, the reality is, and that again speaks to the opportunity. There's an opportunity to collaborate and to engage with culture and. Uplift that culture and, and, and amplify that culture because ultimately people will see themselves um finally in a place or in a space for me it was funny I was kind of joking with the sound man because you know we're going to get mic'd up and everything. I'm like dude, where's the mic with the brown tip like and he's like, oh shit, you know, and, and I'm, I know I'm just messing with you, but, but, but really it's, it's, it's one of those moments to where you're like shit, they didn't consider me. I, I, I, I was not considered, you know, and, and it's, it's, it's one of those things that sometimes, you know, I think Benny and I, we've had to shake it off for a while, especially when we started this mission, but then we made a decision that we wouldn't just shake it off anymore, that we would ask and we would be specific about what we wanted because when people see themselves. When they see that they're being considered, when they see that their culture is being considered, then you start to see growth, change, and again an economic success, a plan for economic success actually coming to fruition.

Speaker 1 [36:24] Exactly. I'm glad you brought up the idea of the Drake concert because when we had our prep call we talked about how so much that's in American mainstream culture comes from the black community, and I think, you know, how many craft breweries do you see that are. Playing hip hop in their taprooms and using you know lines from, from rap songs to name beers and stuff like that. I think. Eventually you reach a point where you know this wasn't yours.

Speaker 3 [36:48] Yeah, and there's a way to do it, right? And I know people, it's hard, right, because if it's not your natural instinct to want to do these things, then, you know, you really shouldn't because local craft beer is a reflection of who the brewery owner is, but again, If you, if it's not you, then find a way to collaborate, find a way to connect so that it is, it's you supporting the culture and the people that are coming into your location. That's literally all you have to do. It's not hard.

Speaker 1 [37:18] It's not

Speaker 3 [37:18] hard. It's not hard at all. Let's just do it

Speaker 1 [37:21] well, and Kevin, the MB2A makes it extremely easy, so I'm going to give you the last word. How can we, how can we find the NB2A and how can people in the audience help? I know you've said all of this, but say it again

Speaker 5 [37:32] again. It is truly simple. NB2A.org gives you all the information, all the dialogue we talked about today, and all the resources. So NB2A.org. Put that loud and proud in there. And thank you, Justin and Brewbaum, for the acknowledgment of beer champions of the Year. That was a very, very well, you know, well received. So thank you very much and acknowledging. The work that we're doing. Thank you.

Speaker 1 [38:00] Well, we are out of time. Thank the three of you so much. This was fantastic and really appreciate you being here, and I'm gonna turn it over to my colleagues, Bevnet Spirits editor Ferron Selnicker. Ferron, come on up.