CBB // Tell me what the NB2A is and what its mission and goal are.
KA // Our primary purpose is to improve the racial inequality that exists within craft beer. Specifically, this organization is geared toward driving additional brewery owners and increasing the number of Black individuals in head brewer or brewmaster capacities. That’s what we’re going to benchmark our performance and our behaviors against.
But we also want to make sure that we serve as a clearinghouse for channeling resources, so that if there’s any business [that wants to support Black brewers], we provide a platform and a pathway to infuse that into the Black brewing community. Right now, you would have to probably go to all 88 Black brewers and say, “Hey, I want to help.” But your size, scope, and ability to help may make it difficult to do so. We can be that clearinghouse of resources.
Another key factor is driving the awareness of Blacks in beer. When you look at the continent of Africa, we’ve had beer in our DNA for quite some time. Marketers have narrowed that universe to “How about a nice 40 ounces of malt liquor?” And that’s typically where Black people and beer have come together. But there’s a very interesting fact—of the number of people who drink beer across all demographics, Blacks are the lowest. Hispanics drink two to three times what Blacks drink, Caucasians drink two to three times what Blacks drink. When you start looking at why, the marketing and the education about other types of beer were never geared toward Black people.
So, our third mission point is simply, “Hey, we’re going to show that Black people drink beer just like everybody else, and we’re going to celebrate the fact that this isn’t new to us.” This is why we’re doing things like National Black Brewers Day that celebrates the very first African-American brewer in the United States. We show the history and legacy of Blacks in the beer business—that is a big component of what the NB2A does as well.
CBB // One thing you mentioned is that pre-professional development is equally important to ownership. How do you focus on both of those things?
KA // I’d love to have a $30 million fund and say, “Great, let’s go get you your equipment. Let’s go get you your space. Boom, here’s a check to go get your business started.” But that would be so irresponsible if we didn’t give them the education and the financial understanding, perhaps even the marketing components. It’s not lost on us that to be a business owner producing beer is just one facet. It’s so important that we provide those resources of financial management, legal management, regulatory compliance, quality control, marketing, sales, distribution—all those other disciplines must be included to ensure a level of success. Otherwise, just handing over a check could be dangerous for our brewers, for the longevity of Black beer.
We all know how difficult it is to acquire a customer. It may take seven touch points to say, “Great, now this customer’s mine.” It takes only one bad beer experience to lose them altogether. It’s important to be able to make sure that not only are we sourcing capital, but it’s equally important for me to build out a mentorship program, an education platform, financial resources, legal resources. Everybody’s need and life cycle is varied, so our products have to be as varied—from somebody who’s just in concept phase to perhaps someone who’s a mature brand saying, “I want to go to the next stage.” So, our services have to be pretty broad there. We’ve been really fortunate to accomplish this with the help of a lot of our business council partners—those who have chosen to invest in the NB2A and recognize why it’s important to have these resources. It’s been good being able to consolidate these resources in a single spot for our brewers.
CBB // Funding someone, but not ensuring that they’re going to be successful, isn’t truly helping anybody. Making sure that they have that experience, so that when they do take that ownership or business operation leap, they can be successful at it—that’s as important for you?
KA // Oh, it is. It’s a statement that perhaps put some people on their heels initially, when I said, “Yes, I’ll work on acquiring money for brewery ownership, but only after there is a level of financial literacy and there’s a level of understanding of how to manage a business moving forward.” But it really requires you, Mr. or Ms. Brewery Owner, to check your ego at the door and say, “I don’t know what I don’t know.” It’s okay if you are a kick-ass beermaker—that’s awesome. But if you don’t know the first thing about distribution and you want to be in seven states, you’ve got to raise your hand and say, “Hey, I need some coaching. I need some help over here.” That’s just good business.
CBB // What are some of the biggest—either cultural or structural—challenges that you’re tackling in the most significant way in this first year or two or three of the NB2A?
KA // We can identify that racism and access to capital have been a standard miss—that’s consistent, not just with beer, but with several other industries—but as I’m digging down into it, this capital-intensive brewery model is [a barrier itself]. Most of my brewers—92 percent—are contract brewers. Contract brewing is yet another barrier to ownership because essentially, you’re cooking up a recipe in someone else’s kitchen. We need to get that kitchen for our own brewers. That’s my biggest hurdle right now. Perhaps we find regional contract brewers that hyperfocus on Black-owned businesses, and perhaps we get favorable rates to do so and have favorable terms, and the quality of beer is consistent, so that Black brewers don’t necessarily have to [vet and negotiate with] the 1,000 different options that they have. Perhaps they become vetted by the NB2A, and there are unique benefits under that umbrella of certification. That is a big portion of what I’m doing right now. I’ve been very fortunate to tap into some of our business council partners, one of which is Molson Coors. They are making one of their facilities available for us because they have some capacity. They would be identified as one of our regional partners there. It’s good to have a partner like that with the means and capability, and obviously with the quality-control processes in place. Now that I have that earmarked for the south portion of the United States, I just identified another one for the western United States.
CBB // It’s interesting that you talk about contract brewing. For many Black brewers that I’ve talked to, it’s been hard for them to be successful as contract brewers because the margins are so tight. To ever be able to make enough money from that business, to try to create enough capital, or to even be able to take the proof of concept in a successful brand and find investment or debt financing to take that next step, is a major challenge. How do you move on from this point with interesting, successful brands that have shown resonance with consumers?
KA // This is the fallacy, or perhaps a slight misunderstanding. If you’re an investor, you invest in the person, not the brand. You invest in that founder because that founder has demonstrated the grit, the understanding, the fortitude to push through and make themselves successful, even if it means that they’re “just” a contract brewer. I don’t want to minimize the impact of being a contract brewer. Contract brewing is a business model that can yield success, without question. Just because you don’t have your own brick-and-mortar location doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t be a successful brand. So to your point, if a brand owner can make the contract model successful for them and essentially create a brand, there will be investors who could see that value. “This individual was able to make a beer brand, and that actually has a consumer base?” From an investor standpoint, that is phenomenal because now you’re talking about the easiest way to scale and make money and get your money back. “You’ve got a proven rate of sale, a proven audience, and a proven quality of product. Awesome. Now if you can manage production to actually reduce your cost significantly… yes, I want to invest in this thing in a big way.”
When that investor starts sizing up that founder—if they can make this brand successful in this contract-beer model—suddenly that leap isn’t as far to find money to get your own brick and mortar.
CBB // How does the NB2A hope to connect that potential pool of investors with this now-experienced pool of brewery operators or those who are coming through this experience pipeline?
KA // It’s up to me to help build confidence in those investors that beer is not a negative growth space, that there is still tremendous upside. I’m doing a lot of education on the beer industry as a whole. There’s a tremendous upside to what Black brewers are doing because it’s heavily driven in community. When you look at any of the beer brands today that are opening new spots—you can use Allagash [and Rob Tod] as a great example. He’s growing because he invested in his community, and he wanted to make sure that the people who were coming into his beer brand were representative of the community that he’s a part of, and that model is what Black brewers do. We are typically in areas that are high-density Black, we’re bringing craft beer to an audience that hasn’t historically had exposure to good quality beer, and suddenly they’re having a very positive experience, and now we’re tapping in authentically to a demographic that has eluded beer marketers for the most part. Sure, Anheuser-Bush, Miller, Coors all recognize there is an audience of Black drinkers who just isn’t there. Black brewers do exactly that. We authentically bring Black people to quality craft beer. We’re not pandering. We’re not buying their interest or anything like that. When someone who looks like me is making beer for a community that looks like me, you support it. That’s authentically bringing in new drinkers to the craft-beer space.
There are about 16 million adult people of color who drink but don’t drink beer. You can start to whittle out and plan out what type of impact that can be. But this is our community, our family members, our friends. This is us. And they would rather have a spirit than beer. When you talk about, what are we doing there? Yes, we’re finding that investor group and educating them that there’s tremendous upside in beer, and specifically Black beer. And on the other side, I’m getting our brewers to increase and sustain high-quality products there—knowing how to market, and making sure that they’re distributing the right way, making sure their business plan is tight. Then I can start bringing those two together.
CBB // I was never a supply-side economics fan until I started watching just how the existence of craft brewers created a market for craft beer.
KA // You’re 100 percent correct. Craft beer exploded and had such significant growth because it’s in a community that the entire community can support. It isn’t irresponsible drinking, it isn’t shady, it’s a proper gathering spot where even kids come in because of that hospitality element of having food available.
That’s why it resonates loudest within 90 miles of where that craft brewery lives. You get outside of that, you start to fall off, and you get some diminishing returns because you probably are bumping into another craft-brewing community. You’re so right that that model of the past 20-plus years brought communities together and drove the rise of craft beers. That plateaued in much of what we’ll consider Caucasian, white America. But take a place like Los Angeles, for example. Quite a few Black people live there. But there’s only one [Black-owned brewery], Boomtown, in a 14 million population metro area. That’s just bananas to me.
When you think of Black communities, you think of Inglewood, you think of the Crenshaw district. They are very notable places, but we don’t have presence there. That’s a massive miss. So, there are prime opportunities when you think of what Crowns & Hops is doing in the Inglewood area. “Oh, my God, that makes sense there.” Beer invigorates communities that have been historically forgotten.
CBB // For breweries that now exist—that want to see more professional Black brewers and potentially Black brewery owners exist in the world—what are the opportunities for them to get involved in supporting the mission of the NB2A?
KA // Become a member. Simplest, easiest way. You don’t have to wonder what you need to do or how to do it. We are the National Black Brewers Association, but we are open to everyone. We invite everyone to be a member. This is why Rob Tod was one of the first to say, “Yes, I want to be a member.” Smog City and Laurie Porter—when I told her anybody could be a member, they joined right away. Point No. 1 is anyone can be a member. So that could easily be the first step to support the cause.
Secondarily, what we have in place already authentically reaches into a community of people that much of the beer community today hasn’t been able to access. As we just talked about, our brewers are in the very communities that we’re trying to target. So when you’re doing a collaboration—and that’s a very easy way—get one of our brewers to do a collaboration with you. Suddenly, now you’re authentically tapping into that very community that has historically been a little bit elusive for you. While many of our brewers may not be flannel-wearing, bearded individuals, they bring their own style to it. That comes to life beautifully, as well. And I think that’s the other piece you’re starting to see. There is a way to come to craft beer that hasn’t been exposed yet, and the way our brewers do it isn’t earth-shattering, but culturally it’s on par with who we are, and it’s fun. It’s enjoyable. There’s a reason why Black culture permeates music, athletics, much of entertainment, clothing. When you look at how many people wear Jordans—they don’t look like Michael Jordan, but everybody wants to be like Mike.
That’s because our culture is, in and of itself, what is attractive. We have a real prime opportunity for our culture to be the reason why people want to support this brand as well. They could bring that culture right back into their own brewpubs. So that’s the key thing there—become a member, and you’ll get exposed to the very community that you’re trying to access.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.