Festival will celebrate Black-owned breweries, which are lacking in Milwaukee and the Midwest

A festival featuring Midwest Black and Brown brewers is coming to Milwaukee Dec. 3.

Brown, Black & Brews: The 5th Ingredient, is aimed at inspiring people of color to get more involved in craft brewing. It's set for 2 to 6 p.m. Dec. 3 at Sugar Maple, 441 E. Lincoln Ave.

It will feature breweries including Indiana's 18th Street Brewery, Illinois' Moors Brewing Company, Funkytown Brewery, Brewer’s Kitchen, and Azadi Brewing, and Wisconsin's Soul Brew Kombucha.

"I saw that there was an event called Black-tober Fest, which toured around the country with 20 to 40 Black-owned breweries, and I was kind of upset that there wasn't one here, the home of the first Black-owned brewery with Peoples Brewing," said 88nine Radio Milwaukee host Tarik Moody, who organized Brown, Black & Brews. "Instead of complaining, I wanted to figure out how to do something here."

More:Wisconsin's first Black-owned brewery opened in 1970. There hasn't been one since.

Moody partnered with craft beer bar Sugar Maple's owner Adrienne Pierluissi, and got to planning the first Black-owned brewery festival in the state.

"There are a few goals. One is is to show people who might not be aware that Milwaukee's craft-brewing is pretty white-male dominated. We want to show that people from different backgrounds are making different beers for different types of palates," Moody said. "Hopefully, for people of color, this can inspire a home brewer to see how they can take their craft to the next level. Representation matters."

One percent of the more than 8,000 craft breweries in the United States are Black-owned, according to the Brewers Association, a craft beer trade association. 

"If Wisconsin wants to be known as a craft brew place, we have to be more inclusive," Moody said.

Wisconsin's first Black-owned brewery, People's Brewing, closed 50 years ago. Soul Brew Kombucha is only the second Black-owned brewery in the state since.

"I'm Wisconsin's first Black woman who owns a brewery, and in 2022 that is a hard pill to swallow," said Alesia Miller, owner of Soul Brew Kombucha. "When I think of events like this, it's needed, it's necessary, and it's way overdue."

Miller considers herself a brewer as kombucha uses the same equipment as beer brewing, and many of the same ingredients, such as yeast. She also plans to make hard kombucha in the future.

Miller hopes she can get to know other brewers who she can collaborate with and grow industry connections with. She also looks forward to sharing her product with the community that shows up at Brown, Black & Brews.

"For consumers, sharing what we make gives a sense of belonging. It's not even just the Black and Brown consumer, it's also the support we get from allies," Miller said.

Brown, Black & Brews will have samples and presentations by representatives from the breweries, including representatives from Pilot Project Brewing, which recently expanded from Chicago to Milwaukee and has been an incubator for Black-owned, Hispanic-owned and Indian-owned breweries.

Milwaukee's youth arts program True Skool will be performing at the event and sharing artwork.

Admission for the event will be $10, with proceeds going to True Skool.

For more information and tickets visit www.facebook.com/SugarMapleMKE.