Afrofusion, Culture and Black Women Who Brew
By Fay Mitchell
Briana Brake never imagined she’d make a career out of brewing craft beer. It was nowhere on the radar of little Black girls in the neighborhood. She had attained a degree in computer programming and was in law school when her mother became ill, so she put law school on hold. She discovered a friend’s unused beer making kit and began experimenting with it. Her beers kept getting better and better, and one day she realized she didn’t want to go back to law school.
That was in 2013. Today Brake is the owner and brewmaster of Spaceway Brewing Company in Rocky Mount. The name Spaceway is a tribute to Afrofusionism, which envisions a future that includes minorities who are often invisible in pop culture. Spaceway aims to reinvent simple and full-flavored craft brewed beer while creating a sense of community through education, innovation, festivals, and community ownership, and to add Black representation in that arena. Her futuristic beer label art would be at home on the set of the movie “Black Panther.” She wants to eliminate the space between us.
Spaceway represents the confluence of many elements. Most Americans think of beer as the domain of white America, but for centuries the Xhosa and Zula women of South Africa and other nations have been the primary beer makers. Archaeological studies show that making beer was related to gathering or baking and was the province of women for thousands of years. Even in colonial America, many brewers were women. In truth, Brake continues in a long line of women who brew. Brake took her first brew, Pirate Jenny, to market in 2018. However, she couldn’t do it alone.
In fall of 2016 Briana Brake met Celeste Beatty at a conference at Shaw University in Raleigh. She had read about Beatty who was also a Black woman brewmaster. Brake, a Durham native, appreciated that Beatty also is from North Carolina though she was living and brewing in New York. Beatty founded Harlem Brewing in 2000 in celebration of the history, culture, and community of that Black cultural mecca of the 1920s. Beatty’s love of craft, community and a desire to celebrate heritage inspires her. She has worked in arts fundraising, IT and community advocacy. She still professes a love of arts, gardening, and culture. She came back to North Carolina in 2018 to partner with Brake while commuting. She launched Harlem Brew in 2001, a Sugar Hill Golden Ale.
Meeting Beatty was fateful for Brake as she was unsure if she could become a professional brewer and open a brewery. The capital needed to buy a building and all the necessary equipment seemed insurmountable. Beatty informed her of an opportunity at Rocky Mount Mills. They met with Sebastian Wolfram, executive brewmaster for Rocky Mount Mills, to learn about the brewery incubator at the former textile mill site on the Tar River. The incubator would offer a contract production facility that would allow brewers to brew, ferment, keg, can/bottle and distribute their products. The women accepted the offer, although with some hesitation about the history of enslaved and later free African American workers at the site.
When they opened Rocky Mount Brewery in 2018 it was one of two Black owned breweries in North Carolina. Each brewer and business continued evolving, so Brake still brews in the mill under the Spaceway Brewing Company and has opened a tiny taproom across the street. Beatty brews as Harlem Brew South in Cary. She grew up in Winston-Salem and COVID conditions brought her back to the state and led to the launch of Harlem Brew South. She is renovating a building in Rocky Mount that will contain a brewery, taproom, and educational space for workforce development as she cooperates with the Opportunity Industrial Center. It will be a space for events and community gatherings also. She hopes it will open this summer.
The trailblazing women expect to cooperate on some brews in the future and for each business to continue to grow as they evangelize for Blacks, women and others who may be underrepresented in the world of craft beer making.
