If you've known me for over the last decade, you know probably two things for sure: 1) That dude is trans and 2) That dude that is trans also loves craft beer. (and if you know one and not the other, we probably have a very surface relationship, which is cool). And really, I love(d) craft beer (still trying to work through my feelings on it).
Craft beer is still beer, but with better ingredients, more attention to details in taste, and usually brewed locally and on a smaller scale than your national beers (Coors, Buds, etc). I've had some of the craziest things coming out just my local breweries. Key lime pies, midnight cocoa, ceviche, margaritas. Gummy bears, pecan pies, even a pickle one once (which wasn't good at all. Wouldn't suggest spending your money on any of them. And I'm pretty sure they get sales so consumers can say "I had a pickle beer". Just like I did.)
But beyond the beer aspect of it, the main reason I fell in love with craft beer was because of all the fucking people it brought. Like, have you been to a beer festival? It's beer galore, from all over (both local events and national events). Discussions and panels. Tastings of unique or rare items. T-shirts, mugs, magnets and dog sweaters with brewery logos and slogans everywhere. And a sense of community all around the catalyst of beer. I don't think kids getting out on a traditional summer break (not the current Summer 2020 we are experiencing now) smile as much as people at at a craft beer festival.
I think it took only a few craft beer events for me to get all the way enthralled. I had brewed a beer with a great college mentor in the past, so even that bit of experience as a black guy in the beer world was enough for white folks to look at you like a unicorn. Once in Charlotte, the craft beer capital of the South, my obsession grew even further. Even after having top surgery, the first thing I did once I was able was brew a beer because I could lift the 5 gallon kettle without tearing stitches. I even got a job doing brewery tours here in Charlotte which I loved and gave me my first taste of entrepreneurship in the real world.
It was also during this time period of doing tours, that I started to get burned out from my love. After a few years removed from doing tours, and having recently decided to stick with big batches of our specialty beer and do much smaller batches of things we just want to try, I can now break down the two reasons why I fall in and out of love with craft beer. They are:
a) Beer doesn't agree with me as it did before
and
b) Craft beer is still very white.
The first one is easy to address. Beer, after a certain point in the day, sad to say, makes me past out like the best of the narcolepsy community. Maybe it's age, or that my liver is working over time to process the alcohol along with my testosterone, but if a beer is had after 8pm, I am guaranteed to be out by 10pm. Don't get me wrong, I still drink beer. Exclusively craft beer when I have access to it because I'm bougie like that. But not as much. I'm enjoying splitting a 16 oz now vs downing two of them in a session.
The second is more complicated. I think it comes down to balance. Every weekend for over two years I was going into majority white spaces and giving it my all. I loved getting the crowd reactions to historical information about breweries and my thorough interpretation of the brewing process. I loved being able to be the ringleader to a good time. I served the beer. I had the connect with the bartenders to get the beer fast. AND I knew what was good. Like I can suggest good beer and if I miss the first time, I keep suggesting something until I hit it strong!
But after a time it became wearing. And as I think about it now, I think it was because it I was giving my all, but not to the community that I wanted to give my all too. I don't think white people think about this much if at all because their community is everywhere, but think of it like this: let's say that you joined a Star Wars club and you guys get together every weekend. You even become secretary making sure the money for the annual Star War's Con booth is all secured from the bake sales and video game tournaments. Now since you've been doing this, you've neglected your dog. You dog is just chillin at home, waiting on you. He don't want nothing from you but some pets, probably a treat, but nothing really. But you are caught up with Star Wars Club, who now wants everything from you. And you find yourself needing to recharge, but the next meeting is next week and you've already signed up for 2 hours at the bake sale. But really, all you want to do (and probably need to do) is sit at home in your underwear with your dog.
Along with needing to be with my actual dog, I needed to be with other people that looked like me during my time off, which is hard to come by being a black transman in the south. And I'm not saying that I'm going to Time Out Youth every month, but I needed to be around people that didn't want anything from me. Why? Because I wasn't giving enough to myself. I was giving so much to a population that saw me as informative Help. I'm informative help at the library. I'm informative help on the weekend. It was becoming too much. And while I don't mind being the help on certain occasions (I can honestly say that I prefer to be helped), there is a mind fuck that I can not (and will not shake ) about serving white people for extended periods of time in this driver/server capacity.
I remember when I started feeling like my brewery tour guide career was coming to an end. It was when I started to feel and see myself as less than in my role as a tour guide than I did in my role as a librarian. Which as I type it, makes sense to feel like the bad bitch that you are in your career, but beer was something that I had chosen and fallen in love with. Librarianship was my traditional job to secure in an attempt to not be homeless after my formal education. But beer was where I dreamed. I dreamed of owning a brewery. I dreamed of teaching youth of color how to brew beer and the importance of community. But hard reality set in and there are somethings that take many more and much more time to change and the whiteness in craft beer was one of them.
People of color are entering the craft beer scene very day. From Dope and Dank, to Craft Beer Chris to even locally with The Black Beer Chick and the Black Beer Blog are creating spaces for black people to be in within craft beer. And so many more people of color that are benefitting and making changes in craft beer culture. I think for me, I have so many intersectionalities that I acknowledge and deem necessary to nurture, that I became top heavy in craft beer and bottomed out with the queer and black of myself.
While I don't find myself seeking the next new brewery or needing to get the latest craft beer first so that I can have the self satisfaction of having it first. I still drink craft. I still like sharing beer knowledge with everyone. But I love and adore sharing craft beer with my people. My black ass family. My queer ass family.
Craft beer is still beer, but with better ingredients, more attention to details in taste, and usually brewed locally and on a smaller scale than your national beers (Coors, Buds, etc). I've had some of the craziest things coming out just my local breweries. Key lime pies, midnight cocoa, ceviche, margaritas. Gummy bears, pecan pies, even a pickle one once (which wasn't good at all. Wouldn't suggest spending your money on any of them. And I'm pretty sure they get sales so consumers can say "I had a pickle beer". Just like I did.)
But beyond the beer aspect of it, the main reason I fell in love with craft beer was because of all the fucking people it brought. Like, have you been to a beer festival? It's beer galore, from all over (both local events and national events). Discussions and panels. Tastings of unique or rare items. T-shirts, mugs, magnets and dog sweaters with brewery logos and slogans everywhere. And a sense of community all around the catalyst of beer. I don't think kids getting out on a traditional summer break (not the current Summer 2020 we are experiencing now) smile as much as people at at a craft beer festival.
I think it took only a few craft beer events for me to get all the way enthralled. I had brewed a beer with a great college mentor in the past, so even that bit of experience as a black guy in the beer world was enough for white folks to look at you like a unicorn. Once in Charlotte, the craft beer capital of the South, my obsession grew even further. Even after having top surgery, the first thing I did once I was able was brew a beer because I could lift the 5 gallon kettle without tearing stitches. I even got a job doing brewery tours here in Charlotte which I loved and gave me my first taste of entrepreneurship in the real world.
It was also during this time period of doing tours, that I started to get burned out from my love. After a few years removed from doing tours, and having recently decided to stick with big batches of our specialty beer and do much smaller batches of things we just want to try, I can now break down the two reasons why I fall in and out of love with craft beer. They are:
a) Beer doesn't agree with me as it did before
and
b) Craft beer is still very white.
The first one is easy to address. Beer, after a certain point in the day, sad to say, makes me past out like the best of the narcolepsy community. Maybe it's age, or that my liver is working over time to process the alcohol along with my testosterone, but if a beer is had after 8pm, I am guaranteed to be out by 10pm. Don't get me wrong, I still drink beer. Exclusively craft beer when I have access to it because I'm bougie like that. But not as much. I'm enjoying splitting a 16 oz now vs downing two of them in a session.
The second is more complicated. I think it comes down to balance. Every weekend for over two years I was going into majority white spaces and giving it my all. I loved getting the crowd reactions to historical information about breweries and my thorough interpretation of the brewing process. I loved being able to be the ringleader to a good time. I served the beer. I had the connect with the bartenders to get the beer fast. AND I knew what was good. Like I can suggest good beer and if I miss the first time, I keep suggesting something until I hit it strong!
But after a time it became wearing. And as I think about it now, I think it was because it I was giving my all, but not to the community that I wanted to give my all too. I don't think white people think about this much if at all because their community is everywhere, but think of it like this: let's say that you joined a Star Wars club and you guys get together every weekend. You even become secretary making sure the money for the annual Star War's Con booth is all secured from the bake sales and video game tournaments. Now since you've been doing this, you've neglected your dog. You dog is just chillin at home, waiting on you. He don't want nothing from you but some pets, probably a treat, but nothing really. But you are caught up with Star Wars Club, who now wants everything from you. And you find yourself needing to recharge, but the next meeting is next week and you've already signed up for 2 hours at the bake sale. But really, all you want to do (and probably need to do) is sit at home in your underwear with your dog.
Along with needing to be with my actual dog, I needed to be with other people that looked like me during my time off, which is hard to come by being a black transman in the south. And I'm not saying that I'm going to Time Out Youth every month, but I needed to be around people that didn't want anything from me. Why? Because I wasn't giving enough to myself. I was giving so much to a population that saw me as informative Help. I'm informative help at the library. I'm informative help on the weekend. It was becoming too much. And while I don't mind being the help on certain occasions (I can honestly say that I prefer to be helped), there is a mind fuck that I can not (and will not shake ) about serving white people for extended periods of time in this driver/server capacity.
I remember when I started feeling like my brewery tour guide career was coming to an end. It was when I started to feel and see myself as less than in my role as a tour guide than I did in my role as a librarian. Which as I type it, makes sense to feel like the bad bitch that you are in your career, but beer was something that I had chosen and fallen in love with. Librarianship was my traditional job to secure in an attempt to not be homeless after my formal education. But beer was where I dreamed. I dreamed of owning a brewery. I dreamed of teaching youth of color how to brew beer and the importance of community. But hard reality set in and there are somethings that take many more and much more time to change and the whiteness in craft beer was one of them.
People of color are entering the craft beer scene very day. From Dope and Dank, to Craft Beer Chris to even locally with The Black Beer Chick and the Black Beer Blog are creating spaces for black people to be in within craft beer. And so many more people of color that are benefitting and making changes in craft beer culture. I think for me, I have so many intersectionalities that I acknowledge and deem necessary to nurture, that I became top heavy in craft beer and bottomed out with the queer and black of myself.
While I don't find myself seeking the next new brewery or needing to get the latest craft beer first so that I can have the self satisfaction of having it first. I still drink craft. I still like sharing beer knowledge with everyone. But I love and adore sharing craft beer with my people. My black ass family. My queer ass family.
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