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While Pittsburgh is proud home to the nation’s first festival for Black-owned breweries, the region still doesn’t have one of its own.
But that could change soon, in part thanks to said festival, which marks six years this week.
Attending Barrel & Flow Fest was one of the experiences that led North Sider Marcus Wyatt to believe he might be able to open a taproom for his own brews.
Wyatt, 37, began making beer at home five or six years ago. In 2021 — the same summer he attended Point Park University’s Brewing Science Academy — he visited his first Barrel & Flow.
At some point, Wyatt also learned how few Black craft brewers there are, comprising not even 1% of the nearly 10,000 independent brewers in the U.S. “That really, really just got me going,” said Wyatt.
Thus, 2021 was also the year he conceived of Windy Bridges Brew. For now, Wyatt’s beers appear primarily at festivals and competitions, and in collaborations he does to get his name out. But he’s also seeking a building in which to establish that taproom. (He’d been looking in Allegheny County, but thinks he might recalibrate for less pricey Beaver County.)
Attending Barrel & Flow, which routinely hosts half (or even more) of America’s Black breweries, gave him confidence it could be done.
“Being able to see this many Black-owned breweries … and successful breweries at that, it was very inspirational for me,” he said.
Barrel & Flow arrives Sat., Aug. 12, at the Stacks at 3 Crossings, in the Strip District, with a bit of post-pandemic momentum. Last year’s event sold 3,000 tickets, said co-founder Day Bracey. And last week, USA Today announced its readers had voted Barrel & Flow the No. 1 beer festival in America, topping such venerable heavyweights as Denver’s Great American Beer Festival.
This year, with 3,500 tickets for sale, Barrel & Flow is hoping to approach its pre-pandemic attendance. Attractions include some 170 vendors (30 of them selling food); live music and DJs; 40 Black-owned breweries from around the country and beyond, dispensing samples; and more than 50 collaboration beers between them and other brewers.
As always, the programming emphasizes that beer is more than a consumer product. As a $28.4 billion industry, according to the Brewers Association, it is also a business opportunity, and it needs not only paying drinkers but also accountants, artists and truck drivers, to name just a few.
New at Barrel & Flow this year is the STEAM Tent, showcasing the science, technology, engineering, arts and math behind brewing. Look for a Carnegie Science Center display on the science of brewing, and watch out for the Three Rivers Alliance of Serious Homebrewers, which will be brewing a beer on site with Pittsburgh’s Mindful Brewing Co. “People can interact and see how brewing is done at home,” Bracey said.
And yes, there’s plenty of science behind your 16-ounce pour. As Bracey puts it, “If you are introduced to microbiology through the beer festival, then we’ve done our job.”
Has the Barrel & Flow era seen improved prospects for Black brewers? By one estimate, there are now 74 Black-owned breweries. That’s up from about 50 when Barrel & Flow began, meaning the pace of growth — on the whole —has roughly matched that of craft breweries. And opportunities for distributing those beers seem to be improving: Bracey said he and his Barrel & Flow team recently brokered access to national distribution for Black beers via Whole Foods.
Still, the proportion of Black brewers remains under 1%. And, as of this writing, none of the 74 is based in Pennsylvania, though Philadelphia’s Two Locals Brewing and Harrisburg’s Harris Family Brewing are trying to launch.
Meanwhile, the man seeking to create southwestern Pennsylvania’s first Black brewery will be at Barrel & Flow too. Wyatt has two collaboration brews on tap. One’s a hazy IPA with Two Locals and Pittsburgh’s Trace Brewing. The other’s a tropical stout with Troegs Independent Brewing, the Hershey, Pa.-based craft legend.
Wyatt, who has a day job in a machine shop, recalls working at Troegs’ facility fondly. “It was a great experience just to be able to see that size system that they have,” he said — sounding just like someone with big indie-brewery dreams of his own.
More information on Barrel & Flow is here.
