The Crowns & Hops Founders Saw No Black People In Taprooms. Here’s What They Are Doing…

It started with a Tinder match. Seven years ago, Teo Hunter introduced his date Beny Ashburn to the world of craft beer. But the Los Angeles duo quickly realized they were consistently the only Black people in every taproom they visited.

“The environment didn’t feel completely inclusive,” Hunter, 44, a seasoned marketing executive, says. “We weren’t the first Black people on the planet drinking craft beer.”

Though their personal relationship didn’t work out, the pair saw a business opportunity. Last year, they launched their own brewery, Crowns & Hops, focused on inclusivity in the brewing community. Ashburn, the Inglewood, California-based company’s CEO, and Hunter, the chief operating officer and head of beer operations, have started selling their brews in stores across California, including Whole Foods. Their bestseller? A hazy IPA called “BPLB,” or “Black & Brown People Love Beer.” 

Crowns & Hops, though not yet profitable, is projecting revenues north of $200,000 this year. The duo has raised $225,000 in funding to date, the majority ($150,000) from Scottish craft brewery BrewDog, which has gained an international cult following and regularly invests in other small craft breweries. The pair’s commitment to bringing more diversity to the industry was a major draw, according to BrewDog.

“The one thing we realized we needed to start with first was the community. We did not want to start with just products,” Ashburn, 41, says. “That would not have solved the bigger issue of creating a safe space.”

The duo’s first venture was Dope & Dank, a lifestyle brand they founded in 2015 to bring people of color into the predominantly white craft beer community by hosting events and online content. Their message has never been more relevant. In the weeks after the police killing of George Floyd and resulting protests, Ashburn and Hunter reflected on their initial, community-driven mission, which they said “has never been about creating white comfort” or “assimilating to the majority.”

Over the past few years, the pair partnered with California craft brewers to bring craft beer tastings to Black community spaces, like California barbershops. “Once you introduce that one pint and explain the difference between mainstream beer—which is often targeted toward people of color—and craft culture, it really is eye-opening,” Ashburn says. “We are really about expanding the palate.”

Hunter, a California native, was first introduced to craft beer by his clients in the entertainment industry. After serving as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army for 13 years, the Howard University graduate worked with studios like Paramount, Universal and Miramax on marketing and poster design for their home entertainment divisions.

Ashburn, a New Yorker and Spelman College graduate, grew up watching her mom create events for people of color as an event director for tobacco giant Philip Morris. She followed in her mother’s creative footsteps, working on advertising for brands like Clinique before being hired as a creative producer for Beats by Dre. 

Dope & Dank wasn’t meant to be a moneymaking venture, according to Ashburn. At events, they sold merchandise and occasionally charged a sampling fee, but all of the money they made was put back into the events, she says. The two kept their day jobs (and still freelance in their respective fields part-time). 

“We spent all of our days and nights diligently pushing craft beer culture and focusing on the community. In retrospect, there weren’t any returns or financial gains with that,” Ashburn says. “But our return was we built a community and showed an industry that we do exist, and we do have a seat at the table.” 

Not that it was easy. While many breweries were excited to partner with Ashburn and Hunter, others refused, not seeing the void in the craft community, Hunter says. In 2019, 89% of brewers nationally and 76% of brewery production staff were white, according to the Brewers Association.

So Ashburn and Hunter launched a brewery of their own, contract brewing their Crowns & Hops beer out of Los Angeles-based Eagle Rock Brewery. They’ve also contracted with Santa Rosa’s HenHouse Brewing Company, both of which brew and distribute their beer throughout the state.

In 2021, they plan to open their own production facility and taproom in Inglewood, just to the east of the Los Angeles International Airport. Hunter estimates the venture will cost around $2 million, so they are currently in the process of securing more funding. 

Ashburn and Hunter met their biggest backers, BrewDog cofounders James Watt and Martin Dickie, while they were filming an episode of their Brew Dogs TV series in Los Angeles. After featuring Ashburn and Hunter on their show, Watt and Dickie were so impressed with the pair’s community work in the craft beer space that a few days later they offered to invest.

“We have always focused on advocacy as much as the business of beer, which is a bit of an outlier,” Hunter says. “We are doing the best to grow the community in ways that no one in the existing craft beer community has been able to accomplish. That takes quite an amount of time and energy.”

In partnership with BrewDog, Crowns & Hops announced this week that it is launching a global campaign to produce a beer called “8 Trill Pils,” which will be brewed at BrewDog’s facilities in the United States, Scotland, Germany and Australia. Ashburn says the can’s artwork will be designed in collaboration with four artists of color. The beer’s name, she says, refers to a statistic from a 2018 W.K. Kellogg Foundation study showing that the U.S would gain $8 trillion in GDP by closing the U.S. racial equity gap by 2050.

Ashburn and Hunter are also collaborating with San Antonio, Texas-based Weathered Souls Brewing Co., another Black-owned brewery, to release a “Black Is Beautiful” imperial stout beer. Proceeds from both of these initiatives will be donated to local, national and global organizations focused on ending systemic racism and accomplishing social justice for people of color, Ashburn says.

In the meantime, Ashburn and Hunter have been motivating their 21,000 Instagram followers to register to vote and donate to social justice organizations like Black Lives Matter, the ACLU and Color of Change. They’ve posted protest information, as well as protest footage, to their social media accounts.

Ashburn has also been urging the white craft beer community to start educating themselves. In the craft beer space, there is often a misappropriation of Black culture, such as cans and bottles that appropriate racism, she says. For example, North Carolina’s Currahee Brewing Co. recently came under fire for its new line of “Boogaloo” beers.

“As a predominantly white industry, it’s their responsibility to do the work. They can’t do a ‘Blackout Tuesday’ [Instagram post] and think that’s all the work needed to dismantle systemic racism,” Hunter says. “As much as we always want to be all-in on the beer, right now our focus is on making sure these protesters have their voices heard.”