Portland, Maine-based Allagash Brewing Company and Inglewood, California-based Crowns & Hops Brewing Co. will release Cur-8 next month, a collaboration beer with proceeds going to the 8 Trill Initiative.
Cur-8 (6.5% ABV) is a hybrid take on Crowns & Hops’ 8 Trill Pils pilsner and Allagash’s Curieux bourbon barrel-aged golden ale, and is part of the new Eight Trillion Allies Collaboration Series, which “partners established breweries with Black-owned beer brands to accomplish true representation in the brewing industry,” according to a press release.
Crowns & Hops co-founders Beny Ashburn and Teo Hunter launched the 8 Trill Initiative in 2020, inspired by a W.K. Kellogg Foundation report, “Business Case for Racial Equity,” which hypothesized that the U.S. could gain $8 trillion in national GDP if the racial equity gap is closed by 2050. The initiative supports Black entrepreneurs and Black-owned breweries with both financial and educational resources.
“Once people start having a true conversation around racial equity, as opposed to just diversity and inclusion, we’ll truly start to understand the things that need to take root in order to empower,” Hunter said during Beer Business Daily’s 2023 Beer Industry Summit this week. “And racial equity is a plan for economic success for our entire country.
“[The 8 Trill Initiative], that’s a conversation about investment,” he continued. “That’s an investment strategy, that’s not a ‘Someone has to lose, who’s going to win?’”
Cur-8’s February launch also coincides with the start of Black History Month. The limited-release offering will be available in 16 oz. can 4-packs in California, New York and Georgia, and at Allagash’s tasting room in Portland, Maine.
Allagash and Crowns & Hops have had a “long-standing relationship and mutual appreciation,” according to the release. The companies partnered last year with a collaboration beer exclusive to Barrel & Flow Fest in Pittsburgh. With Cur-8, both companies hope to “create a lasting contribution for the 8 Trill Initiative, united in their mutual desire for progress.”
“We have huge admiration for Beny and Teo’s passion and commitment – not just for brewing outstanding beer, but for building community and for civic engagement,” Allagash founder Rob Tod said in the release. “Our breweries’ core values align, and the release of Cur-8 reflects our respective efforts to make a positive impact through beer. We loved collaborating with them on this and look forward to working together with them to achieve more racial equity in craft beer.”
Hunter and Ashburn created what would eventually become Crowns & Hops in 2015, launching first as a lifestyle and events brand (formerly known as Dope & Dank) with the intent to bridge the gap between Black and Brown consumers and the craft beer industry. The brewery won Brewbound’s 2019 Pitch Slam competition during the Brewbound Live business conference.
“We initially were motivated [to start Crowns & Hops] just by the fact that we were walking into rooms to enjoy and celebrate a product that we love and every time, every room that we walk into did not look, sound or feel like our culture,” Hunter said.
“It is no secret that the largest growing demographic in all of beer is that of the multicultural, Black and Brown consumer, and we just didn’t see it from the ownership standpoint,” he continued. “We didn’t see it in the brick-and-mortars, we didn’t see it in products.”
Less than 1% of breweries in the U.S. are Black-owned, while Black people make up about 13% of the country’s population. As part of Crowns & Hops and the 8 Trill Initiative’s continued efforts to change that statistic, Hunter said the conversation about racial disparity in beer needs to be changed.
“For generations, it’s been ‘There’s less than 1%, there’s less than, there’s less than,’” Hunter said. “It’s about refocusing that conversation to a goal. Our opinion, past 13% Black-owned breweries is a conversation we want to have because what that does, is it puts it into a number that’s based off of the number of people of color in this country, and then we can start working towards that.”
Crowns & Hops and Kevin York Communications, a craft beer-focused PR agency, also announced a partnership this week with the creation of the 8 Trill Fund Scholarship to Beer Amplified.
Beer Amplified is a marketing-focused professional development conference, which will take place March 27-28 in Boston. The event will “focus on marketing leaders from outside the beer industry,” who will share “strategies, success stories, insights and learnings with brewery attendees,” according to a press release. Ashburn is on the event’s advisory board.
The new 8 Trill scholarship will be awarded to a select number of Black brewery owners to fund registration and lodging at Beer Amplified.
“There is very little conversation or resources around foundational support, brand development, strategy and growth for Black-owned businesses,” Ashburn said in the release. “Financial support is only step one. Those additional pillars are key to creating a sustainable business along with building and maintaining a racially equitable society.”
Black brewery owners can apply for the scholarship here: 8trillion.org/beer-amplified. The application window closes February 24.