Five friends have rewritten the craft beer playbook in Brockton, Massachusetts, with Brockton Beer Co., a brewery on tap with innovation, inclusivity, and a dash of cultural flair that sets it apart in an industry that's still largely homogenous.
Julian Miller, one of the brewers behind Brockton Beer Co., has expressed his enthusiasm for the science behind brewing. However, it's not every day that patrons see a person of color like Miller crafting their drinks. "You don't see a person of color all the time - back here - who actually produces it," Miller told CBS News Boston. In the historically significant town of Brockton, just steps from the Liberty Tree — a major stop of the Underground Railroad — this brewery is altering the landscape one beer at a time.
The brewery is not only a hotspot for craft beer aficionados but also a hub representing a mélange of backgrounds — from Canada, Jamaica, Haiti, to the Philippines. This diversity is rare in the state's brewery scene, with just six Black-owned breweries out of the 233 operating across Massachusetts, per the Massachusetts Brewers Guild.
Cofounder Eval Silvera, while recalling days when game nights fueled their dream, noted how the atmosphere in other breweries often lacked diversity. "You go to some of these breweries, and I love the beer that they were making, but, obviously, you look around and there weren't a lot of folks that looked like me," Silvera explained to CBS News Boston. Tapping into the tight-knit local community for support, small crowdsourced donations made establishing the brewery possible, despite the hurdles of securing capital as entrepreneurs of color.
As recognition of their efforts and impact, Brockton Beer Co. has racked up impressive accolades. A 2021 Metro South Economic Impact Award and a Silver Medal for their Black Kolsch beer, Yasuke, at the 2022 Denver International Beer Competition, as detailed on their official website. The success trajectory continued as they scooped up the 2023 Gold Awardee for the Southeast Region at the MassEcon Team Massachusetts Economic Impact Awards, and the 2023 Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the Metro South Chamber of Commerce.
Atkin aims to make craft beer more accessible to Black and Brown communities through Brockton Beer Co.'s unique brews infused with flavors from their diverse heritages, like mango and calamansi. They're concocting more than just beer; they're brewing a new narrative for diversity and culture within an industry that's been predominantly white for far too long. "They get a chance to kind of see who we are, not just from the beers that we make, but just culturally, who we are as well," Silvera shared with CBS News Boston.
