GLASSES ALL FULL
Second Fresh Fest brings a splash of color to Pittsburgh
The second Fresh Fest black beer festival was only bigger and better, beerier and blacker than the first.
By the time early admission officially started at 3 p.m. on a gorgeous Saturday, the nationally recognized event was close to selling out all 3,000 tickets, which co-organizer Mike Potter was certain would happen well before the fest was to end at 9 p.m.
People of all colors came from all over the country for the fest, which was voted by USA Today readers to be the second-best beer fest in the country, earned a national diversity beer event grant and is the subject of a documentary short.
“It’s bad--s!” praised Orlando, Fla., producer/director Aaron Hose, who was back because he’s working on growing that documentary short into a full-length feature and TV series about the boom he’s been following in minorities and women in the brewing industry.
The point of Fresh Fest is to be one of the catalysts of that change. Co-organizer Day Bracey and fellow comic Ed Bailey did their Drinking Partners Podcast live from inside the venue of the North Side’s Nova Place, where about 120 local breweries, black-owned breweries and other vendors — twice as many as last year — were inside and outside.
The VIP crowd in the Alloy 26 studio were visibly and audibly thrilled with their special guest, Garrett Oliver, who is brewmaster at Brooklyn Brewery, a noted writer, and an engaging speaker with a perspective on beer and race going back to the 1970s. “I’m 400 years old,” he quipped, before schooling the crowd on how Africans were making beer 5,000 years ago.
He got cheers and a standing ovation when he summed up his all-inclusive philosophy by saying, “We were all supposed to be in the same damn room in the first place, having a good time.”
Festivalgoers already were. “It’s amazing!” exclaimed Hannah Ferguson, a black, female brewer at Modern Methods Brewing Co. in Warren, Ohio, who was thrilled to meet Mr. Oliver and other “amazing” brewers of color over the weekend that continues Sunday with a brewers brunch. “I literally had chills.”
She and other attendees went
forth for unlimited sampling of 100-some beers, including 45 brewed just for this event by local breweries in collaboration with black artists, entrepreneurs and groups.
Near the main stage, where acts including Nappy Roots entertained the crowd, Slippery Rock’s North Country Brewing Co. poured the butterfly pea flower-infused grisette-style beer that brewer Meg Evans cooked up with Tamara Abney, founder of Sister Friend Inc., a women’s health nonprofit.
“She’slike, ‘My colors are pinkand purple,’” Ms. Evans explainedover the music, andso this purple beer, like thepartnership with the purple-logononprofit, seemed meantto be. The beer is to be availableat North Country andother outlets, and proceeds benefit Sister Friend, whichhad tampons on the tablebecause that’s what the groupis about.
Also benefiting from the fest and its Friday panel discussions were young entrepreneurs such as Isaiah Smith, who with two partners is opening Our Culture Brewing Co. in Atlanta next year. They worked the whole space, talking with everybody and taking photos and video to post on their website that they launched in conjunction with Fresh Fest.
Early in the long second evening, Mr. Smith talked excitedly about meeting with a Washington state hop farmer and an Atlanta distiller they now plan to work with, and about everything else they’d already soaked up.
“It’s really all about the connections,” he said, adding, “What’s blowing me away is how receptive everyone has been. They really want to see us succeed.”