Blacktoberfest 2022 Craft Beer Festivals Slated For St. Louis, Atlanta, And Durham NC

Blacktoberfest is a community beer festival created by Black Brew Culture (BBC), an annual collection of curated activations mixed with traditional festival-style booths that hope to serve as a new standard for combining entertainment, education, and exposure. In October 2022, its third-year display of craft beer and culinary excellence, Blacktoberfest brings its feast of Black-owned establishments coming together to spotlight their passions and talents to three American cities: St. Louis, Missouri; Atlanta, Georgia, and Durham, North Carolina. BBC’s 2022 gatherings continue the Blacktoberfest tradition of honoring the diaspora and raising our glasses to the creativity of Black craft beer brewers. 

Major sponsors for Blacktoberfest 2022 events, which dominate three October weekends, include New Belgium Brewing, Terrapin Brewing Company, Pabst Brewing Company, Live! at the Battery, Savannah Distribution, Bold Monk Brewing Company, and Craft Beard Co. 

St. Louis and Atlanta make their host-city premieres for this year’s Blacktoberfest celebrations. The Page, a community hub in The Lou’s 24:1 District, is where it was held on Saturday, Oct. 1, for Blacktoberfest: St. Louis, a grown folks funfair that was anchored by a twilight run. 

This weekend, on Saturday, Oct. 15, Hippin Hops Brewery, Georgia’s first Black-owned brick-and-mortar brewery, will welcome Blacktoberfest: Atlanta to its third, 11,000-square-foot facility on two acres of land in Stone Mountain. 

Then, on Saturday, Oct. 22, our third Blacktoberfest returns to North Carolina, the spacious Suite Four at Durham Bottling Company welcoming Black breweries, their so-cool collaborators, and the happy beer lovers sampling their artistry. 

For Atlanta’s first Blacktoberfest, on the night of Wednesday, Oct. 12, comic Mike Robertson, a proud Morehouse College grad in town for homecoming from the West Coast, will lead other funny folks in cracking open an audience at Hippin’ Hops on Glenwood Avenue. Fest sponsor Pabst Brewing Company will host the Blacktoberfest Art Exhibit, with live DJs and PBR craft items available, on Thursday, Oct. 13 and a wrap party Sunday, Oct. 16, in the afternoon post-fest.

Before Atlanta events’ final glass-raising gathering on Sunday, the New Belgium Brewers Appreciation Brunch will set off the day at 11 a.m. at Farmed Kitchen and Bar in the Shular Institute in Tucker. Expect delicious food catered by Dishful Thinking paired with selections from New Belgium. Also in Atlanta, on a recent night, sponsor fam Bold Monk joined Black Brew Culture in donating two VIP Blacktoberfest tickets for the recent silent auction at Gateway Center’s 10th annual Human Clay event to raise funds to combat homelessness.

For its first Blacktoberfest, Atlanta goes full out, with a whopping 30 collaboration beers — wares pairing masters from the likes of hosts Hippin’ Hops Brewery and Sweetwater Brewing Company, Indigo Brewing Project and Halfway Crooks, 17 Percent Drip and Firemaker Brewery, Ale Sharpton and New Belgium, with dozens of other joint-effort drafts — and 20 on-site Black craft breweries in Stone Mountain. 

Then, finally, in Durham, recipes from 12 Black-owned breweries and 10 collaboration brews, courtesy of James Beard Award winner Chef Ricky Moore, teamed with Briana Brake’s acclaimed Spaceway Brewing, Candy Carver working with Carolina Brewing Company, and Durham-based performing artists ZOOCRU teamed up with Bharami Brewing, plus seven others promise to please curious beer appreciators.

These incredibly tasty brews need to be enjoyed with the proper dishes, so the VIP Experience in each Blacktoberfest city features top-rate Black chefs. In St. Louis, Propel Kitchens’ progressive community programs, which focus on creating health and wealth by utilizing food, brought an evening matching its mini-meals and our super sips. Atlanta’s VIP festivities include Chef Scotley Innis, Chef Penelope Gordon, and Chef Jimmie Jerk, each pairing their culinary delights with brews they deem proper. 

Heading to Durham the following weekend we dole out dishes and beer pairings by Chef Damion “Dame” Moore of Dame’s Chicken and Waffles, Chef Mike Monds of Marco’s 530, and the amazing Chef Zweli pairing her famous Zimbabwean fare with a special collab between Full Steam and Khonso Brewing Companies.

All three Blacktoberfests in Missouri, Georgia, and North Carolina are from 2 pm to 10 pm, with early-bird entries and designated driver tickets available in Atlanta and Durham. Other events preceding or proceeding Saturday festivals may also be set in certain cities, and in addition, sponsors Terrapin Brewing Company are helming the first annual Blacktoberfest Cornhole Tournament.

For tickets and more information about the 2022 Blacktoberfests, please visit blacktober-fest.com. 

ABOUT BLACK BREW CULTURE

Blacktoberfest creators Black Brew Culture — which was founded by Mike Potter in 2015 and joined by Sheena Lester in 2020 — aims to make the craft beer industry as diverse as its appreciative consumer audience by showcasing the genius and flavor Black brewers bring to it across America and the world. Its B.L.A.C.K. Beer Initiative is a unique initialized approach to the whats, wheres, and hows of helping the Blacks-in-craft-beer landscape expand wherever we’re regarded. 

An avid lover of the business and brewing of craft beer, Potter helms start-up brewery Proximity Brewing Company in Durham, N.C., and in 2018, he co-founded and presented Fresh Fest Beer Fest, America’s first Black craft beer festival. A year later, he was named one of Imbibe 75’s “People to Watch” and recognized in Time Magazine’s special installment, “Changing the Face of Beer.” In 2022, Potter added the engaging educational symposium “Black Table, Black Tent” to BBC’s offerings. 

A pioneer in urban music magazines, Lester is known for having served as editor-in-chief of Rap Pages and XXL, as well as music editor of Vibe, during a decades-long journalism career that began in print at the Los Angeles Sentinel and leads online to editing content for websites like TheGrio. 

Follow on Instagram at @blackbrewculture and @blacktoberfest and on Twitter at @blackbrewcultur.