USA, PA: Two Locals Brewing Company to become one of Pennsylvania’s first Black-owned breweries

Pennsylvania’s craft beer scene is about to become more diverse, the Waynesboro Record Herald reported on August 5.

Brothers Rich and Mengistu Koilor, who hail from West Philadelphia, are the owners of Two Locals Brewing Company, which is slated to be one of the first Black-owned breweries in Pennsylvania.

With 4,200 followers on Instagram, they are already popular among craft beer connoisseurs.

Their venture began back in 2016, when Rich bought a home brewing kit online from Northern Brewer, a company that sells equipment such as brew kettles, growers, and base malts.

His first batch was an Irish Red Ale, and Mengistu served as the taste-tester.

"I brewed it about two or three times at first and then I let him taste it," Rich Koilor said. "And then we started brewing together and sharing our beer with family and friends."

They now have four beers they brew consistently with names that pay homage to their West African and West Indian heritage and the city where they grew up.

There’s the Nubian (a brown ale); the Prolific Hazy IPA; 215 City Ale (an oatmeal milk stout), and Who You Wit? (a Belgian wheat).

In support of the Black Lives Matter movement, they also created a Black is Beautiful beer, a toasted coconut imperial stout, in partnership with the Black-owned Harris Family Brewery in Harrisburg (the company currently has plans to open a taproom and brewery) and with the Philadelphia-based Love City Brewing.

"We also have another Black Is Beautiful collaboration, an imperial stout, with Chimney Rustic Ales located in New Jersey that was canned in July and is almost sold out," Rich Koilor said. "We are also aging a barrel that we will sit on coffee From Red Bay Coffee out of Oakland, California. It’s a Black-owned roaster and coffee shop."

The Black is Beautiful collaboration was organized by San Antonio's Weathered Souls Brewing Co. Participating breweries were asked to brew from a single stout recipe, but are encouraged to improve. This summer, 1,000 breweries from all 50 states and 20 different countries answered the call. Organizers requested 100 percent of proceeds from sales be donated to local organizations fighting against police brutality and for justice reform.

While Two Locals cans their beers now at neighboring breweries with the help of friends and fellow brewers, the brothers are in the process of looking at rental spaces with hopes of opening a brick and mortar location next summer.

When it opens, Two Locals will be the first Black-owned brewery and tasting room in Philadelphia (and depending on when Harris Brewery debuts its taproom) the state. Mack Brewing Co. is also Black-owned and based in West Philadelphia. The company, founded in 2013 by Dave Mack, has a flagship beer named the Mack IPA, which is often featured in tasting rooms and breweries around Philadelphia.

"We need to secure a location and also secure funding," Mengistu Koilor said. "We’ve had conversations with landlords and have a couple of options in the works but there are a lot of moving pieces to the process. But there are a lot of things that we have to do first – zoning variances for the area, obtaining a brewer’s license and then actually doing the construction, which could go smoothly or have some hiccups."

As with most business owners, the pandemic made it hard for the brothers to showcase their beer, as they often do at local breweries.

"The pandemic has been tough for everyone, especially in our line of work and what we’re trying to do with this venture," Mengistu Koilor said. "To put things in perspective – we need to get in front of people and have people taste our beer. We had sampling events lined up and when the pandemic hit in March, we couldn’t do any of our sample events."

So, not unlike most of us, they had to get creative.

"What we’ve been able to do is get our beer out by bottling it and sharing it with friends and family and other people that are following us on social media," Mengistu Koilor said. "We did a beer tasting on Zoom about a month ago and shared it with about 30 different people on the Zoom call and discussed our venture with them, so that was really cool and helped get us more visibility. We’re getting the beer out, but it’s not as easy during the pandemic."

Perhaps their biggest goal is to break down the stereotypes surrounding the craft beer industry.

"I think we need more representation and more people like us. Part of our vision is putting our community on that platform," Mengistu Koilor said. "There’s a small percentage of craft breweries in the United States, and I think African Americans represent 1% and that needs to change. If you love beer, our brewery is going to be representative of our culture – we’re definitely pushing that whole scene and putting our stamp on the craft beer issue."

Rich Koilor has some advice for those looking to follow in their footsteps.

"I wouldn’t say brewing beer is hard. It just takes a lot of patience," he said. "There are things that you have to learn. I may know how to home brew and I understand the concept of brewing, but to run an actual brewery, it’s a completely different ball game, so I wouldn’t say that it’s easy, but it isn’t hard to grasp."

05 August, 2020