Brewing more unity in Charleston's craft beer community

Understand SC

After repeatedly finding themselves being the only Black people on their visits to Charleston's breweries, brewer April Dove and David White Jr. of "The Dropping Pin" teamed up to create a beer that they hoped could brew some change for the region's craft beer community.

Dove and White's goal, long-term, is to see more diversity in Charleston’s taprooms.

Their beer, called Tha CommUNITY has been a success, and they have more ideas — and beers — in the works.

On today’s podcast, you’ll hear them share their experiences in breweries, how they came to brew their own beer and what they think needs to happen to brew more unity into Charleston’s beer community.

For more, check out food editor Parker Milner's new story which takes a look at the lack of diversity present now in the region's craft beer scene. Of the 35 breweries in the tri-county region, none are Black-owned.

His story also gets into some of the history of the region’s beer culture and features some of the people who are envisioning a different, more welcoming future for Charleston's beer community.

READ: Black people helped start Charleston’s beer industry. None own today’s 35 local breweries.

I also highly recommend you read Jamaal Lemon’s series for Good Beer Hunting which gets into some of the history behind the lack of diversity in Charleston’s current beer culture through the story of a German beer festival that was held in Charleston and its continued influence on the region’s beer scene.

You can read that here.

Tha CommUNITY did sell out, but you will be able to find it again soon. They said they’ll be brewing it again in December and it should be available in early 2022.

You can follow April on Instagram @travelinghoptista. Follow David's blog @thedroppingpin. And you can follow their beer on Instagram, @thacommunity.brew.

If you have comments, questions or ideas for this podcast, email us at [e-mail] or message us on Twitter @UnderstandSC.