Our Story
Back in 2016, Alejandro & Jason met at a mutual friend's birthday on the illustrious Edgewood Avenue located in the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood of Atlanta, GA. The same street would birth years of friendship to come, a hub of memories for the duo, and a personal documentation of how humans of all cultures, genders, orientations, and all walks of life could connect and coincide with each other in Atlanta.
Being raised in Latino and Caribbean/West Indian households, both grew up being around primarily light lagers and pilsners produced at mass scale. Throughout 2014-2019, they would take off on their journey in discovering different styles of beer throughout Atlanta, the US, and the World, both individually and as a duo. From taprooms, beer bars, bottle shops, and everything else in between, they fell in love with all the differences in every single glass of beer poured. Besides falling in love with beer, they fell in love with the beautiful experience that is drinking a beer with friends, family, and new humans they met at these different establishments. Some of the best conversations and connections they have made in life have happened over something as "simple" as a beer. There is a beer for any moment. Hopefully, it's cold.
2019: Jason began homebrewing using a homebrew kit that he found at Hop City West Midtown. Like most homebrewers, he eventually switched over to all grain brewing and began to create his own recipes and would share his beers with friends. Some of these beers were shared with Alejandro and those initial batches began to plant small seeds of ideas in his head for a later point in time. Jason still has a few bottles of his original homebrews lying around somewhere as a token of memory. Not sure what he will ever do with them.
2020: The world shifted, for several reasons. Throughout that year, Alejandro and Jason would spend numerous amounts of hours together discussing the world, life, and would eventually learn how similar their upbringings were in their Colombian and Guyanese households. Of course, during all of this, the two would share their musical interests with one another as well as different beers that they would find. Many of these conversations would turn deeper as both began to realize what it meant to be minority in the craft beer scene. All the years of traveling around from taproom to taproom would lead them to the conclusion that many of their experiences in these spaces resulted in either of them being the only person/table of people that looked like them. "We can't be the only ones, right?" , the two thought. Both would quickly start researching the internet and would soon begin to realize how other people of color and minorities felt the same way. A new generation of minority-owned breweries, minority-brewers, minority-staff, and minority-beer lovers in Atlanta and throughout the US were beginning to express their own feelings about the similar subject. They began brainstorming on paper about what they could do to become a part of this new generation and most importantly how to make difference and tell their stories. This is when the pilot idea of Brews4Culture would begin to evolve.
February 2021: The duo began homebrewing together under the name Brews4Culture in the Grant Park/Summerhill neighborhoods of Atlanta. Week after week the two would create and brew different recipes they were interested in making and would compare notes and research how to make the next batch better. Some of those beers would become a beacon to showcase their Cultures within a bottle. The two started sharing these beers with friends and family for feedback and eventually the duo would begin to host parties in their homes which would offer a menu full of their beers, snacks from Colombia and Guyana, as well as an assortment of music from Latin America and the Caribbean. Brews4Culture allows them to showcase who they are as individuals as well as bring humans of all backgrounds together to enjoy an evening of good conversation and share culture with each other. Life is a beautiful thing and being able to share life experiences with all kinds of humans is what gives them happiness.
Love all humans,
Alejandro & Jason :)
Atlanta, GA