A CHICAGOLAND BLACK BEER COLLAB CELEBRATING STORIES OF HISTORIC BRONZEVILLE
Fall 2022
Beer Culture Center (Chicago Brewseum)
18th St. Brewery, Gary, IN + Moors Brewing, Chicago, IL
Black Beer Baron/Brewer Sam Ross/Haymarket Brewing, Chicago, IL
Black Horizon Brewing, Willowbrook, IL
Funkytown Brewery, Chicago, IL
Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood, often called the Black Belt, was a long stretch of city blocks that paralleled the Illinois Central railway tracks on Chicago's South Side. It’s most vibrant part, a strip of South State Street clubs and businesses that ran through the heart of Bronzeville, was called The Stroll. Bars, lounges, and ballrooms offered an array of neighborhood entertainment in the form of music, culture, and beverage.
As early as 1914, the Chicago Defender described the Stroll as the Black cultural center in America and a "Mecca for Pleasure." At the start of the Roaring 20s, the Stroll ran between 31st and 35th Streets. By the end of the decade it had extended south a mile and a half to 47th Street. The Stroll – and all that it had to offer - had become a destination for people all over the city and all over the country.
Inspired by this culturally rich part of Chicago’s history, the Beer Culture Center reached out to the Black owned breweries in the Chicagoland area to create a series of beers aimed to celebrate four different tales from The Stroll. Beer Culture Center historians researched and collected two dozen stories that were shared with the breweries. From there, individual brewery teams selected the narrative that most appealed to them. Brewer Sam Ross took the lead and crafted the base brown ale recipe for each. Breweries then selected additional varied ingredients to create a unique beer and recipe inspired by their specific Stroll story. In the end, the collab produced four distinct, yet well connected, bronze ales. They were all officially released in November 2022 for the Closing Night of the 4th Annual Beer Culture Summit.
