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Barrel and Flow festival celebrates Black-owned breweries

PITTSBURGH — Brewing up inclusion and representation, the Barrel and Flow festival is a celebration of Black-owned breweries – something that Pennsylvania doesn’t have. In fact, across the United States, fewer than 1% of breweries are Black-owned – something that this festival is hoping to change.

“The purpose is to get more Black folks into a 1.7 trillion-dollar global industry,” said Day Bracey, the founder of the Barrel & Flow festival.

Day Bracey, a Pittsburgh native and craft beer enthusiast, began the Barrel & Flow festival five years ago, hoping to encourage Black entrepreneurs to get into the industry.

“Most states don’t have a Black-owned brewery, and PA is one of those states,” Bracey said.

Across the U.S., Black people make up almost 15% of craft beer sales but have less than 1% ownership, which means of the more than 9,000 breweries, fewer than 100 are Black-owned.

Bracey said he hopes that this festival will help change those numbers.

“You know we wanted to try to come together and show some representation to the folks that are doing it, as well as provide networking opportunities,” said Bracey.

The festival will host 75 breweries, 30 of which are Black-owned. Organizers anticipate more than 3,000 people will turn out,  making it a great opportunity to have fun and fellowship.

“It’s uncharted territory,” said Dave Mack of the Mack Brewing Co.

Dave Mack, who traveled from Philadelphia, hopes to open the first Black-owned brewery in Pennsylvania. Mack shared with Channel 11 News when he got into the industry in 2009, he knew that representation was the goal.

“I want to own the space and I want to be able to control the efforts as far as distribution,” Mack said.

The outdoor festival will kick off on Saturday at 3 p.m. in the Strip District and finish on Sunday with a brewer’s brunch.

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