Barrel & Flow Fest is Pittsburgh’s nationally acclaimed Black beer festival, and it has a serious point and purpose, which is to celebrate and encourage Black people’s involvement in the craft drinks industry beyond just buying and drinking them.
But at its heart, it’s also about having a helluva lot of creative and community-building fun for people of all colors.
Launched here as the first Black beer fest in the summer of 2018, the event has matured into an annual celebration of not just beer, but also Black music and other art and business, that takes founder Day Bracey and his crew much of the year to organize.
Events spread out over more than this week leading up to Saturday’s main event, which runs from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Stacks at 3 Crossings in the Strip District. Bracey says it’s on track to sell out, which would be a paying crowd of about 3,500, plus a couple of hundred other guests and about 1,000 event workers and volunteers.
This year, the city of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County and the state of Pennsylvania all are proclaiming this to be Barrel & Flow Week, a milestone that Bracey & Co. will celebrate from 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Burghers Brewing on the South Side.
The pre-gaming will include not just the booze and the food, the music and art but also some local government officials — City Councilperson Bob Charland and State Rep. Lindsay Powell. (County Executive Sara Innamorato has a schedule conflict.)
From a car Downtown Tuesday morning after taping a TV segment about Barrel & Flow, Bracey said it’s “huge” to have the event so recognized. “I think that is partially because we’re Black, but also we’re the best, and we just happen to be Black.”
He believes that in addition to attracting national and international attendees, the festival finally is getting more traction with Black people here. “It seems like we’ve hit a tipping point in Pittsburgh,” which is known as not a good place for Black people to open a business or even just live. To be able to have such success with a Black beer fest here, “I think that’s a testament to the power of Blackness in Pittsburgh.”
Debuting at Tuesday night’s party will be a collaboration by Bracey and Burghers called “The Proclamation,” a Gose-style brew with strawberry, banana and guava. It’s one of about 50 official such collab beverages by local and not local breweries, even home brewers, with each other as well as with artists, entrepreneurs and others for the fest.
Bloomfield’s Trace Brewing collaborated with nine staffers from the August Wilson African American Cultural Center.
Huntingdon’s Juniata Brewing Co. played with an Altoona seven-piece band called The PennSoulvanians.
Bracey proudly points out that some Black women in the region are doing collaboration beverages: Diane and Erika Turner of TLC Libations with Beam Suntory, DOPE Cider owner Hannah Ferguson with Altered Genius Brewing Co. assistant brewer Daelyn Schellhaas.
Most of the collabs have can labels created by Black artists. The one for Proclamation, by Julianda Jones of PBJ Customs, features a parchment proclamation on which is inked, under “Whereas,” one of Bracey’s mantras — “We pay Black people.” That is, pay them for their beverages and their artwork and for helping run the event.
The collaboration beers and other drinks are some of the coolest and most creative parts of Barrel & Flow. This year, two local elected officials got in on the action. Rep. Powell, D-Lawrenceville, helped brew a beer in the Shaler part of her district with Acrospire Brewing Co. It’s called “B & F.”
“I never brewed before, but they made it very easy,” she say of her collab, which is informed by her love of florals and botanicals. The result is a honey wheat beer infused with lavender and, “Surprise, surprise,” she said. “It’s very good.”
She’ll be at the Saturday fest, too, “slinging my beer,” as well another Acrospire collab, “because we’re overachievers out here.”
An attendee of the first event when it still was called Fresh Fest, she recalls being amazed at all the people who’d come from out of town. She was working for the city and delivered a Pittsburgh proclamation to that one, and is proud to recognize Barrel & Flow again Tuesday and “share my love” for a phenomenon that continues to put Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and now her district, on the map.
Out in Garfield, in his District 9, City Councilman Khari Mosley collaborated with Two Frays Brewery on a shandy-style ale with blood orange and grapefruit called “Bringing ’88 Back.” As explained on its label, designed by his older brother Anire Mosley, the name “is in reference to the early hip-hop scene in 1988, a time that Councilman Khari remembers fondly. The vibe in 1988 hip-hop was inclusive and fun — people could be themselves without fear of judging. This shandy style ale evokes that nostalgic feeling of chilling, gathering and celebrating the community.”
That could also describe the vibe of Barrel & Flow, with one 2020s distinction: The fest and its ancillary events have a code of conduct, that states in part: “The rules are simple: No racism, no sexism, no discrimination, no insults/words that cause harm. These rules apply to all those within our festival community. All communication should be appropriate for people of diverse backgrounds and cultures. You agree to conduct yourself with courtesy and respect for all other attendees and staff. Above all else, be kind to others. Any participant who violates our harassment policy will be escorted out expeditiously for the culture, and you may be banned from participating in future events at the sole discretion of B&F. Try these brews. Don’t try us.”
There are hundreds of brews to sample, from about 40 Black-owned breweries and other beverage makers, another 40 local and national ones, plus food to purchase from about two dozen mobile food vendors, a full slate of live music and DJs on two stages, live-painting and other artists, a crafters/vendors market, community groups, even a STEAM — science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics — tent. There’ll be a demonstration and then giveaway of a $1,000 brewing system.
Tickets are $70 for general admission (5 to 9 p.m.), $95 for early access (at 3 p.m.) or $250 for VIP, which includes Friday and Sunday events.
On Friday, there are conference speakers who’ll get down to business at Downtown’s Pittsburgh Marriott City Center, including Bracey and his “Drinking Partners Podcast” partner and fellow comedian, Ed Bailey. The night will be capped off — caps off? — with the Evening Bottle Share.
There are events around town on Wednesday and Thursday, too, plus several after-parties on Saturday, and then there’s the Barrel and Flow Sunday Brunch at Mike’s Beer Bar on the North Shore.
The vibe and some of the booze will spill over into Sunday’s Mavuno Festival, “a celebration of local BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and people of color] artists” in Sewickley.
Mike’s Beer Bar is an establishment that will be pouring all the collab brews, many of which you also can find at their makers and other watering holes around town, including at Beercode at the Pittsburgh International Airport, through which some attendees will be arriving.
Twice voted America’s top beer fest by the readers of USA Today and just this month named by a Forbes contributor one of 5 Great Beer Festivals in America Worth Traveling For, Barrel & Flow strives, it says on its website, “to be the most welcoming festival as well. We are more than just beer and want to continue to utilize the brewing industry to connect opportunity, accessibility and artistry in ways that celebrate and empower the Black community.”
Get all the details on the collaborations and other participants, the schedules and a map as well as tickets via the website https://www.barrelandflow.com.
Bob, a feature writer and editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is currently on strike and serving as interim editor of the Pittsburgh Union Progress. Contact him at bbatz@unionprogress.com.
