‘Black, Queer-Owned’ Brewery in ‘Beer City’ Says It Closed Because of ‘White Supremacy’

A brewery in Asheville, North Carolina that boasted it was black and queer woman-owned shut down, and offered this reason for the closing: “white supremacy.”

Black Star Line Brewing Co. of Hendersonville was one of numerous breweries near the city of Asheville; according to exploreasheville.com the city has more breweries per capita than any U.S. city.

But last week, the brewery bemoaned its closing on Facebook. On Monday, the brewery stated, “Like many people of color on this land, displacement at the hands of white supremacists policies and institutions is not past, but present.”

That was followed by a post on Wednesday that acknowledged the brewery had bought “oversold” supplies and utilized hand-me-down equipment. The post added, “Black Star Line was sabotaged by white supremacists, government officials (J. Edgar Hoover), and policies and procedures that were invoked to intentionally end the operations of Black Star Line.”

Company founder L.A. McCrae complained to Munchies, “White supremacy shut us down. Our world has been rocked,” although McCrae admitted that the brewery had been underfunded when it opened last summer. She claimed a lender had given the brewery $50,000 but the brewery could not contact the lender before the brewery was evicted from its premises. (Read more from “‘Black, Queer-Owned’ Brewery in ‘Beer City’ Says It Closed Because of ‘White Supremacy’” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.