CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A pour and a cheers to a brewery business that just keeps booming.
Clarence Boston is the owner of Hippin’ Hops Brewery that first began with locations in Atlanta before expanding to the Queen City.
"Believe it or not this brewery was actually supposed to open in Charlotte in 2018, but just couldn’t find real estate," Boston explained.
That is until now. The Black-owned brewery is set to open its fourth location in NoDa.
“Being an African American-owned brewery we really don’t exist here in the United States,” Boston said.
Statistics show out of all the breweries nationwide only about 1% are minority-owned.
“We want diversity," Boston said.
And at Hippin’ Hops, they’re doing diversity in more ways than one.
"We make beer that doesn’t even taste like beer. We have beers like our peach cobbler sour everyone loves," Boston said.
But we’re told building this brewery dream amid a pandemic wasn’t easy with some delays in permitting and completing infrastructure.
“Everybody is like you’re crazy opening up breweries and restaurants during COVID but I’m like everybody gotta eat and everybody likes to drink beer so let’s run with it," he said.
Plans for the brewery’s grand opening are set for July.
Contact Briana Harper at bharper@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.