We recently connected with Joseph Edelin and have shared our conversation below.
Joseph, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
It was all a dream, we used to read Word Up! Magazine… Well maybe not, but Hip Hop Heads Brewery was founded when 3 close friends decided to dream.
Dwight, Joe, and Lance, three Black men who all worked in education, would find themselves winding down after a tough week with a communal sharing of brews, beats, and lyrics. It became a competition, who could bring the newest beer, who could play the track that the others hadn’t heard, who knew all the lyrics to that one Busta Rhymes song, and inevitably who could freestyle the best.
The answer to that last question was: none of us! But it was fun! This natural progression led us to realize that the beer we hadn’t tried…was ours. So we decided to start brewing our own beer with our own hip-hop playlist driving not only the brewing sessions but the recipe creation as well. We started to geek out on all things beer and hip hop. We curated our own hip hop playlists to go with the beer we were brewing, a pairing if you will, that got our creative juices flowing that pushed our curiosity into obscure beer styles. We began making regular excursions to all of the local breweries in our city to learn more about the business and the art form involved in commercial brewing (we may have sampled a few beers in the process).
It was during these trips that we realized that the craft beer space was missing something. Missing a vibe. Missing representation. Missing us! We didn’t feel completely at home in most of the breweries that we visited. We didn’t see many people who looked like us, the decor didn’t reflect our interests and culture, and when there was music, it wasn’t the type of music we enjoyed listening to. As it turns out, there is a reason for that. African American ownership in the craft beer space is at less than 1%, so it is not a surprise that our backgrounds and culture are not represented in the industry.
We decided to do something to change that; to change the narrative of what a craft beer space can look like, sound like, and feel like. We are creating a space where great beer and great hip hop can coexist, a space where people can experience things that they love in a new way, a space where people come to “taste the music”.
Joseph, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Joseph Edelin – Owner, Head Brewer & Director of Marketing and Strategic Partnerships Dwight Hosang – Owner, Director of Business Operations
Lance Templeton – Owner, Director of Research and Development
We produce hip hop themed craft beer in Atlanta, Georgia. We got into the industry first as long time lovers and consumers of both craft beer and hip hop, and then we transitioned into being producers of craft beer after Dwight’s wife bought him a “brew your own beer” kit. We were like kids playing with a chemistry set. Our first beer we made wasn’t that good, in fact, we are not sure it was actually beer, but we had so much fun and learned so much about the process that we kept at it until we got to the point where we were creating our own recipes.
Hip hop music was central to our creative process, so much so that we started creating playlists that we felt matched the style of beer we were creating. Fast forward and this concept is still an integral part of our brand, and on each one of our cans you can find a QR code that, when scanned, produces a playlist that we have curated specifically for that beer.
Our brick and mortar location (TBD), will be a fully interactive and immersive multi-sensory experience, where patrons will not only be able to drink great beer, but be able to listen to great hip hop, engage in debates around who’s the best emcee or who’s the most underrated rapper, participate in events like trap yoga, hip hop paint and sip, album release parties, freestyle Fridays, and graffiti artist demonstrations just to name a few.
As African American ownership of craft breweries is at less than 1%, we are proud to take up space in this industry, provide a different perspective, bring in new creative ideas, incorporate our history and culture, and serve as door openers to others who look like us who want to get into the industry.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
We built our presence on social media through having a consistent virtual and in-person presence in spaces aligned with our industry. Posting on social media provided us some new followers, but it was actually engaging with other people online and at in person events that really boosted our social media following. Once we developed a core following we then started throwing our own events, which our followers helped us promote, that in turn gained us more followers.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
Joseph and Lance both attended Morehouse College and met there and have been close friends since their college days. Joseph and Dwight both taught at the same school and worked closely together to ensure success for their students. A few years later, Lance became a teacher at the same school with Dwight and Joseph.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Feel Good Creative Consulting