We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mickey Bryant . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mickey below.

Mickey , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

I am a firm believer that education and community service is the main purpose of our journey on earth. So I’m always finding ways to utilize our platform to push and pull, get and give and learn and teach.

So, it really is no surprise that each phase of my career has included me being involved in training design, development and/or delivery to some capacity and giving back to the community through service.

With my experience coupled with my passion to be a life-long learner, it only made sense for me to obtain my graduate degree in Instructional Design & Technology.

In addition to being an Instructional Designer, I am also a craft beer enthusiast and educator.
In January, 2018, my passion and my profession collided when
I founded Black and Brew Chicago, Inc., a charitable nonprofit organization whose mission is to introduce new demographics to craft beer by providing educational experiences geared toward increasing knowledge and sophisticating palates and using the proceeds to contribute to my community.

Our goal at each Black and Brew Chicago learning experiences is to provide the craft beer education that increases knowledge, sophisticates the palate and creates connection within the community.

Following instructional design models and applying adult learning theories, we created interactive learning experiences to help participants learn the basics of craft beer in a short period of time. This model has led to a growing community of educated and confident novice to now advanced craft beer drinkers.

Without any assessments or data to draw from, initially it wasn’t easy, finding the most effective educational model to apply with people new to craft beer.

Through periods of trial and error, I finally learned that all I needed was to, create interactive experiences and provide a comfortable atmosphere and to be humble giving back to the community. We like to utilize our platform in a way that we are always to pushing and pulling, getting and giving and learning and teaching.

The learning models have proven to be successful. Since our launch in January, 2018 Black and Brew Chicago, Inc. has grown to included five additional Black and Brew chapters : Cleveland, Columbus, Delaware, Indy, Youngstown.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I got into craft beer about 20 or-so years ago. I initially started going to Craft Beer festivals with my coworker because her husband got free tickets. I didn’t understand anything about craft beer, all I knew is that I was in a room full of beer that was free.

Fast forward to 2010, I started to notice my palate was changing because I would gravitate more to the craft beer section of the cooler, which at that time a small selection.

I didn’t set out to be a craft beer drinker, it just developed over time. My palate has evolved to where I find myself gravitating to the import beer section.

With the growth of Black and Brew Chicago, our services has grown to include training development, DEI consulting, public speaking and workshop facilitation.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Our mission is to introduce new demographics to craft beer targeting the under-represented demographics in Craft Beer, which are BINBOPC and LGBTQ+ communities.

We initially used Eventbrite and created a MeetUp group to rally support. We quickly had to pivot from that approach, because no one who signed up was from either one of the aforementioned communities.

We knew that the integrity of our organization would’ve been compromised if we could not provide safe spaces for under-represented demographics to feel comfortable attending our learning experiences at breweries throughout Chicagoland.

We finally came up with a consumer-focused DEI strategy that worked. Everyone has been feeling safe and we have not had any incidents at any of our learning experiences over the last 4 1/2 years.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I am constantly working to unlearn believing that anything happens in my time. Trusting the universe and my non-physical guidance counselors & teachers like my hunches, whispers and red flags has been guiding Black and Brew Chicago’s journey since the beginning and will continue to guide our journey throughout.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.babchicago.com
• Instagram: @blackandbrewchicago
• Facebook: Black and Brew Chicago
• Twitter: @mickeybryant

Image Credits
Headshots photographer – Raphael Nash