April Dove Is Brewing A New Community
Charleston, South Carolina’s only Black female brewer hopes to build a better future with new faces in craft beer.
Born and raised in The Holy City, April Dove (a.k.a. the Traveling Hoptista) doesn’t come from a family of craft beer enthusiasts. “My dad drank Colt 45,” she says, explaining that it wasn’t until college that she discovered the beverage that would change her life. As a traveling nurse, April says her on-the-road lifestyle is a great way for her to experience different cities’ craft beer scenes when she needs to unwind after grueling days in hospitals across the country. But she always comes back to Charleston, a place where she’s quickly gaining notoriety through initiatives like Tha CommUNITY Brew and panels like Craft For The Culture at the 2022 Charleston Wine + Food Festival. During that panel, she shared the fact that out of Charleston’s nearly 40 breweries, she is the first—and currently only—Black woman brewer in the city, which was “eye-opening for people,” she says. “I’m honored to hold that torch and pave the way.”
Charleston has a unique, rich, and well-documented culinary culture. But when it comes to Black representation, like much of the craft beer industry, it’s severely lacking. Today, there isn’t a single Black-owned brewery in Charleston. That’s no accident, says writer and Charleston native Jamaal Lemon.
“[M]ost guides conveniently ignore the history of enslavement and segregation in the self-styled ‘Holy City,’” he writes in the James Beard Award-nominated three-part series “Tek Cyear uh de Root” for Good Beer Hunting. “[I]deas like ‘Black folks don’t like beer’ and ‘beer and breweries are some white-people shit’ aren’t truths. They are constructs that people chose to erect centuries ago, and that we choose to maintain today.”
These same constructs are what people like April Dove are trying to disrupt and dismantle. Although she doesn’t have a brick-and-mortar space to call her own, it’s her ability to perpetually roam from brewery to brewery that allows her to uniquely tap into her community in a way stationary brewers cannot.
“She is a blessing for the city,” says Jamaal about April, who he says he considers family. “For beer novices in Charleston, April could very well be their first point of contact in their beer experience. A woman and a person of color in an industry that may be perceived to be only run by men—April’s presence alone, can inspire and provide a different norm for new beer drinkers.”
As a roving brewer, April comes up with recipes on her own, then reaches out to breweries to collaborate with her using their facilities. Often, her recipes draw inspiration from Black familial culinary culture, like light beers drunk at cookouts and recreating cornbread in the form of a Cream Ale. “I try to remind people of a time in their life or childhood,” she says. One example is a fruited sour brewed in partnership with Frothy Beard Brewing, which she explains was inspired by a Southern soda staple: Tahitian Treat.
“It’s a soda that most Black kids drink,” she says. “You ask white people about Tahitian Treat, and they’re like, ‘What?’”
She adds that inspiration also comes from people like Eugenia Brown, a.k.a. Black Beer Chick, who she says was the first Black woman she ever saw on social media who also likes beer. April quickly connected with other folks on Instagram and Clubhouse, eventually participating in Eugenia’s “Road to 100” program to become a Cicerone Certified Beer Server. After completing that certification, April also received a scholarship from Women of the Bevolution BIPOC Female & Non-Binary Creators in Brewing, which gave her a $300 cash stipend towards building her business as well as two hour-long consulting sessions with Jen Blair and Ash Eliot. Hopefully, she says, programs like these will be just the beginning.
“I’d love to have a Rolodex of people to call,” she says, naming people like Alisa Bowens-Mercado from Rhythm Brewing Company and Celeste Beatty from Harlem Brewing Company as icons she aspires to connect with to hear about their struggles and perseverance. Of course, she’s already connected with a few. “I did meet Garrett Oliver on the phone and Zoom, and that was the highlight of my life right there.”
For now, that life means remaining a nurse. It “pays the bills,” April says, although moving into beer full-time remains the dream. The first years of working through COVID-19 left April with nightmares and PTSD. “I did things I hope I never have to do again,” she says. “I saw things I never want to see again.” But she’ll continue to invest in a future in beer, setting goals for herself like pouring one of her beers at a beer festival in the next year.
Despite the challenges she’s faced, April hopes that by sharing her experiences with others who have been systemically excluded from craft beer, she’ll be able to introduce her passion to many more. You don’t have to already be an expert to enjoy craft beer, she promises. “Pick five breweries in any town and go sit at them,” she encourages those who are hesitant to give craft beer a try. “Sit and sip and try the beers, watch what’s going on. Look at people, talk to beertenders and tell them you want to try everything to get a palate going. If there’s one you can tolerate more than the others, you can start to figure out which ones you like.”
“I started this journey on a whim. I never thought I’d get this far,” she says. “I’m just trying to shake shit up in the industry… I haven’t gotten everything I want out of being the first Black woman brewer in Charleston, [but] once you find that place where you’re like ‘I’ve done and given everything I can,’ that’s when you’ve succeeded. I don’t think I’ve reached it yet.”
When I ask about what last words she’d like to share with those who may start looking to her for guidance, April laughs. “It’s okay to break the glass ceiling—I’m knocking on it constantly. And when it shatters, we rise.”
Follow April on Instagram at @travelinghoptista and @thacommunity.brew for information and upcoming events, including a Juneteenth beer release with Common House Ale Works on June 16, 2022.
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