Today we’d like to introduce you to Anthony Jennings.
Hi Anthony, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I currently work at Arbeiter Brewing Company in Minneapolis and have also worked at Inbound Brewery and Pryes Brewery. I got my start I’m this industry by becoming acquainted with Brewing Change Collaborative through a work friend at my previous job at Breaking Bread Cafe.
Once I joined BCC (Brewing Change Collaborative), I went to a collaboration brew we had at Inbound Brewery. I like to use a basketball analogy in that I was the first person in the gym and the last person to leave over those 3 days. On that last day Inbound BrewCo hired me.
To keep with the basketball analogy, I see myself as LeBron James because he’s used basketball as a vehicle to do all the stuff he wanted to do outside of his profession. I feel that I’m doing the same by working in the craft beer industry as the vehicle to do my other passion projects in this industry, Black Brewers Podcast being one of those.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
My journey wasn’t smooth at all. Growing up in a household that was filled with traumas does things to you. I was always smart but I didn’t hear it enough to believe it. Once I became a father things changed and I had to grow up but those traumas still lingered. I was suicidal for years but my 2 boys kept those thoughts at bay. Once that stopgap in my mind gave way, I tried to kill myself. Luckily God had another plan for me. I took my mental health seriously for the first time in my life.
That’s when I got into the craft beer industry. My first job at Inbound BrewCo was cool then George Floyd was murdered. I left Inbound because I didn’t feel as if they cared about how that affected me. I went to Pryes Brewery next and learned more and then ended up at Arbeiter where I’m continuing my education in this industry.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a brewer, lead of our production team for on/off-premise crowlers, and a bartender at Arbeiter Brewing Company. I like to think of myself as a Swiss army knife in that I want to know some of everything in this business.
I’m probably most known for at this time helping create the black brewer’s podcast, and that’s what I’m most proud of. I think my willingness to learn, my passion for wanting to make our industry more diverse and accessible, and my drive to be great set me apart from others.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you.
Life is funny in that we go through things thinking that they are not connected. I don’t think luck has had anything to do with how I got to this place in my life.
I think everything I have gone through was meant to be. From working at Breaking Bread cafe, which my youngest son’s Mother helped start. Meeting the coworker who connected me to Brewing Change Collaborative. In my first BCC meeting, I said we should start a podcast about being Black in the industry. Being hired at Inbound and then went to Pryes because one of my BCC family worked there.
Knowing Juno, one of the owners at Arbeiter Brewery, because he is also a BCC member. When he told me, he was opening a brewery I keep telling him once it was up and running I want to work there. Getting the job at Arbeiter. Phillip Owens, another BCC member, introduced me to Greg Davenport who also is a BCC member, and he also wanted to do a podcast.
We sat and mapped out what we wanted it to look like and a year and a half later we have this podcast that I think is changing the narrative of what it looks like to be Black in this industry. We were asked to present the MN Brewers Cup Awards and that was such an honor. Luck had nothing to do with any of it in my opinion.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/blackbrewerspodcast?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100075826706514&mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Linkedin: https://m.startribune.com/minnesota-black-craft-beer-podcast-diversity-inclusion-minneapolis/600250704/?clmob=y&c=n&clmob=y&c=n
- Twitter: @blackbrewerspod
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoXFD2R0BMTF1JkS81pwV4kQZ0_jMYNDg
- Others: https://open.spotify.com/show/7F5rdiMZUeqJELKoKnCaxa?si=FrT-L4znRNWK2-BsT_nzlA, https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/kare11-sunrise/black-brewers-podcast-on-site-public-media-frequency-shift/89-16f2acdc-49e7-4399-80a6-a74b33d1f56e, and https://sahanjournal.com/culture-community/black-brewers-podcast-greg-davenport-anthony-jennings-phill-owens-minnesota-brewing/
Image Credits
Nicole Neri
