Weathered Souls Brewing, helmed by Marcus Baskerville and Mike Holt, started 2020 as a beloved Texas darling. By the end of the year, it had become one of the most sought-after breweries in the country, thanks to its wildly popular Black Is Beautiful initiative.
Now, fans across the U.S. will be able to purchase Weathered Souls brews for the very first time through online craft beer retailer Tavour. Previously only available to Texas consumers, this marks a major milestone in the brewery’s efforts to foster inclusivity in the craft beer world.
Right out of the gate, fans in up to 25 states will have the opportunity to choose from some of the brewery’s most popular beers, such as their Costa Rican French Press Imperial Coffee Stout, and Castling, a dark Lager style also known as a Schwarzbier.
Additionally, Tavour members will gain access to a brand-new hit, No Save Point. It’s a marshmallow, coconut, and vanilla-infused Hazy IPA that Weathered Souls brewed in collaboration with the iconic hip hop duo, Run The Jewels!
With these hitting the app soon, beer lovers from Seattle to Seminole can finally get a taste from the team that helped start a global movement.
That movement began in the wake of civil protests, political demonstrations, and calls for police reform that echoed throughout America’s cities last year. Weathered Souls’ head brewer Baskerville launched his wildly popular Black Is Beautiful initiative as a collaborative effort to rally the craft beer community and raise awareness around the systemic injustices that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color face daily.
In the months that followed, breweries all over the world took part in the initiative, each one putting their own spin on the Stout recipe that Baskerville developed. They also donated “100% of the beer’s proceeds to local foundations that support police brutality reform and legal defense for those who have been wronged.”
Throughout 2020, Tavour took part to connect beer drinkers with several renditions of the Black Is Beautiful Stout. Craft fans got access to variations from the likes of Ology Brewing in Florida, Fremont Brewing in Seattle, and NYC’s Kings County Brewers Collective via the app. This helped further the project’s aim of spreading awareness by bringing it into more beer drinkers’ homes.
Baskerville’s Black Is Beautiful initiative had another goal, as well — to show that “the brewing community is an inclusive place for everyone of any color.” Though, data suggests that People of Color are still severely underrepresented in the industry today.
In 2018, The Brewers Association conducted a demographic survey of craft brewery employees in the US and found that less than 1% of all brewery owners were Black. Today, there are more than 8,500 breweries across the country, and still less than 1% are Black-owned, according to popular beer rating platform, BeerAdvocate.
Considering that craft beer makes up a $7.6 billion industry, that figure represents a massive inequity. But, thanks to Baskerville’s inspired idea, more beer drinkers are now aware of the need to support Black-owned breweries.
Anyone interested in getting a taste from Baskerville and supporting his team’s work is encouraged to download the Tavour app today. For many of the nation’s craft beer enthusiasts, it’ll be the only way to get their hands on Weathered Souls’ brews.
