A group of Kansas City entrepreneurs want to be the first Black-owned brewery in Kansas City and have plans to open Vine Street Brewing Co. in the historic 18th and Vine Jazz District.
The partnership includes local musician Kemet Coleman, Ford Motor Co. line worker Woodie Bonds and Elliot Ivory, a technology information, security and capacity project manager at Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technology.
Bonds is a founder of the Hip Hops Hooray Beer Fest in Kansas City, where he met Coleman. The pair started talking about opening their own brewery, and Bonds brought Ivory into the group. Now they’re working to close on a space in Kansas City’s Jazz District that will be part of a larger development.
Until all the paperwork is settled in the next few weeks, they don’t want to reveal the location. But the name they’ve selected for their brewery offers a big hint that it will open in the Jazz District.
“The concept is really a culmination of an appreciation for beer and music,” Coleman told the Kansas City Business Journal. “When we were searching for a location, we were thinking about what neighborhoods would be the best ones, and obviously the Jazz District really lends itself quite nicely to that.”
Coleman got his start in the beer industry in 2013 working in guest relations at Boulevard Brewing Co. He didn't know much about beer when he started, but quickly grew to love the different styles and way beer can be made.
“No one else in the business looked like me. That really opened something in my mind," Coleman said. "I saw it as a gaping opportunity. My dream of opening a brewery pretty much started at that moment. I knew it didn’t have to be the size of Boulevard, but it could still be a place where people come together and people can enjoy some good beer and meet new people.”
Black-owned breweries are few and far between in the U.S. A survey by the Brewers Association showed only 1% of the 8,500 breweries nationwide are Black-owned, the lowest of any demographic. Asian- and Hispanic-owned breweries account for 2% each, and Native Americans and Alaskan Natives own 4% of breweries. Whites own 88%.
Coleman has tried and failed three times to open a brewery in Kansas City. But this time he’s done more market research and believes he has a strong location.
He also has strong partners. Ivory will work on brewing beer. Bonds will help Ivory and spend about a third of his time using his connections in the Black craft beer community to develop business. Coleman will handle marketing, sales and business planning.
Vine Street Brewing Co. will have a seven-barrel brewing system, with capacity to produce between 4,000 and 5,000 barrels of beer a year. Coleman said the plan is first to focus on taproom sales, then start selling kegs to local bars and restaurants and later consider distribution of cans or bottles.
Coleman said he’s already heard interest from local bars and restaurants and a distributor in St. Louis.
Right now, Vine Street Brewing is working on a pale ale, American wheat, hazy IPA and a hoppy Saison.
“Basically, we want to start at square one, doing the basics before we get too crazy,” Coleman said. “Then we’ll release a couple seasonal beers. We’ll get a little more creative from there.”
The partners put up all the capital for the business and aren’t raising outside money other than a Small Business Administration loan. They’re targeting a grand opening in January or February of 2022.
“It’ll take several months to get things fully organized,” Coleman said. “We’ve already got our attorney working on all that stuff. We’re also collecting equipment. It’s like we got a gigantic project from IKEA sitting in a box and now we got to put it all together. There’s a lot of work to do yet, but we’re really excited.”
