For The Culture opens as Houston's 1st Black-owned brewery in team-up with woman-owned Ovinnik

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Jonathan Brown remembers tasting his first craft beer.

"It was a Belgian Tripel," Brown said. "I didn't even know there were all these different types of beers and styles. I just thought beer was Budweiser. And we took a sip and were just like, 'Wow, what is this?'"

That first drink that tickled tastebuds, that introduction to distinct notes, some sweet, some spicy, opened Brown's eyes and that of longtime friend Carl Roaches Jr. to a world they haven't always seen themselves being a part of.

"And then one day we looked up, and it's like, 'Hey, no one is marketing to me or us.' We want more people, you know, like us to drink beer because we finally found different groups that are Black men drinking beers," Brown said.

On a Friday in March 2022, they weren't raising glasses of Belgian styles filled to the brim yet. Brewing was on their minds, though, as the pair, standing inside a former warehouse, pointed out where a taproom would go and shared the vision of diverse groups of people filling the space with laughter and stories while sampling original beer recipes.

But the come-up isn't always pretty, and sometimes it's loud. Contractors banging and clanging inside the building rang the otherwise quiet air of the afternoon. It was a sound that signaled Houston's first Black-owned brewery, For The Culture, was finally on its way.

Roaches, CEO, and Brown, COO, had planned to open the brewery by early fall 2022. But as is the case oftentimes when trying to get a business off the ground, there are hiccups.

The team had to wait for important approvals, such as the required permits to operate from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB).

On top of that, the crew's electrical wiring was stolen, meaning their entire building had to be rewired.

"To say there were a myriad of emotions would be an understatement," Roaches told ABC13 of staying positive throughout the process. "We were able to draw on our decades of friendship to keep everyone together. Consistently, we had to remind ourselves that we have a purpose, and that the only way to realize that purpose is to stick together and keep putting one foot in front of the other each day."

The team received their final notice of approval on the Wednesday before Labor Day weekend.

"By Wednesday evening, we were announcing that we would be open to serving the public on a limited basis until our grand opening," Roaches said. "It's been an adventure ever since."

Their long-held dream finally became a reality, when they held their grand opening on Oct. 21, 2023.

And Roaches had one word to describe it: elation. Oh, and of course, they had a celebratory beer.

"It has been a yearslong process, and it feels nothing short of amazing than to be able to pass our crafted creations on to willing consumers," he said.

"Many times, we could have cut ties and ended our business prematurely," Roaches began. "But, had we done that, we wouldn't be in the position we now find ourselves in. We made it across the starting line and look forward to running our race indefinitely."

Brown and Roaches, however, haven't been doing it alone. For the Culture includes Miguel Rodriguez, a former principal turned head brewer; owners Devon Daniel and Jeffrey Brown; and Michael "Mufasa" Ferguson, brewer emeritus, who is also one of the first African American master brewers and serves as a mentor.

"It is invaluable how many pitfalls can be dodged from having an advisor who can steer you clear of any unforeseen things that may come up," Roaches said.

The space, located at 7201 Wynnpark Drive, not far from Highway 290 in the Timbergrove area, is a joint venture with Ovinnik Brewing, a woman-owned brewery led by Janine Weber and Jen Mathis as part of a "Craft Culture Exchange," a concept unique to Houston and even the state of Texas, Roaches said.

You can think of the concept as two breweries under one roof, who share a mutual and cooperative ownership. In other words, it's in each company's best interest to succeed and push each other to do so. Their interests are intertwined.

Some breweries elect to enter into alternating proprietorships, which means they are using the same facility to make their own products under the same roof. In short, it's easier to separate their business dealings and part ways, if necessary, Roaches explained.

That's why a Craft Culture Exchange was a better fit.

"They've become like a family to us," Roaches said of Ovinnik, who also had the same vision of welcoming everyone.

"To see people smile and sit around a table like a whole family, like, eight people sitting around a big picnic table laughing and toasting. That's what we want. We just want people to be happy and enjoy each other's company. And beer, it's better than cocktails," Weber, Ovinnik's head brewer, said.

Something new

"I think everybody has a gusher story."

Mathis, an architect by trade and Ovinnik's owner, said her first "gusher" was inside a chest freezer.

"You have a beer, and you don't anticipate how much it's going to ferment and how violently, and it just pops the airlock right out, and you have beer everywhere," Mathis said.

If walls could talk, Brown's garage might have a few stories of its own to share.

"That's where we've been for the last four years. My wife is so excited about this, so I can get out of her garage. Hers. Not ours," he said in 2022 with a laugh. "I have so much equipment there, and she's been awesome."

Don't sleep on the ingenuity born out of a home garage.

Before Jeff Bezos once tried to make way in the Netherlands for his superyacht, he opened an online book store out of his home garage in the mid-'90s that would become Amazon.com.

Similarly, Bill Gates, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Steve Jobs and even Walt Disney all somehow had a garage play a role in their early days of entrepreneurship.

SEE ALSO: Meet 4 sisters brewing some of the best beer in town!

Before they opened their brewery, For The Culture explains they had to operate out of a garage because one of the biggest hurdles is getting permitted so they can sell. But before you can get the permit, you need the facility and the equipment, and brewing is not a cheap hobby.

Brewery start-up costs can begin at $250,000 and go up to as much as $2 million, depending on the size of the brewery and what you're offering.

"Oh, and COVID happened and made everything much more expensive," said Ferguson, a consultant who helped unite For The Culture and Ovinnik.

"Both of them are saying, 'We need a lot more investors.' And it's like, 'Here's the plan. Why don't you two get together and open up under the same roof? It's a woman-owned brewery and a Black-owned brewery, and it's a joint venture, and it's just never been done in Texas before. So, let's do something new,'" Ferguson said.

If there's anyone who understands wading into something new, it's Ferguson.

The host of the Emmy-nominated show "Beer Geeks" was an IBM engineer until 1989, when he trained under Dan Gordon of Gordon Biersch Brewing. Ferguson's studies in brewing would go on to take him to Chicago and an apprenticeship in Ulm, Germany.

"After three months, I realized that this is what I should have been doing my whole life. And it's a labor of love, not a labor of money or exchange. I took a 60% cut in pay to become a brewer, but that was fine because they say if you are happy to go to work every day and you're doing something that you truly love to do, that you're not really working," Ferguson said.

He's since served as the director of brewery operations for BJ's restaurant, became one of the first African-American master brewers and, in 2014, caught the attention of Larry King, who tapped into Ferguson's expertise during a "King's Things" interview.

"When I started, I referred to myself as the other Black brewer. There was Garrett Oliver out of Brooklyn and Michael Ferguson in California. And that was it as far as craft brewing was concerned," Ferguson said.

The industry has made some progress in representation for women, who Ferguson says now outnumber people of color in craft brewing, but it certainly has room for improvement.

Out of roughly 8,500 breweries in the United States, less than 1% are Black-owned, according to the website BeerAdvocate.

In 2019, the Brewers Association for the first time reported on brewery employee diversity data. Men still dominate in the role of brewer; about 7.5% of the staff of reporting breweries employed a female in the brewer role. According to craftbeer.com, female representation among craft brewery employees grew to around 37% in "non-production, non-service" staff roles.

While festivals have emerged to celebrate women in craft brewing, and initiatives like 8 Trill Pils and the Michael James Jackson Foundation for Brewing and Distilling work to create racial equity and provide funding and education for Black, indigenous and people of color in the industry, Ferguson points to advertising as a cause for the limited exposure of those communities to craft beer.

"I blame that on advertising and the way that they advertise differently for people of color when it came to beer and things like that.... Billy Dee Williams on Colt 45 billboards," Ferguson said. "It's like, 'OK, you're people of color. You're drinking malt liquor, right? OK, you aren't people of color. You're drinking Hamms and Olympia.' The fact is there was no avenue for people of color to get into this industry because it wasn't one that presented itself to the community at large."

And that's something For The Culture and Ovinnik Brewing seek to change, explaining that a good ale is just as much about bonding as it is beer.

"It should be everybody. It should be a community that brings everybody together in one place because beer is a social thing, right? A beer hall is a social thing. That's where you go to meet people. That's where you go to exchange ideas. That's where you go to have a good alcoholic beverage," Ferguson said.

Out of the storm comes suds

Ovinnik and For The Culture are sharing a space, ideas and a beer consultant in Ferguson, but they also have a similar origin story.

Hurricane Harvey, a storm most would like to forget, was a turning point for both budding breweries.

Mathis says she had been experimenting with beer kits, graduated to an electric grainfather brewing system, and then, it was 2017.

"Right after Harvey, we're sitting in our rented apartment because our house flooded, and we're just like, 'You know, what do we want to do with ourselves?'" Mathis said, recalling how it was another local brewer who suggested she start her own.

The local connection continued when she met Janine Weber, who was taproom manager at another brewery at the time.

"I've been trying to do that for about 10 years now," Mathis said Weber told her of opening a brewery.

Mathis leaned into Weber's expertise, which included making traditional sours, the kind that take two to three years in a barrel to be ready.

Can you gold medal in brewing? Weber did.

"I got into the hobby almost 20 years ago. I'm a very competitive person by nature. I just love competitions. So, I entered my beers in some competitions, and then I won gold medals, and I'm like, 'Well, that was fun,'" Weber told ABC13.

Weber has a Ph.D. in geology. Her career took her to the Netherlands for a year, but she still brewed on a balcony she described as so tiny, "I had to turn sideways to walk down it."

"My uncle tried it (the beer). He lives there, and he goes, 'This is great. You should brew beer. And I'm like, 'I should brew beer.' And from that time on, I've been telling everybody, 'Oh, I'm going to have a brewery someday.' Everyone's like, 'Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure. You know that's what white guys with beards do, right?'"

But Weber and Mathis have proved craft beer is not just for the boys, even if some would have them think so.

Weber says it takes physical work, and an understanding of math and science doesn't hurt, either. "You have to have a deep understanding of how fluids move and how to push things around with gas and positive and negative pressures. Fortunately, my studies really did prepare me for that," she said.

"You've got to have the knowledge of the ingredients in the water chemistry and what the fermentation is going to do at what temperature," Mathis said, echoing Weber.

Mathis added she's had experiences where some were shocked to find she and Weber were the brewers, making assumptions that they couldn't move supplies or know what to do with them.

Despite the opposition, they've found camaraderie in the industry that now includes the extended family of For The Culture, who decided, as Hurricane Harvey was coming into town, that they wanted to be full-time brewers.

"It's like, 'Well, yeah, we could die today. So, if we live tomorrow, why not?' And so that was kind of our impression of how we went about it. And it was something that we put our minds to," Roaches said.

For The Culture and Ovinnik have 16 beers available on tap.

"For us, it's just about being able to present not only some classic takes on beer, but also some remixes," Roaches said, adding that the breweries are sending a bat signal, or maybe a beer signal, that they're here and whether you look like them or not, you can come enjoy what they're pouring.

"I made this beer. My own two hands. This is a labor of love. All the people who make food and beverages for the public eye, we put our blood, sweat, and tears into it," Weber said. "We plan for years. We put all of our savings into it. We put all of our thought."

"We want to be a part of the community, not just in the community. To that end, come by and get to know us, we will always have a cold brew waiting to help break the ice!" Roaches said.

You can follow them on Facebook, Instagram and X using the handle @fortheculturebc and keep up with their joint venture endeavors on the same aforementioned platforms using the handle @craftculturex.

Check the brewery's hours here, and on Fridays, educators and first responders get 15% off.

Follow Brittaney Wilmore on Twitter and Instagram.