Former NC mortician to debut his brewery with a distillery in Charlotte next year

Plans are brewing for a brewery to open by late summer in Charlotte’s NoDa neighborhood.

Opening in the Bainbridge NoDa development on North Davidson Street, Hippin’ Hops Brewery will be the second Black-owned brewery in the city following Weathered Souls Brewing Co.’s anticipated late spring opening in South End.

Less than 1% of the nearly 8,500 craft breweries in America are Black-owned, according to a 2019 Brewers Association survey.

Hippin’ Hops owner Clarence Boston said his operation was the first Black-owned brewery in Georgia. He opened Hippin’ Hops Brewery & Oyster Bar in Atlanta last April.

He’s opening two other locations in the peach state with another location with a distillery opening next month in Atlanta and the other in Stone Mountain with a production facility.

Boston said he wanted to open Hippin’ Hop in his native North Carolina and Charlotte, where he’d had ownership in several businesses.

And, “we couldn’t make enough beer to send to North Carolina,” Boston said.

In June, Boston sold his ownership interests in Charlotte bars Firehouse Bar & Lounge in uptown and Recess in Plaza Midwood. He still has ownership in about 13 companies, he said, including real estate companies in North Carolina and Georgia.

The 44-year-old who started his first business Boston Tech Services cleaning labs at age 28, also sold Boston’s Mortuary on Statesville Road in June 2020, he said.

“I decided I didn’t want to be a mortician anymore because I enjoyed making beer so much,” he said.

What to expect

Hippin’ Hops, drawing its name from hip hop music, will serve its IPAs, stouts and wheats, and the No. 1 selling beer, Baby Mama Drama Double IPA.

The Charlotte site also will include an in-house distillery making vodka, rum, whiskey and bourbon, with cognac from France and tequila from Mexico.

The 4,000-square-foot brewery will have a 500-square-foot patio with seating and games like corn hole.

Hippin’ Hops menu will focus on gourmet burgers, Boston said. Each Hippin’ Hops location features a different flavor — the original site is an oyster bar, Mediterranean in the next Atlanta spot and soul food tapas in Stone Mountain.

Boston said he’ll hire about 22 full- and part-time employees.

Recalling family

Hippin’ Hops makes peach sour beer for Georgia and plans to craft a Carolina-inspired sour muscadine brew. It pays homage to Boston’s great-grandmother who made wines grown from muscadine grapes grown at her home in Reidsville.

She gifted Boston his first home-brew kit 25 years ago. “We made the first batch together,” he said.

Boston already has his sites on opening a fifth location with a taco menu, but doesn’t know where just yet.

“I think this is for me,” he said. “I’d love to open one in my hometown (Reidsville).”

Queen City Metro first reported about the brewery’s expansion plans.

This story was originally published December 17, 2021 at 2:33 PM.