Jackfruit, soursop, hibiscus, guava, and even durian. Take a short look on the faucet checklist at Wah Gwaan Brewing Firm in Denver, CO, and also you’ll discover 4 or 5 substances you would possibly by no means have seen earlier than in beer.
Right here amongst vibrant murals of Jamaican Grammy-winning singer Koffee, Damien Marley, and Shaggy, you’ll discover people sipping on IPAs, hefeweizens, lagers, NEIPAs, cream ales, kölsches, and extra full of substances reflecting co-founders Harsha Maragh’s Jamaican-Indian tradition and Jesse Brown’s bi-racial heritage. Even their head brewer Dick (affectionately known as Dickie) Tucker’s Thai background works its approach into a number of the choices (therefore the durian!).
As a result of at Wah Gwaan, Maragh and Brown don’t simply need to run a brewery; they need to create a neighborhood.
“From the very starting Wah Gwaan has been about neighborhood,” says Maragh. “Bringing collectively the Caribbean neighborhood, the Black neighborhood, the Queer neighborhood… It’s in the end constructing a neighborhood house the place folks can really feel at house, really feel secure, really feel included, and really feel they’ve a spot to return to [drink.]”
Or as Brown, a veteran who served as a U.S. Marines in Afghanistan, likes to explain Wah Gwaan, “It’s beer for all.”
An formidable purpose that speaks volumes about Maragh and Brown, who’ve confronted numerous challenges beginning a minority-owned enterprise in a predominantly white trade. (For instance, each nonetheless work full-time jobs in the course of the day to make ends meet.)
However on the finish of the day, the sacrifices have been price it. As a result of at Wah Gwaan, Maragh and Brown have a singular alternative to share their tradition and to create a secure house for everybody to drink.
This brewery is a magical, spirited oasis exuding tradition and creativity within the midst of a reasonably homogenous metropolitan Mountain West metropolis and trade.
What’s Occurring With Wah Gwaan?
Translating to “what’s happening” in Jamaican Patois, an amalgamation of various cultures in Jamaica, wah gwaan is a customary technique to say howdy.
“It’s a greeting you say to all people whether or not you already know them or not,” says Maragh, who notes that Jamaica has been house to folks from West Africa, India, China, and Portugal. “Similar to ‘what’s up’ or ‘how are you,’ it’s an inviting phrase. We would like everybody to really feel like they’re at house right here.”
As a result of at BIPOC- and Veteran-owned Wah Gwaan, inclusivity is essential. Particularly in Denver, the place, in response to the latest 2020 U.S. Census, residents are 72.24% white and solely 9.18% Black or African American.
That was a little bit of a shock for Maragh, who grew up in a thriving West Indian and Caribbean neighborhood within the Bronx.
“As soon as we moved out right here, it was tough to seek out that very same sort of neighborhood,” she recounts.
So the duo introduced miles of tradition to the Mile Excessive Metropolis. “We’re the hub for people who have been lacking what I used to be lacking—the music, the flavors, and the meals,” says Maragh.
In reality, throughout Wah Gwaan’s opening weekend, a Jamaican-American couple flew all the best way from South Carolina to go to. “They have been so excited to see their tradition represented in beer that they got here to our grand opening,” says Brown.
Maragh laughs, recalling people saying, “That may’t be a Jamaican brewery? What’s that?”
However that’s Wah Gwaan: a spot the place Maragh and Brown can share their traditions, flavors, and heritage with the world. All by means of beer.
What Does It Imply to be a Jamaican Brewery?
We haven’t forgotten that Wah Gwaan is a brewery at coronary heart.
Each Maragh and Brown fell in love with beer in numerous methods.
A veteran who served within the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan, Brown’s love of craft beer started when he was stationed out in California, the place he began homebrewing.
Maragh started to experiment with beer after transferring from New York Metropolis to Boulder, CO, for graduate faculty. “I really feel like New York was very cocktail-centric and transferring right here was very beer-centric,” she says.
Maragh needed to adapt, touring with Brown to totally different breweries, attempting totally different beers, and even beginning to homebrew herself. Collectively the 2 even took brewing science programs to attempt to superb tune their very own abilities.
However when it got here to opening Wah Gwaan, they knew they needed to rent somebody with a bit extra skilled expertise.
And so they made that call very deliberately.
“You need to put your finest foot ahead while you’re a minority and folks would possibly query your talent, particularly while you take a look at how white the brewing trade is,” says Brown. “We undoubtedly needed to return out and say we’re critical about making good beer.”
Hiring Tucker, the trio of Wah Gwaan set about creating recipes that mirrored every particular person’s personal tradition in numerous methods.
Beers With Curry, Soursop, Durian, and Coconut Milk
As an illustration, Don’t Curry Be Comfortable, a mango curry blonde ale symbolizing Indian Heritage Day celebrated in Jamaica each Could tenth. The vacation honors India’s influence on the island. “It was actually necessary for me to have a good time it right here as a result of it’s my heritage and the way my household grew up in Jamaica and the way they have been affected and influenced by Jamaican tradition,” says Maragh. Each mango and curry have been dropped at Jamaica by folks from India, “so we needed to place them collectively to make a candy and earthy but in addition little lighter…blonde ale,” says Maragh.
Or Jamrock, a hazy IPA made with soursop, a fruit native to tropical climates that “tastes form of like a pineapple with sweetness and acidity however smells like a strawberry,” says Maragh.
Oh, and look out for Three Little Birds, a sorrel tripel. Sorrel (often known as hibiscus) is a vacation drink discovered everywhere in the Caribbean and West Africa much like mulled wine. Wah Gwaan makes a very robust tripel base earlier than including a concentrated sorrel mix from a neighborhood buddy who’s a Caribbean chef. Maragh’s favourite beer, Three Little Birds solely comes out yearly, so in case you occur to be within the taproom when it’s on, ask for it.
Or Like a Boss, a hefeweizen with durian, a well-liked Southeast Asian fruit identified for its distinct scent, that touches on Tucker’s Thai tradition.
Tucker’s influences will also be seen in The place’s My Elephant, a coconut curry IPA with coconut milk and curry powder common after a thai curry.
Beers Celebrating Juneteenth, Jerk, and Jackfruit
Wah Gwaan’s beers additionally mirror sure holidays and dishes.
For Juneteenth, Brown and Maragh brewd Candy Chariot, a ardour fruit pale ale collab between six totally different Black-owned breweries throughout the nation. Named after a slave track known as “Swing Low, Candy Chariot,” this beer is “about redemption and about bringing your self up out of slavery and emancipation,” says Brown. “We thought it was a becoming title for beer as a result of it’s a illustration of the liberty the African American neighborhood didn’t have and remains to be combating for in numerous methods on this nation.”
Then there’s Brown’s private favourite, Jerk, a rauchbier that features smoked malts, jerk seasoning, allspice, recent ginger, and scotch bonnet. “We’re attempting to seize the flavour of jerk hen, jerk pork, the jerk seasoning that Jamaicans use,” says Brown. “I don’t like chili beers…nonetheless, that is one of the best chili beer I’ve ever had and I drink it on a regular basis”
And at last Trop Queen, a kölsch made with jackfruit that the brewery buys in cans and crushes by hand within the brewery.
We predict you in all probability get the thought: Each beer is significant, each beer has a goal. And it doesn’t matter what you order, these are beers that engender studying and provoke dialog.
Beer Is Damaged Bread, Brewing in a Damaged System
Ingesting a beer gives house for dialog, and dialog can result in change.
“Beer is damaged bread,” says Brown. “Breaking bread is what creates a scenario the place we will be extra empathetic with one another. Beer is simply as highly effective or extra highly effective a platform for social change than meals.”
One thing Brown and Maragh have fought extremely exhausting to create at Wah Gwaan since transferring to Denver.
After I spoke to Maragh and Brown on a Thursday night, each had come to the brewery after working full days in different jobs—Brown as a enterprise intelligence developer and Maragh as a sustainability and vitality skilled at Power Outreach Colorado.
“We work full-time jobs not as a result of we need to, however as a result of it’s a necessity,” says Maragh. “It’s very tough to seek out funding as a startup significantly owned by minorities and Individuals of Coloration.”
Brown continues, “It’s systemic racism. The entire idea of fairness doesn’t actually exist for us and is a part of the explanation why we’ve got to do all of it. If you happen to discuss to any minority-owned enterprise throughout all companies in America, not simply in beer, that’s the case. We continuously should work a number of jobs and discover artistic methods to fund and faucet our neighborhood to have a voice within the industries we signify.”
Wah Gwaan has actually discovered a voice, and it’s shouting from the mountaintops throughout the Entrance Vary.
Shouting From the Mountaintops
Past the distinctive beers, Wah Gwaan’s sense of neighborhood extends all through the taproom.
From the murals on the wall showcasing artists reminiscent of Chelsea Lewinski (@chelsealewinski), Austin Zucchini-Fowler (@AUSTINZART), Lindz and Lamb (@lindzandlamb), and Klone (@klonism) to rotating meals vehicles to particular occasions.
As an illustration, as soon as a month the brewery runs a Black Individuals Know Issues Trivia evening hosted by Darian Wilson that focuses on Black tradition, media, and music. Based on Maragh, it’s probably the most well-attended occasion the brewery hosts. On a random Tuesday, a sometimes gradual evening in the midst of the week, they appeal to upwards of fifty folks, many who’ve by no means been to the brewery earlier than.
She says, “It’s the day each seat is full and the day that everybody sings with each track that’s performed… That’s lovely and superior to me as a result of I don’t know if there’s one other brewery that has that vibe on any day of the week… It’s my favourite day each month.”
Past that, Maragh says the occasion attracts numerous people who don’t historically drink beer. Nonetheless, after visiting the brewery and having fun with beer in an approachable approach, they modify their views. She says a bunch of individuals from trivia nights come again on an everyday day simply to drink.
What’s the Future Look Like for Wah Gwaan?
It’s as shiny because the purple, inexperienced, and gold mural of Damien Marley that greets you as you stroll in.
Wah Gwaan has turn into a pillar of perseverance and a beacon of not solely breaking boundaries, however breaking bread.
And even after a full day spent working totally different jobs, Maragh and Brown can wander into their brewery to seek out people asking about soursop of their Jamrock hazy or studying about jackfruit of their Trop Queen kölsch.
The idea of “beer for all” drives Wah Gwaan. And in flip, the neighborhood continues to energy the brewery.
Maybe Maragh sums it up finest: “Having the neighborhood come out for us…that’s the half that retains us going and figuring out we’re heading in a very good path.”
