A new black-owned family-run brewery called Turner Haus Brewery is preparing to open its first taproom in Bronzeville, located at 78 E. 47th St.
The company has plans to open this new taproom in Sip and Savor in the landmarked Rosenwald Courts apartment complex, according to Block Club Chicago. Co-owners Blair Aikens and Steven Turner will open later this year and sell coffee during the day before transitioning to a taproom in the evening. This would be the first Black-owned brewery with a physical location in Chicago since 2019, when Rep. Curtis Tarver II opened Vice District Brewery in the South Loop.
“We wanted to have a brewery on the South Side of Chicago,” said Aikens, a Woodlawn resident. “The vast majority of breweries in Chicago tend to be on the North Side. We definitely wanted to bring a brewery closer to where we live, since all of us live on the South Side, either in Bronzeville or Woodlawn.”
The business owners are one of two winners of this year’s Diversity in Brewing scholarship from the Illinois Craft Brewers Guide, which will help pay for an ongoing brewing technology course offered by the Siebel Institute of Technology. This course has “really deepened my understanding of the brewing process and everything that goes into it,” Aikens says. “I hope to bring that back to Turner Haus to be more knowledgeable and assist more in the brewing process going forward.”
Despite still sharpening their craft, the collective of black brewers continues to offer delicious beer selections that honor the team’s family members. The group’s first beer, a grapefruit lager, was finished the day Aiken’s grandmother passed away. Since then, Turner Haus has produced beers that honor the family’s matriarch, Eliza; an aunt Lola; a cousin Marlene; and Aikens’ maternal grandmother.
