Black Warrior Brewing, the newest member of Tuscaloosa’s craft beer movement, will make its debut in downtown Tuscaloosa between October and November.
The founders of Black Warrior Brewing were part of a home-brewing group in the Tuscaloosa area who then decided to turn their hobby into a business. Among the members of the home-brewing group was Bo Hicks, owner and co-brewmaster of Druid City Brewing.
“We’ve done our best to support each other,” Hicks said. “Instead of viewing it as a competition, I think it’s a win for us and for them.”
Joe Fuller, one of the founders of Black Warrior Brewing, said one of the most important things for them was the location.
“We knew we wanted to have a tasting room, and we knew we wanted to have it in a location here people would be more apt to come in off the street as opposed to going to find it somewhere,” Fuller said.
He said the building search went on for about a year before they found what will be their storefront on University Boulevard. Black Warrior Brewing’s tap room features two booths, a bench and a 24-foot bar for seating, as well as a banquet room upstairs that will be available to rent for private gatherings.
“You’ll come in, and that’ll be the tasting room, and directly behind the tasting room is the brewery,” Fuller said. “You’ll smell it; you can touch it; you can feel it.”
Black Warrior Brewing currently has 12 recipes of its own brew, ranging from stouts to basic blonde ales.
“You’re drinking an original craft beer that’s unique to this brewery, and it’s made right here,” Fuller said. “It can’t get any fresher than that.”
Fuller said the founders of Black Warrior Brewing are adamant about the quality of their product.
“If we brew 300 gallons of beer and it’s not good, it’s not going out the door. It’s going down the drain,” Fuller said.
The brewery has a custom-designed automated system for their brewing process, where they will be able to control all elements of what the recipes call for with an iPad.
“Consistency will be there every time,” Fuller said. “Every time you sit down at the bar in the tap room and have a beer, it’s going to taste the same.”
In addition to selling its craft beer in its tap room, Black Warrior Brewing will also partner with a local distributor to sell its beer to establishments in the Tuscaloosa area.
“We’ll try to compete for tap handles in the bars,” Fuller said. “There’s a lot of bars already asking for our beer, which is a good sign for us.”
Hicks said the craft brewing culture has been happening in other regions of the country, but people in the South are starting to embrace it.
“It’s something the whole country is experiencing, but it’s new to the South,” Hicks said. “There’s a niche market for something that’s handcrafted.”
Fuller said craft beer is in high demand not only in Tuscaloosa, but anywhere.
“They want to know what the local flavor is like,” Fuller said.
