The Struggle and Triumph of Peoples Brewing: America’s First Black-Owned Brewery

The label artwork for Peoples Beer.
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As of January 2025, African Americans own less than 1% of the craft breweries in the United States. According to the National Black Brewers Association (NB2A), there are only about 120 Black breweries in the U.S. and many do not have a brick-and-mortar location. In simplest terms, Black-owned breweries remain exceedingly rare. There was a time when there were no Black-owned breweries. Ted Mack changed that.

In 1970, Ted Mack established the first Black-owned brewery in the United States: Peoples Brewing of Oshkosh, Wisconsin. I originally shared this story in October 2023 when the NB2A introduced October 10th as National Black Brewers Day, but I have republished it here so that it may stand on its own.

Important Notes: Oak Park Brewing’s Peoples Beer (Peoples Lager) is a beer created to honor the legacy of Ted Mack. There is an event called Peoples Beer Fest, which is “California’s largest Black beer festival.” Today, there is a brewery in Indiana called People’s Brewing Company. This story is not about that beer, that event, or that brewery.

Peoples Brewing – An Important Place in American History

By all accounts, Ted Mack was a man of determination. In 1969, he formed a business group, United Black Enterprises (UBE), to purchase Blatz, an iconic Milwaukee-based beer brand. That effort ultimately failed, a story unto itself, but Mack was not deterred and set his sights on another brewery: Peoples Brewing of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, which had been in business for over five decades.


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In 1970, Mack and his group purchased Peoples Brewing, making it the first Black-owned brewery in the USA. Ted Mack previously worked as the head of production and industrial relations at Pabst, so he knew something (a lot ) about the beer business. A longtime community organizer and activist, he also knew a thing or two about the fight for equality. He recognized that a Black-owned brewery would face challenges in the overwhelmingly white beer industry, but that did not deter him and his partners.

When the new ownership group took over, all the taverns in the Oshkosh area stopped pouring Peoples Brewing’s beer. Mack overcame this initial hit, using his determination and sincerity to regain all but two of those lost accounts.


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Upon taking over the brewery, Mack retained all the employees, including the brewmaster. Still, rumors began circulating that the beer was being watered down or otherwise altered and was now an inferior product. This was a baseless claim, and Peoples Brewing went to great lengths to disprove it. The brewery sent samples to the Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago, which analyzed the beer and reported that it was a quality product.

Although Peoples Brewing retained the entire employee base, the buzz on the largely white streets of Oshkosh suggested that the new owners intended to replace all the brewery’s white employees with Black workers—another unsubstantiated rumor. Still, the largely white community of Oshkosh seemed determined to turn its back on its local brewery and used such rumors as an excuse.

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Despite the challenges, Peoples Brewing produced more beer than it had under the previous ownership. In 1971, Peoples Brewing bought another local brewing operation, the 107-year-old Oshkosh Brewing Company, and its brands. Reportedly, Mack bought Oshkosh because “he felt big breweries were trying to squeeze out the little man, and he did not want to bow to the pressure.”

Mack and his group distributed the beer to other communities, especially those they hoped would be more accepting of a Black-owned brewery. However, those efforts presented more challenges. Peoples Brewing also bid to get contracts with the U.S. government, which led to an unsuccessful lawsuit.

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After making several strides in the right direction, the business struggled to survive in the changing business environment, which continued to see increasing consolidation at the hands of the largest breweries in the nation. Peoples Brewing was essentially done by the end of 1972.

Many of the challenges that Peoples Brewing faced were not unique. Across the nation, the most prominent industry players were gobbling up smaller breweries, and consolidation was making it increasingly difficult for smaller regional brands to compete. Beloved local brands were disappearing. Still, it is fair to say that Mack and his business partners faced an even more difficult battle.

*While Peoples Brewing is most often cited as the first Black-owned brewery in the nation, some people suggest that two other breweries deserve that distinction: Colony House Brewing Company in Trenton, New Jersey, and Sunshine Brewing Company in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Sources and more information:


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