After a hard day of work, many people head to their local convenience store to pick up beer, so they can go home, relax and drink their favorite brand while reflecting on their lives.
The most popular beers in the U.S., according to a November 2024 Forbes, are Modelo Especial, Bud Light, Michelob Ultra, Coors Light, and Corona Extra. In addition, a Statista survey reveals that Bud Light is a favorite among Black beer drinkers.
However, Andrew and Jasmine Dill, co-owners of Liquid Intrusion Brewing Company based in Brandywine, Maryland, are hoping people consider their brand when hoping to unwind to a tasty craft beer.
“We make a great beer,” Andrew Dill, 35, told The Informer. “When we create beer we use quality ingredients such as yeast, hops, malts and water. Our philosophy is that everyone likes beer, you just may not know your brand.”
The couple own and operate the first Black-owned brewery in Prince George’s County. The husband and entrepreneur noted that while they are the first, they are not the only African American-owned breweries in the county, noting Black Beauty in Bowie and knowledge of a third that is in formation.
He said that there are approximately 10,000 craft breweries in the U.S. and less than 1%—86—are Black owned. Of the 86, 12 are Black women-owned, and that includes Liquid Intrusion Brewing Company, co-owned by Dill and his wife.
The Dills are active members of the National Black Brewers Association and the Brewers Association of Maryland based in Annapolis that represents the interest of beer entrepreneurs in the state.
“We also belong to the Brewers Association that represents brewers on Capitol Hill and in the executive branch,” said Dill. “They lobby and work for the interests of the industry nationally.”
The Founding of Liquid Intrusion Brewing Company
Both 35, the Dills are high school sweethearts who attended Suitland High School in Suitland, Maryland, and Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina, together.
When they graduated from college, they came back to Prince George’s County to begin their life together.
“My wife worked in IT, and I worked for various beer distributors in the Adams Morgan and Gallery Place neighborhoods of Washington,” said Dill. “I also worked for Anheuser-Busch in Richmond, the World of Beer in Bethesda, Maryland and a Belgian Beer company. I have always been around beer.”
For Dill, the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020 “changed everything.” He was laid off from his job at the Belgian Beer company and his wife transitioned her work duties from the office to home.
“It was then that I decided to hone my brewing skills,” said Dill. “With the support of my wife, we decided to start the business, Liquid Intrusion Brewing Company, and we had the support of our family and friends.”
Liquid Intrusion Brewing Company officially launched in September 2022.
In addition to his longtime career working with beer, Dill said there was another motive for him and his wife to start the company.
“We wanted to create generational wealth,” he said, “and this company was the way to do it.”
The Philosophy and Money of Liquid Intrusion Brewing Company
While the Liquid Intrusion Brewing Company prides itself on being a Prince George’s County product, its reach goes beyond the borders of the majority-Black jurisdiction.
The company’s beer can be purchased in the District, other parts of Maryland, and Delaware, where Dill is proud to have reach in the First State.
“We tend to focus on self-distribution of our beer, but we do have partnerships,” he said. “Delaware is where we partner with a distributor so that people can sample our product. We can be found in places like Rehoboth Beach, which is close to Ocean City, Maryland, and in Wilmington that gives access to that area close to Pennsylvania. We don’t distribute in Northern Virginia because of some complications but we have found Delaware to be more relaxed.”
The Liquid Intrusion Brewing Company scored a major win when it secured a spot in the Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport.
Airports tend to be difficult venues for small and minority businesses to set up or have their products sold due to cost of operations, but the Dills persisted.
“We reached out a couple of times to BWI and we finally broke through,” said Dill. “They are craft beer friendly. They liked our story and took a chance on us. We are sold on Concourse C at Firkin Flyer.”
Like many Black businesses, access to capital is an issue for the Liquid Intrusion Brewing Company. They have been advised and consulted by professionals at Prince George’s County Economic Development Corporation and that relationship has opened other doors.
One door that has opened and worked well so far is SEED SPOT, a national nonprofit organization with operations in Phoenix and the District that educates socially conscious entrepreneurs on business practices through instruction and mentoring.
Tristan Gandolfi, vice president of programs at SEED SPOT, spoke highly of the Dills as participants in their program.
“The Dills work relentlessly on their company, and they have made so much progress,” said Gandolfi, 40.
Gandolfi said her organization educates its participant-entrepreneurs in finding resources and mentors for their businesses. She notes that while they do not provide capital for their participants, they offer them education on how to seek investors and have ecosystem partners.
“We do offer a stipend in our program for entrepreneurs to get certifications such as being a CBE [Certified Business Enterprise],” she said.
The Dills plan to use the knowledge gained from SEED SPOT to open a brick-and-mortar store in Brandywine. They are looking for partnerships, specifically with people who believe in minority ownership and love craft beer.
They view beer as the glue to help people be more relaxed to connect.
“We are looking for private investors,” said Dill. “Right now, we are a boot strap organization. We don’t draw a salary. The money we make goes back into the business. We are determined to be successful.”