Turner Haus Brewery Founder receives Diversity in Brewing Scholarship
By Tia Carol Jones
Turner Haus Brewery started about 10 years ago and is the brainchild of Blair Aikens and her cousin Steven Turner. Turner, who started as a home brewer, brought a beer to share with his family. He was living in Nashville at the time and had come back to Chicago for his grandmother’s funeral.
After trying the grapefruit lager, which is named after their grandmother who passed away, Aikens and Turner started to think about starting a brewery. Aikens was starting to get into craft beers, while Turner had been into beer for some time.
Turner Haus Brewery officially launched in 2019, taking time to perfect the recipe. All the beers are named after matriarchs in Aikens and Turner’s family. Aiken’s husband is the head of marketing, her brother is the head of customer experience and her other cousin is head of branding.
They were in the process of opening a location when the pandemic hit in 2020. In 2021, they picked back up and have spent the last couple of years preparing to open Turner Haus Brewery in Bronzeville. The taproom will be located at 78 E. 47th St. It will be the only Black-owned brewery in Chicago, with a physical space.
Aikens recently received the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild’s Diversity in Brewing Scholarship. The aim of the scholarship is to build a more inclusive, representative Illinois craft beer industry through equitable access to education and technical training. With the scholarship, Aikens can take one of two courses, which are offered by the Siebel Institute and the World Brewing Academy. Aikens is taking a brewing and technology course at the Seibel Institute.
“From that course, it will really just help me expand my beer and brewing knowledge. I am not the brewer per se, I assist my husband and Jason with the brewing process. It will just deepen my knowledge of the brewing process and I can apply that knowledge back to the business,” she said.
Aikens became interested in craft beer after college, while she was in graduate school. She started to explore and taste craft beers to figure out what her palate was. She enjoyed the craft beer space. Through brewing with Turner, Aikens fell in love with craft beers even more.
“I have a slight background in microbiology, so the science was really interesting to me. And, just the fact that you could make such a wide variety of beers with four simple ingredients,” she said.
Turner Haus Brewery did some collaborations with Alulu Brewery and Pub, located at 2011 S. Laflin St., working with the head brewer, Jason James. Turner Haus Brewery currently brews out of Alulu. While craft beers and brewing is a predominantly white, male space, there are a few Black-owned breweries in Chicago.
Aikens and the rest of the team at Turner Haus Brewery believe that bringing diversity into the industry is really important. Even in thinking about the location of the taproom, they were intentional about picking Bronzeville.
“There really aren’t that many breweries and taprooms on the South side of Chicago at all, they’re all predominantly on the North side. So, we definitely wanted to bring the craft beer industry to that space and have more avenues for people to enjoy craft beers on the South side of Chicago,” she said.
For more information, visit turnerhausbrew.com.
