For cousins and craft brewers Steve Turner and Blair Turner-Aikens of Turner Häus Brewery, beer’s four simple ingredients are a blank slate to create with a wide world of flavor.
“Beer is not one-dimensional by any means,” Turner said. In their taproom, which shares a space with Sip & Savor in the historic Rosenwald Court Apartments, you’ll meet a pantheon of ancestors they’ve venerated through their small-batch beer.
The family-owned taproom opened in November. But their journey crafting beers that pay homage to their foremothers goes back over 10 years.
Turner brewed his first batch of beer in early 2013 after getting a homebrew kit for Christmas. Homebrews take about a month to ferment, and his was ready by the time the Super Bowl rolled around. His family gathered around the kitchen table over his first brew, a grapefruit German lager. It was named after his grandmother, Helen, who passed away on the same day.
It seemed fated to continue to name brews after departed family matriarchs — “they poured into us, now we pour pints of them,” a brand slogan reads. At Turner Häus, you’ll meet Marlene, a blood orange tripel; Eliza, a cherry oak-aged saison; Lola, a peanut butter, basil and jalapeño brew; and Queen’s Legacy, a Caribbean-style stout; all joining Helen in a beer pantheon. Look above you, and see their faces gazing down from portraits on the wall.
Not only are the cousins the heads of one of Chicago’s few Black-owned beer brands, but they’re also the sole brand operating in a predominantly Black neighborhood on the South Side.
“We were very intentional with choosing this location and wanting to be in Bronzeville. … We wanted to bring something that we would like to see in our own neighborhood,” Turner-Aikens said.
Turner relocated to Chicago from his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee. Turner-Aikens grew up in the south suburbs. Today they both live on the South Side, and so do their employees.
The community has embraced the space as a coffee shop by day and a brewpub by night. Visit on a weekend night, or at their recently launched First Fridays events, and see a space that transcends age and lets Black folks unwind. Karaoke nights, networking events, game day parties and live music are a few parts of their programming.
“We’ve been open just over two months now,” Turner said, “and we’ve already settled in on certain regulars from the neighborhood. They come in. They love our beer. They have identified with our brand. We found people in the broader community that have been following us on our journey for far longer than I would have ever imagined.”
And many are not already beer lovers. “The amount of times we’ve heard, ‘I don’t drink beer but I drink your guys’ beer,’” Turner-Aikens said.
Mickey Bryant is a longtime educator and founder of Black & Brew Chicago, a nonprofit that supports Black beer enthusiasts. She said the addition of Turner Häus to the Chicago beer scene is a welcome positive that may change people’s preconceived notions about craft beer.
Besides being located in a Black cultural hub, the business also presents opportunities to economically lift Black farmers and community gardens. “It’s much more than a glass of beer,” she said.
Eighty to 90% of all beer consumed in America comes from three companies, Turner said, with craft brewing brands like Turner Häus making up the remainder. Fewer than 1% of all craft breweries in the U.S. are owned by Black people, according to the National Association of Black Brewers.
Turner Häus joins a trio of Black-owned Chicago-based brewers that opened in the past few years, including Funkytown and Moor’s Brewing. Chicago went over four years without a Black-owned taproom, when South Loop’s Vice District Brewery closed in 2019. It was around that time when Steve Turner went to Trez Pugh, the owner of Sip & Savor, for help finding a space. Then the pandemic came and the food and beverage industry as a whole took a nosedive, with local craft breweries especially taking a hit.
“He was just very persistent. The more he talked to me, the more he started to let me know what he was trying to do, I could see his passion for it,” Pugh said, adding that Turner Häus aligned with his vision of creating a positive space for the community and providing jobs.
As they took steps to finalize a space, Turner and Turner-Aikens started pop-ups and collaborations to keep their brand going in the meantime. Turner-Aikens won a Diversity in Brewing scholarship from the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild to study brewing technology.
Turner credited Christian Spears and Tennessee Brew Works with helping him navigate the complicated web of business ownership craft beer, as well as Vice District’s Curtis Tarver.
With Pilsen’s Alulu Brewpub and Tennessee-based Guidance Whiskey, they created two beers in a barrel-aged series. An earlier partnership with Tennessee Brew Works saw the creation of Gazelle, an IPA commemorating Black female athletes from historically Black colleges and universities.
Through it all, the pair still work day jobs — Turner is an IT project manager, and Turner-Aikens works as a data analyst.
But more is on the horizon for Turner Häus, including a collaborative beer with Whiner Brewery and Girls Inc. Chicago in honor of Women’s History Month and a sparkling nonalcoholic hops beverage.
“Things might not happen exactly in the timing that you have set out in your head, but if you’re both persistent and patient, they will happen,” Turner-Aikens said.
For a sip of bright, citrusy Helen, it’s almost divine intervention.
78 E. 47th St. (located in Sip & Savor at the Rosenwald Courts), 773-805-9272, turnerhausbrew.com
