Ten years ago, Christopher Harris made history when he opened the first Black-owned brewery in Northwest Ohio. Today, he’s set to do it again – his Black Frog Brewery has been tapped to expand in Cleveland, and when it does it will be not only the metro area’s first Black-owned brewery option, but the first in all of Northeast Ohio.

When the developers of Cleveland’s soon-to-open MidTown Collaboration Center decided they’d like a brewery to be part of this destination site, they looked to Harris. “[The Center] in the historical neighborhood of Hough. They were looking for an African American brewer, you know, to represent that community. Unfortunately, there’s only three of us in the state of Ohio,” said the brewmaster in an interview with news station WKYC. Harris explained to Spectrum News 1 that being the first comes with mixed feelings. “It’s awesome, and it’s kinda sad at the same time that it’s 2023, and it took that long for there to be a Black-owned brewery in the city of Cleveland.”

Today Harris operates a taproom in the Toledo suburb of Holland, Ohio, and has earned veteran- and minority-owned business certifications from the Small Business Administration. Customer reviews hail his brews as “crisp, clean, complex, and delicious,” highlighting his Nubian Queen S’more Stout and a unique seasonal brew for fall made with sweet potatoes. Back at the start in 2014 though, Black Frog Brewery had a much more humble beginning. Prior to securing the taproom, Harris was brewing his beer in the garage. He told us it was a garage that gave him the idea for his business – “There was a brewery in Pennsylvania that started out of their garages and I thought… I could do that.” After Harris brewed that first batch of beer he knew – entrepreneurship was the only path for him. Harris and several other local entrepreneurs will share their stories during Toledo Library’s Entrepreneurship Week celebration. He’ll be featured among our five small business panelists during the Meet the Entrepreneurs event on November 12 at 4:00pm at Main Library. Learn more about all of our Entrepreneurship Week programming here.