Next Wave Awards Brewer of the Year: Eamoni Collier

To Eamoni Collier, having a brewery isn’t just about beer. That might sound counterintuitive, but Collier’s bigger-picture vision of beer as a conduit to community-building and culture-celebrating is precisely what makes her stand out as the exceptional brewer she is.

For Collier, the founder of Washington D.C.’s first Black woman-owned craft beer company Urban Garden Brewing, the epiphany came when she was honing her brewing chops at Right Proper Brewing Company. Collier is also a musical artist, and to celebrate a song she was releasing, she collaborated with her teammates at Right Proper on a beer named for that single, “Strawberry High.” The brewery held an event for the debut of the strawberry milkshake IPA, brewed with hibiscus and rose petals.

“That’s when I realized it wasn’t just about the beer, it was about the experience of creating what’s behind the beer, and bringing people together when it’s done,” Collier recalls. “It clicked for me, ‘This isn’t just for bringing out beer lovers, but the whole community.” That was what Collier decided to build her own brand, Urban Garden, on. That, and exceptional beer.

Credit: Farrah Skeiky

A native Washingtonian, Collier started learning about the nuances of different beer styles before she could legally drink. She worked as a hostess at a distillery that also served beer in Savannah, Ga. while attending college there, and says the bartenders would have her smell beers to start learning their aromas without tasting them. After Collier moved back to D.C. and continued working in hospitality, she began making her own beer.

“I started homebrewing and hosting tastings in my uncle’s backyard,” she says. “Whenever we had cookouts or parties, people would ask, ‘Does Eamoni have her beer here?’”

As soon as she began brewing, Collier experimented with using botanicals. She’d pick them from her uncle’s garden and get them from local tea and herb shops.

“That was my cauldron,” she says of her brewing kettle. “I was making potions, there was a mystical vibe.” The botanicals — from chamomile to lavender — captured people’s attention, Collier adds. “They’d say, ‘Wow, this doesn’t even taste like beer.’” That got the wheels turning even before Collier landed her job at Right Proper and eventually brewed that Strawberry High IPA.

“You’d always see beer marketed toward men, but I was seeing women in my family say, ‘I don’t like beer, but I like this beer.’ I realized this was an untapped market.”

Credit: Farrah Skeiky

When the pandemic hit in 2020 and restaurants had to close down, Collier’s work in the hospitality industry temporarily came to a halt. She used the time to build a vision and business plan for her own brewing company. She wrote homebrew recipes and paid a production facility to scale, produce, and package them; then she’d self-distribute the beer.

The first beer Collier released in 2021 was Chamolite, essentially a blonde ale she dubbed a “Garden Ale” as it includes chamomile as well as honey. It sold so well from the jump that the business quickly blossomed into a full-blown contract brewing operation. She built her brand through regular events at spots throughout D.C., which not only introduced people to her beer but provided that outlet she valued for bringing people together. Before long, Collier realized she wanted her own permanent space. With help from family and investors, she opened Urban Garden on June 19, 2026.

Urban Garden’s location is serendipitous: It is the former address of Right Proper, where Collier’s brewing career took off. (Right Proper has moved to a different location.) It is also next door the Howard Theatre, where her grandfather Joe Tate would play saxophone with the house band. Collier has created the “Joe Tate Listening Lounge” in the taproom where she displays photos of her grandfather and other musicians as well as his sax. She also hosts GoGo brunches, GoGo being a D.C.-born funk subgenre Tate contributed to forming.

This homebase is an important one to have not just for the community she’s already begun building, but for the representation Urban Garden fosters as D.C.’s first Black woman-owned brewery.

“It’s bittersweet,” she notes. “It’s 2026, and we’re just now having a Black woman-owned brewery here.” For context, less than one percent of breweries are Black-owned across the United States. “The fact that it needs to be highlighted means we have so much work still to do, such a long way to go to get people the resources they need to do this,” Collier says. Having Urban Garden, she recognizes, can be motivational. To build on that, Collier enthusiastically welcomes brewers and would-be brewers to visit the taproom and ask questions.

Credit: Farrah Skeiky

Urban Garden is built around community; beer is what makes that mission possible and brings more people through the door every day. Collier’s beers straddle a balance between familiar and intriguing, approachable and exciting.

“I decided I’m just going to create my own styles,” she says. “Our IPA I call a ‘botanical IPA’ because the bitterness doesn’t come just from hops but from the lavender flower we use.” Urban Garden’s beer menu reveals Collier’s mastery of classic beer styles while also providing her with a canvas on which to paint fresh botanical flavors that interest beer geeks and engage new-to-beer guests. Roses Aren’t Dead Pale Ale is made with rose petals and rose hips; the Orange You Witty Witbier with sweet orange peel, ginger, and toasted coriander; and the Touch Grass! Pilsner with lemongrass.

D.C. has taken to Collier’s fragrant beers as well as Urban Garden’s positioning as a gathering place. It’s something the brewer and business owner only wants to keep expanding on, creating a hub for everyone from young adults to seniors, with good beer, good food, fun events, and even education and future mentorship programs.

“Community and culture have always been the driving vision,” Collier says. “I get teary-eyed thinking about it, but the perfect example was Juneteenth, our opening day. It was a perfect representation of D.C., an actual melting pot — men, women, and kids of all cultures.”

The article Next Wave Awards Brewer of the Year: Eamoni Collier appeared first on VinePair.