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Young, black, political: the Implicantes brewers
Photo: Evgeny Makarov
Daniel Dias breaks with every beer brewing cliché: He is young, black, covered in tattoos, wears a cap and a gold chain around his neck.
The 31-year-old is the head brewer of the Implicantes, in English »provocateurs«.
The craft beer start-up in Porto Alegre claims to be the first brewery in Brazil where the whole team is black and sees beer as an instrument of the black resistance movement.
Since Daniel Dias founded it two years ago with his 34-year-old brother Diego, the two have received a lot of encouragement - but also a lot of hatred.
When they started a crowdfunding campaign during the pandemic to keep their brewery afloat, they felt the Brazilian racism once again.
"The beer will come with black shit," rushed a user on social networks.
Another wrote that the Marielle Franco beer would then be delivered "perforated" - an allusion to the city councilor from Rio de Janeiro, who campaigned against discrimination and violence and was shot in 2018.
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Brewmaster Daniel Dias (left) makes a pilsner, brewery giant André Amorim helps him with it
Photo: Evgeny Makarov
The founders of Implicantes feel strengthened by the attacks: "We are necessary," says Daniel Dias, "as a role model for other black entrepreneurs, as a symbol of the fight against racism and of course as an alternative brewery."
Brazil likes to present itself as open and harmonious, but society is steeped in structural discrimination and racism - which is often fatal.
Every year the police kill thousands, mostly black men.
Countless cell phone videos of eyewitnesses circulating on the Internet document racist attacks and excessive violence.
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Police shooting posters with holes in them: Black Brazilians are particularly often shot
Photo: Evgeny Makarov
Last November, security guards at a Carrefour supermarket in Porto Alegre, where the brewers live, beat a black customer to death - thousands took to the streets across the country.
Most of the key positions in politics and business are also held by whites - and you can feel who controls the country right down to the beer market.
At masses, the Dias brothers are often the only black participants.
When they present their beer, they are often exposed to glances and sometimes jokes related to their skin color.
Racism is also commonplace on many labels: According to Daniel Dias, dark beers usually depict a sexualized black woman, the beers have names like
mulata
, mulatto.
With their brewery, the founders want to change the situation: "We want to address issues that are established in our society and that are not questioned," says Dias.
This also means that craft beer, like all slightly more expensive consumer products in Brazil, is consumed primarily by the wealthy.
The beer of the Dias brothers should be accessible to everyone: "Of course, poor Brazilians also like good beer," says Daniel Dias.
"Our beer shouldn't be exclusive, but democratic and inclusive."
See in the photo gallery how the beer provocateurs work - and what problems they struggle with in everyday life:
Assistance: Sonja Peteranderl
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