All roads flow back to beer for Corey Hoffman, founder and head brewer at Neon Culture Brewing, a small-but-mighty start-up with big plans and singular suds.
Hoffman’s history with beer as a drinker includes—like many of us—college-age encounters involving red Solo cups, ping-pong balls, and cold cans sipped at a bar. That all changed in 2017 when Hoffman’s brother asked a simple question that launched a career: Have you ever heard of homebrewing?
“At the time I was looking for something to pour myself into,” says Hoffman. “I was trying to get out of my mom’s house, as all millennials try to do after you’re there way longer than you’re supposed to be, so I bought this [homebrewing] kit on a whim.”
Hoffman’s first beer was pretty undrinkable, but the experience inspired him to start researching and learning more about what goes into brewing beer. As he delved deeper into the worlds of homebrewing and beermaking, it became abundantly clear to him just how white the brewing industry is.
“When I started homebrewing I quickly realized there weren’t a lot of people that looked like me that were doing what I was doing,” Hoffman says. “I wondered in my mind, why don’t Black people like this beer? Why don’t I see a lot of Black homebrewers? It’s not that they don’t like it, it’s just that either you’re not exposed to it, or maybe the price point is too high, but mostly that it’s very intimidating walking into spaces when you don’t know anything about them.”
“That was the catalyst for me starting my own thing,” Hoffman says. “I wanted to share what I was doing with people, but at the same time I wanted to change the perception of what craft beer is—who it’s for and what it’s about.”
So Hoffman launched Neon Culture, a grassroots, community-organized brewery that keeps inclusivity, community, and collaboration at the heart of its mission. It’s also the first Black-owned brewery in Charlottesville.
While many breweries today embrace a classic style, Neon Culture brings a different vibe into the local beerscape—one that embraces experimentation, unconventional ingredients, and welcomes seasoned hop-heads and beer newbies alike.
“I think of all my brews as mixtapes,” says Hoffman, who is inspired by ’80s and ’90s aesthetics, including bright colors, vintage technology, and music. “We always have one or two beers that are on the normal side, and then there’s at least one with that Neon Culture vibe that’s a little different.”
Hoffman’s previous brews include Appetite for Inclusion, a hazy IPA made with Richmond homebrewer Rusty Barrel, HAZELWHAT?!, an imperial stout with hazelnuts, cacao nibs, and vanilla beans, and Summer at the Dreamhouse, a wheat beer that blends nostalgia with current pop culture and notes of grilled pineapples, mangoes, and habanero.
All of Neon Culture’s beers are brewed at and released in collaboration with Decipher Brewing, as Hoffman slowly works toward opening his own brewery. The next step in his journey—a small taproom and tasting bar in Murphy & Rude Malting Co.’s expanding space—is coming sometime this year.
“I’m not in a rush,” says Hoffman, who is embracing every step of the process. “I’m trying to make a new culture around here.”