Panzú Brewery Marks One Year as Caribbean Oasis in Mint Hill

Opening the Caribbean-inspired Panzú Brewery was anything but a smooth, refreshing process for siblings Johan Marte and Rosa Marte de Pacheco. Every step from the start of the business’s conception was hard-fought, but the co-owners owners were determined to honor their father through a family-run business, as they had always dreamed to do. 

Through construction setbacks, fights with the bank, pandemics, fires and an overrun market, the pair have proved true to their intention to stick things out at their location in Mint Hill, where in September they’ll observe their one-year anniversary.

Two siblings overcome hardships to chase a dream

The name Panzú came from the nickname that Johan and Rose — and their own children after them — called their father: “Papá Panzú,” which translates to “big beer belly guy.” The brewery’s logo, a bearded man wearing glasses and a hat while holding a full pint of beer (no beer belly in sight), was modeled in honor of him.

“Without him, we wouldn’t be here,” Johan said. “Everything that we had and are is because of him. We have the same values from him, we wanted to honor him.”

Papá Panzú was an entrepreneur himself, owning a fruit pulp production company for 37 years in the Dominican Republic, of which the siblings were shareholders.

Johan moved to the U.S. in 2000, living and working in Boston, New York and New Jersey before settling in Mint Hill in 2008. Rosa followed five years later. 

Having worked together within their father’s company, Rosa and Johan decided to continue their partnership in Mint Hill. After their dad passed in 2016, the siblings wanted to memorialize him with their upcoming business. 

With Papá Panzú’s love for beer, Rosa’s knack for the restaurant business and Johan already brewing 5-gallon buckets of beer in his backyard, a brewery just made sense.

After looking through several locations, Johan came across one small plot in the heart of Mint Hill, which was originally meant for his other business. When he called Rosa to check it out, they both immediately saw the vision for their future brewery.

They started on a business plan almost immediately and then got to work building the place from the ground up, with Johan’s construction company taking over the job after an issue with another contractor and their bank set them back eight months.

After four years — two years planning and two years building, all in the middle of a pandemic — Panzú Brewery celebrated its grand opening on Sept. 15, 2023.

That accomplishment was quickly sidetracked by a small fire in the kitchen that closed the brewery down for ten days a month later.

In an attempt to maximize the space in the kitchen, a stove was pushed close to a metal plate on the wall that heated up after a five-hour empanada preparation. Though there were no actual flames, the pair came too close to losing their establishment.

“I was here that day,” Johan recalled. “I’m looking at the smoke and I say ‘I can’t believe that after all this freaking time that we actually put hard work on it, it’s gonna go in flames.’”

Although the brewery is safe from incineration, now that six Charlotte breweries have closed within the past six months, there’s still more that goes into not letting themselves get burned on their investment and passion. 

Panzú Brewery sets itself apart by honoring heritage

In April’s Beer Issue, Queen City Nerve talked with local craft beer writer Matt McKenzie about the state of the Charlotte brewery.

Drawing on his 15 years of local expertise, McKenzie believes the businesses that will stay around are neighborhood breweries that embed themselves into a community for the sole purpose of providing locals a place to enjoy beer.

A definition could no better fit a business than McKenzie’s one fits Panzú. 

“We are very connected with the community,” Rosa said. “Mint Hill is part of us and we are part of Mint Hill. I don’t think it’s just another brewery, [Panzú] is like Mint Hill’s clubhouse.”

The duo picked the location in Mint Hill to set themselves apart from the competition Uptown and in the neighborhoods surrounding the city’s center. From the beginning, they wanted to be a town brewery. A place where people can come and enjoy their beer in a safe place that is unlike the others.

As the only brewery in town and one that prides itself on brewing a Caribbean-style beer that anyone can drink, they are well on their way to achieve that goal. The aesthetic of the location provides an oasis, a beach getaway smack in the middle of a bustling downtown area. 

Johan said it’s his mission to expand the palettes of his clientele. He works with Panzú’s brewmaster to convince even the most devout pilsner-drinker to enjoy an IPA, or vice versa.

Johan’s own wife is a testament to this. The IPA skeptic’s favorite beer at the brewery is Panzú’s most popular drink, the Pint of Sunshine Hazy IPA.

Many Latino breweries chose to contract their beer instead of brewing their own, Johan explained. He believes Panzú is the only Latino brewery in Charlotte that brews its own beer, if not the only one in town. 

Rosa also pointed out that Panzú is not just a brewery but a restaurant, which gives them an advantage. Because of the extra requirements and expenses, most breweries opt to serve food through food trucks rather than an in-restaurant kitchen.

“We do have our own kitchen because we wanted to have something different,” Rosa said. “And we didn’t think we were going to get the Caribbean flare and flavors that we wanted with just getting regular food trucks.”

According to Johan, there are only three breweries run by Dominicans in the entire country. Despite this, the siblings didn’t want to make their brewery solely Dominican, choosing instead to categorize the business as “Caribbean.”

“We wanted to be an inclusive brewery,” Johan said. “It was designed that way because we wanted to enhance our Latino and Caribbean heritage.”

The number of BIPOC-owned breweries in Charlotte is sparse, and the siblings wanted to provide people with a welcoming environment to learn about their culture. The kitchen serves food with Venezuelan, Puerto Rican, Dominican Republic and Haitian-inspired flavors.

“There’s no place in Charlotte that you can get the food that we have here,” he added.

Rosa also lends credit to the Mint Hill and Charlotte craft beer communities for their support. Although they are a new business, the older, more established establishments have taken them in during their tribulations.

“We have been blessed with a community like us,” said Rosa. “We have never felt that we are any different than any other brewery or craft brewery that we have worked with … We are proud of what we have accomplished here. We hope to be able to replicate Panzú on other towns.”