Walmart to sell craft beer from Harlem Brewing Company

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - Before this interview, Harlem Brewing Company founder and brewer Celeste Beatty asked if she could wear her beer hat on camera, calling it "kind of her thing."

"Well, the beer hat was actually my mother's idea," Beatty said. "We ran out beer at a beer festival once and people were very unhappy and she said we got to do something and she started making these hats. And we thought it was just a really fun thing to do to promote the brand."

On Monday, Walmart, the largest company in the world, announced it planned to carry the brand created 17 years ago in a Harlem apartment by this woman with a cardboard box on her head.

"I didn't even know they had a lot of craft beer," Beatty said.

Starting in March, Walmart locations in New York will sell the three primary beers brewed by Celeste's five-person company: Harlem Sugar Hillgolden Ale, Harlem Renaissance Wit, and Harlem Sugar Hill Strawberry Cider.

"Sooner or later, someone will open a door for you and the first door for me was Sylvia's Restaurant," Beatty said.

Today, customers can find Harlem Brewing Company beers at Settepani and hundreds of other bars and restaurants around the world.

Celeste declined to share her annual sales numbers, saying only that she brews millions of ounces of beer every year.

Celeste expects the Walmart deal to increase her sales by as much as 20 percent. New York State as Harlem Brewing Company continues to grow.