Lest any business owners still have reservations about the urgency of creating a more equitable beer industry, know that working towards inclusivity is not just a moral imperative—it’s a financial one, too. Ignoring this reality isn’t just ethically bankrupt; it may well be bankrupting.
As the craft brewing industry reaches maturity, the meteoric growth in production volume that characterized previous decades has leveled off. However, up until the arrival of COVID-19, new brewery additions remained robust. But now, with so many more businesses looking for a slice of the pie—and the pie not growing as quickly it used to—it makes sound business sense to offset those pressures by bringing more people into the industry.
[Read The Time Is Now, Part One — Understanding the Origins of Beer’s Inequity
Read The Time Is Now, Part Two — Why Beer’s Culture and Workplace Practices Must Change]
Illustrations by Colette Holston
According to the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s “The Business Case For Racial Equity: A Strategy For Growth,” reducing occupational barriers for women and Black people was a major contributor to U.S. economic growth in the second half of the 20th century. And the contemporary labor force continues to diversify. The Kellogg report notes that in a little over 25 years, people of color will represent half the total population, and more than half of the working-age population, of the United States.
Moreover, companies in the top quartile for gender and racial diversity are more likely to be profitable (as shown in McKinsey & Company’s “Delivering through Diversity” 2018 report). The reverse is also true, according to the report: “Overall, companies in the bottom quartile for both gender and ethnic/cultural diversity were 29% less likely to achieve above-average profitability than were all other companies in our data set. In short, not only were they not leading, they were lagging.”
Why wouldn’t you do everything in your power to open up the industry at a time when it needs a shot in the arm? And why wouldn’t you look beyond your current audience in order to make that happen?
“Even if you are a cynical piece of shit and all you care about is running a business for profit […], even if that’s your drive, you would want fully activated and contributing employees,” Paul Jones, founder of Manchester’s Cloudwater Brew Co, says. “Even if you’re a selfish bastard, you—at least from a profit point of view—want all your staff fully able to build up the profit in that company. Which means that actually, even if you’re a moron, you still should want people to be in a good position in their life. You should still want to activate people's potential as fully as you possibly can to build everything up that you possibly can.” He laughs. “Business would be fucking easier if you weren’t pushing women and people of color away, you weirdos!”
The issue is bigger than craft beer. According to the Minority Business Development Agency, an increase of access to capital for minority-owned businesses has the potential to pump trillions of dollars into the American economy and add millions of jobs. (In its report, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation predicts that by 2050, the United States stands to realize an $8 trillion gain in Gross Domestic Product by closing the racial equity gap.) Prior to the pandemic, small breweries already employed around 161,000 people, and that number ballooned to over 2 million when considering related industries like distributors and suppliers. Supporting measures that improve equity in any industry provides a demonstrable benefit to communities across the country.
Many white-owned breweries are already taking these truths to heart. “This is the perfect time to institute changes in [the] beer industry,” says Chris Anderson, a craft brewing consultant and founder of Coachella Valley Brewing Company. “If you do understand and engage your community, institute inclusivity and diversity into all that you do, I can absolutely guarantee that its impact to your business will be profound.”
Virginia Morrison agrees. Before she co-founded and became CEO/chief legal officer at Second Chance Beer Company in San Diego, she spent years practicing employment law. She points out that, while it can be difficult for businesses to conclusively point to increased profits as a direct result of inclusion initiatives (thanks to “too many or an indeterminate number of variables”), they remain a strong indicator of fiscal performance. “At this point, it is accepted there is a positive financial impact,” says Morrison.
Equitable measures don’t just help employees thrive, either. They open the floodgates to an entirely new population of historically disenfranchised consumers. “No matter how you look at the initiative [our Diversity, Inclusion, and Unity Committee (DIU)], it’s ultimately good business,” says Megan Baker, director of digital strategy at Harpoon Brewery. “Consumers want to buy from brands they feel represent them and share their values.”
Stacey Ayeh, founder of London’s Rock Leopard Brewing Co, echoes this, comparing bottle shops to record stores. “When different people realize that you’re selling something they can relate to, you’re going to gain new customers and you’re going to make more money. And you’ll be doing the right thing.”
Changes of this magnitude don’t happen quickly, and Americans must hold themselves to account for the ways that they benefit from and uphold white supremacy, and commit to active anti-racism work as a lifelong pursuit.
To begin with, breweries can change their framing of “the diversity question,” about why and how to implement strategies around equity in general and anti-racism in particular. Angela Davis describes “diversity” as a “corporate strategy” that “doesn’t make a difference.” This lack of efficacy may be explicable, at least in part, because focusing on a quantitative demographic indicator provides very little in the way of actionable insights.
Simply put, stop asking the diversity question—“Who’s in the brewery?”—because it’s not getting us anywhere. Rather, prioritize the questions that inclusion, equity, and justice ask. These are motivators that will in due course lead to positive diversity outcomes.
Inclusion asks: have we made sure that everyone knows they are invited to come into the brewery? Equity asks: does everyone have the same quality of experience once they arrive? Justice asks: can we eliminate the barriers that people experience that keep them out of the brewery or provoke them to leave?
Greater diversity is a positive outcome of running an inclusive, equitable, and just organization. Diversity, like all metaphorical finish lines, is a worthy goal, but finish lines don’t offer direction or assistance in running the race. You have to chart your course, you have to put in the sweat equity to train, and you need the resolve to keep running when things get difficult.
As the saying goes, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now. If you’ve yet to prioritize the work necessary for the pursuit of social justice in your brewery, you can start today.
“D&I should have been the center stone that the industry was founded on since beer is such an equalizer,” says Patrice Palmer, New Belgium Brewing Company’s diversity and inclusion specialist. “However, COVID-19 gives us a chance to rebuild, to engage with new markets, to invite new perspectives. It gives us tabula rasa. Now the most important thing is what do we do with this newfound start. Will WE go back to what was normal and familiar or will we take the step to open up the industry completely and engage holistically with everyone?”
Chalonda White, a Black beer writer who tweets using the handle @afrobeerchick, has long advocated for inclusion in craft beer. She echoed Palmer’s call to action in a recent tweet: “This is the time for breweries to prove that Diversity and Inclusion is not a trend. If you are really down for the black community and the issues we face. What are you willing to DO to show your support? We are beyond panel discussions at this point. We need action.”
Collin McDonnell, CEO of HenHouse Brewing Company in Santa Rosa, California, is a self-identified cisgender, straight, white man from an upper-middle-class upbringing. As such, he is representative of the majority of the beer industry’s leadership.
McDonnell recalls a podcast conversation with Dr. J., the author of this piece, from several years ago as the moment he awakened to his responsibility to prioritize inclusion and equity initiatives. That awareness has led to changes at the brewery, as well as missteps. Recently, McDonnell took to Twitter to explain the impetus behind the evolution in HenHouse’s “Big Mouth” series, which features highly stylized faces and the HenHouse hen mascot juxtaposed against musically inspired artwork. The latest can, depicting a Black person and iconography referencing Funkadelic’s 1971 album “Maggot Brain,” was met with some skepticism, according to McDonnell.
The series had originally solely featured white faces. It took a Black employee—who is not employed by their marketing department—asking, “Why do they all have to be white?” for him to realize the blind spot, and update the series artwork. “Not everybody who works here is white. Not everybody who buys our beer [is white],” he explains. “I want my team, that is not just a bunch of white guys, to see themselves on a label, to see themselves represented on the beer.”
Despite the change and public statement of commitment towards ongoing anti-racist work, McDonnell says he understands the stakes of mistakes are likely lower for him. “If the worst thing that comes out of me trying is I'm stressed out, I get called out in public maybe, it's really not that bad. On a global scale of things, it's really not that bad. And so part of it is just getting over this anxiety that you're gonna do it ‘wrong.’ Part of it is embracing that you have a responsibility to make the world better, in any regards and particularly diversity, equity and inclusion.”
McConnell sees accepting that criticism, and learning from it, as an essential skill brewery owners and others in positions of power must cultivate. “As a straight man, I have a huge obligation there. And you're not going to do it perfectly. You're going to fuck some things up, like Dr. J. said to me. You just have to be okay with it. People are going to call you out, and make you examine your privilege, and it's going to be painful. It's going to be embarrassing. You can have really bad anxiety and also: it's not that bad.”
Employers: Think of treating your organizational practices the way you treat your draft systems.
Draft system cleaning is about maintaining a vital component of the infrastructure of your business. Success-minded breweries make sure that draft system cleaning isn’t a special program or a sporadic effort. Rather, it becomes a way of doing business every day that is supported by thoughtful planning and a sufficient allocation of time and financial resources, standard operating procedures (SOPs), assessment and testing measures, and proper training. Moreover, the importance of clean draft lines to a quality experience in the brewery is communicated consistently and clearly to employees and consumers alike.
Addressing inclusion, equity, and justice in your organization should be no different.
Planning and goal-setting for a more inclusive, equitable, and just organization should include input from as diverse a range of stakeholders as possible, including leadership, employees across the brewery, and members of the community. The New Belgium model is an excellent example. By initially creating a Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Council and eventually partnering with Colorado State University’s College of Business to create a shared diversity and inclusion specialist position, the brewery has been able to conduct robust strategic planning and make significant progress toward its justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) goals.
The development of more inclusive, equitable, and just SOPs should focus on the removal of barriers to access. These can and should span most, if not all, of a business’s functions. Broadening the shifting composition of a brewery’s recruitment and hiring pipeline can be as simple as committing to posting job announcements more broadly than on social media channels or brewing industry hiring websites, ensuring that they reach a more representative group of individuals in the community.
Breweries might think about abolishing tipping (like Optimism Brewing Company in Seattle), which is a historically sexist and racist practice that disproportionately rewards behaviors that put front-of-house workers at risk. Additionally, they should consider cutting ties with police as security (like Indeed Brewing Company in Minneapolis), and explore alternate community action groups that rely on local engagement and de-escalation.
Putting in place those initial systems is just the beginning. The business adage, “What goes measured, gets managed,” underlies the importance of collecting data and feedback so that you can monitor your progress. Follow the RadicalxChange ideology of, “Grow and evolve, based on new research, feedback from the community, and what we learn from trying these ideas out in the real world,” which allows for necessary evolution over the long-term.
Training and skill development should be taken seriously. Seek the input of knowledgeable individuals or groups in the community and compensate them fairly for this work. In the weeks following George Floyd’s murder, many breweries have tapped Black employees or community members to guide anti-racism education without acknowledging the value and difficulty of this labor. Don’t make Black drinkers and communities work to come to you, or for you.
Developing a holistic approach to equity, inclusion, and justice will take time, thought, and trial-and-error. The Crafted For All commitment can provide a running start. It provides 20 action items across seven areas of organizational practice, which together form a baseline from which organizations can build and grow.
Employees: As COVID-19 has shown, your role as a hospitality worker is essential in upholding the United States’ economic framework—and therefore in dismantling unfairly biased systems from the ground up. Claim your power and demand accountability from your employer when it comes to organizational equity and inclusion. Whitney Evans and Rachel Cargle created this Template For Holding Your Employer Accountable For Racial Justice, which outlines language and steps for approaching leadership.
Consumers: It can be as easy as asking your local bottle shop to stock a certain brand. You can also actively seek out and patronize breweries that are outspoken about their equity and inclusion efforts. Craft beer has touted “local” and “independent” as the sole value points for purchasing decisions—it’s time to add “equitable” to that list.
Keep in mind the barriers that BIPOC people face in accessing business ownership and actively seek out and patronize Black-owned breweries. Find more using this global map Brandon Montgomery (@blackbeertravelers) put together to #DiversifyYourPalate.
Everyone: There are many thousands of resources on where to begin or finesse existing efforts. “A Beginner’s Guide to Racial Inequality: For Non-Black People Who Might Not Know Where to Start” is a gargantuan collection of books, podcasts, election resources, and a plethora of other information for those just beginning their journey towards transformative justice and equity. Ditto for “Anti-racism Resources For White People.”
And don’t forget the words of hospitality activists Ashtin Berry and Maggie Campbell. “You will fuck up and when you do we will ask that you will be accountable for the harm done,” they said on their recent “Treacherous Waters” discussion on Instagram. “Accountability is not inherently punitive, but it often does not feel good.”
It’s necessary to start somewhere, and that may be simply accepting that you cannot and will not achieve equity without stumbling or struggling. The promise of failure, and possibly high-profile failure when it comes to social-media snafus, can be a scary one. But the unpleasantness of a misstep cannot, and should not, be equated to the damage that complicit silence has wreaked for generations.
The beer industry has an urgent moral imperative to pursue justice, equity, and inclusion at the highest levels; to divest itself from white supremacy; and to work towards a better, fairer “new normal” instead of longing for the return of past paradigms. If it is successful, those changes could lead to a financially thriving and culturally diversified industry, and a new renaissance of innovation. If it fails, the industry will likely continue to contract and lose vitality, and struggle to find new audiences.
The time to get to work is now. Let’s share a pint and roll up our sleeves.
Words,Dr. J Nikol Jackson-BeckhamContributing Editor,
Beth Demmon
