Craft Beer’s Sexist and Racist Reckoning Has Come Again

As last week began, the beer world was poised for its annual celebration of American Craft Beer Week. After an entire year lost to the COVID-19 pandemic—a year that devastated the craft beer industry, which declined 9% in volume and lost several points of market share in 2020—this week had an air of high hopes, an unofficial proclamation of “let’s get back to normal.”
And unfortunately, that’s just what happened. The week did indeed end up being emblematic of craft beer in America, but not for the reasons intended by event organizers at an organization like the Brewers Association. Instead, the industry again finds itself facing down its very worst and most noxious identity—as a safe haven for sexism, racism and harassment of every variety. While drinkers were toasting to the health of craft beer last week, an undercurrent of online discussion was gathering strength, cresting this weekend as a tsunami of accusations, recrimination, and the sharing of incredibly painful experiences. Craft beer’s reckoning has come again, more visible than ever.
If there’s one thing we shouldn’t claim to be, it’s “surprised.” These kinds of stories have effectively become a cycle at this point, ebbing and resurging annually throughout the #MeToo era, and every time things go pretty much the same way. Outrage flares up around an inciting event, inspiring brave women and others to share their stories. The industry acts horrified and naive about the scope of the problem, with luminaries saying “we need to do better.” A few new diversity promoting positions are created. Occasionally, a few scapegoats are identified and successfully removed. And then slowly, the white-hot anger and drive to hold breweries accountable peters out, as the average beer drinker is content to reason that perhaps things have now changed. Maybe things are better now! Maybe they’ll be able to simply enjoy their beer—provided they can find a drinkable, non-pastry beer—and feel confident that their reverie won’t be broken by these feelings of guilt once again. Or to say this all in a single sentence:
If you think the beer from your favorite brewery is more important to you than how they treat women and people of color you need to reevaluate yourself as a person.
— Albus Dumble Norm (@RealNormMiller) May 15, 2021
But of course, that’s not how these things work. The roots of sexism and racism within the beer industry remain as insidious and widespread as ever. Like an untreated illness, they fester and grow. Worse still, they actually become more resistant to change, as the average beer drinker attempts to reason along the lines of “didn’t we already address this?” The desire for these issues to be a “thing of the past” is extremely strong, because it absolves us from having to continue thinking about them on a daily basis. But there’s no issue in beer that is more a thing of the moment.
This was all thrown into sharp relief in the last few days by the Instagram feed of brewer and production manager Brienne Allan of Notch Brewing in Salem, Massachusetts. It started simply, with Allan simply sharing a few of her own sexist experiences as a professional brewer in the craft beer industry. But Allan then opened up the floor to others, inquiring about what sort of sexist and misogynistic treatment they might have encountered. Soon, the replies were picking up steam, expanding to include countless stories of racism, prejudice and sexual harassment within brewery settings, with Allan’s feed serving as a massive platform for the airing of grievances and sharing of devastating stories. And the replies are still pouring in—although Allan clearly had no idea of the breadth of what would come spilling out of the Pandora’s box she opened, she has remained committed to sharing all of the hundreds, and possibly thousands of accounts that have been sent to her in the last five days. Just going through all of the DMs has surely been the equivalent of a full-time job, but Allan has shouldered the responsibility with grace. In response, she’s already been threatened with lawsuits, leading others to crowdfund for any potential defense she may require.
What those hundreds or thousands of accounts reveal are acts of sexism and racism shocking in their sheer brazenness. There are stories of brewery owners refusing to look at the resumes of qualified “chicks” who apply for brewer positions. There are countless stories of public groping and sexual assault, often in the context of major beer festivals. There are ethnic and racial slurs, and stories of rooms full of men chuckling at a sole female brewer being chewed out (or propositioned) by her superiors. There are countless instances of women and minorities being made to feel powerless and ostracized from the beer community, until many of them simply choose to leave it rather than attempt to swim against an unstoppable tide. These are accounts that demand to be read. In fact, the more you don’t want to hear these stories, the more you probably need to read them.
Nor have all the accusations simply hinted at perpetrators—many well-known and beloved breweries have been directly named in one account or another, along with several superstar male brewery owners. The likes of Hill Farmstead’s Shaun Hill and Tired Hands’ Jean Broillet have seen their names crop up not in just one account, but many. These are men hailed as icons of the modern craft beer industry, credited with helping to develop some of the most popular styles in beer today. As such, the significance of these accusations cannot be overstated—these are figures of great influence in craft beer as it exists today, and the ripple effects of these accusations will travel far and wide. The brewery responses, meanwhile, haven’t exactly been inspired—more continue to roll in, and several are featured in this VinePair feature from Beth Demmon.
I don’t think I’ve seen a more superficial attempt at this. Even a bot generated response would have been superior to this. F- https://t.co/vCLpxj1JSV
— West Coast Beer Geek (@wcbeergeek) May 17, 2021