We dedicate our second edition of “Six Pack” to #BlackLivesMatter and stand in solidarity with the Black community and people of color. End police brutality, inequality, prejudice, and systemic racism.
Beer Kulture – “I don’t want to be the only black person in the taproom anymore.” Published 10 months ago, this piece on inclusion and diversity in craft beer is as timely as ever. Backed by a survey The Brewers Association released last year, Beer Kulture explores the overwhelming lack of black representation in the craft beer industry. This is particularly true in management categories—black staff members account for less than two-percent of such positions. Craft beer is better than this; craft beer must be better than this.
VinePair – And I think craft beer increasingly knows it must be better. Here VinePair briefly recounts the evolution of #IAmCraftBeer, which began as a powerful online movement that Brewers Association Diversity & Inclusion Ambassador Dr. J. Nikol Jackson-Beckham started in response to some particularly vile abuse beer blogger Afro.Beer.Chick endured. #IAmCraftBeer has since also gone offline into collaborations with such breweries as Trillium Brewing.
CraftBeer.com – Building on the #IAmCraftBeer focus of the VinePair story, freelance writer Courtney Iseman tracks down several vocal advocates for greater diversity in beer and finds them “cautiously optimistic” about the future. There are some really encouraging stories here, from Ren Navarro’s Beer. Diversity. consultancy blossoming into a full-time gig due to demand, to Beth Demmons’ Diverse Beer Writers program.
Black Is Beautiful – Started by San Antonio, TX, brewery Weathered Souls, Black Is Beautiful is a “collaborative effort to raise awareness for the injustices people of color face daily.” Much like how Other Half Brewing Co launched the All Together beer in support of the hospitality industry during this fucking pandemic, Weathered Souls offers the base recipe (and label) for an imperial stout that breweries can use to participate. In the spirit of the project, all proceeds from this beer should go to foundations that advocate police brutality reform, and/or to legal defenses of those who have been wronged. Here’s hoping this beer finds its way to this part of the world soon.
The New School – Here’s another great example of the industry starting to move, small step by small step, in the right direction. Oregon-based Hoptown Handles, which produces custom tap handles, is participating in the Black Is Beautiful effort by offering its Black Is Beautiful handles free of charge to all breweries that join the campaign.
Pellicle – Lily Waite, founder of UK-based The Queer Brewing Project, takes the collaborative brewing endeavor on the road to the United States for a series of brews to raise awareness and money for LGBTQ charities. Spanning about three weeks, Waite’s cross-country journey includes stops in Tampa, Denver, New York, and St. Louis, with each experience embodying the warm, generous ideals—”the generosity of spirit,” as Waite calls it—of what craft beer’s community can and should always be.
CraftBeer.com – Yes, we’re double-dipping into CraftBeer.com this time around, but with good reason. Louis Livingston-Garcia, one of four recipients of this year’s North American Guild of Beer Writers’ Diversity in Beer Writing Grant, checks in from Minneapolis, MN, with a great story on Brewing Change Collective, which aims to “foster diversity, equity, and inclusion for people of color in the brewing industry.”
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Download the Black Is Beautiful logo here to help promote the initiative.
“Six Pack” is our escapism series of beer- and travel-related stories that are on our radar and also belong on yours. Read (or write) something great? Drop us a line at brian at beertravelist dot com. This Six Pack was compiled to the sounds of Hum’s exceptional new album Inlet.
