The Craft Brewers Conference happened last week in Nashville, with the not so shocking revelation that “To appeal to the younger generation—and female and BIPOC drinkers, in particular—breweries will need to take a hard look at what they’re doing.”
To appeal to female and BIPOC drinkers are words that will haunt the Brewers Association until something changes. What went wrong has been documented, so far, on Twitter and Instagram. The blowback is still blowing hard. I’ve tried to assemble a few of them in an order that makes sense.
– Max Finnance wrote on Instagram:
“I had a (mostly) great time over the past week in Nashville hanging out with so many of my favorite people, but it came with some real lows. Lots of folks were less lucky.
“There are some amazing people at the @brewersassoc, including at least a few I consider friends, but organizationally I believe the BA is failing us as an industry. There seems to be a willful disconnect between its ‘identity’ as a trade organization and its mission to make Craft Beer a community welcoming to all. The desire to appease all members makes bad actors feel comfortable, and becomes hostile to the folks I most want to feel welcome at the table. If you left CBC ‘revitalized about working in the best industry in the world,’ you have your head in the sand. We have a terribly long way to go.
“I’ll be doing the work to help make this a better space, I hope you’ll join me.”
– “This industry is to incredibly broken.” Listen to everything Ren Navarro has to say. “The outrage you feel today is the outrage you should feel every day.” Read the highlights she put together.
– “We demand more from an organization that leads our industry.” This is the sort of action that is needed.
– “We highly encourage other breweries and attendees to ask for the same accountability directly with the BA to share their concerns as dues-paying members. There is power in our numbers and in performing direct action.” With a letter that shows how to do it.
Last month I wrote, “It’s not my goal to find less pleasant stories to balance the feel good ones, but some weeks that is pretty easy.” There were stories last week that you might label “feel good,” but by the time the week ended nothing felt very good.