Ugly is ugly, but somehow we look past that. I thought about this last week reading a profile of Bill Hader written as part of the runup to the last season of “Barry.” About how there can be things that constantly get us in trouble, that we don’t like, and what we can change.
And still lingering in my head from the previous week is something author Stephen Deusner had to say about Jason Isbell:
“I think he really picked up a lot from them about how to write about the South, and how to position yourself as somebody who loves the place, and yet finds so much about it that’s ugly. He even told me it was Patterson [Hood] and [Mike] Cooley that showed him it was possible to be bitter about where you came from and still love the place.”
Each week there are stories that reinforce the myth that there is a halo 'round the craft beer moon. And there are stories that scream bullshit. There are more of the former, maybe because they are more fun to write.
In my youth I worked at a newspaper where the publisher said, honest to goodness, that if we wrote something bad about a person we should find an occasion to write something good about them within the next year. Some sort of balanced ledger. It’s not my goal to find less pleasant stories to balance the feel good ones, but some weeks that is pretty easy.
One of the reasons there is a halo around what some call craft beer is the promise of change. That requires paying attention to things that should change. So paying attention . . .
Unionizing a Craft Brewery Shouldn’t Be This Hard. And why would workers even want a union? Glad you asked. After this story, go on to the next one.
One hundred percent burnout. “Based on results we’ve seen within other industries, the data indicates serious issues specific to craft beer at play.”
Burnout and Allyship in Beer DEI. “DEI has gone from being the hot new poster-topic to the we-have-to-tick-this-box-or-we’re-in-trouble essential to fall off a cliff into the oh-god-can-we-shut-up-about-this-now burnout territory over the last decade, and right now we are at the bottom of that cliff, with those of us who still give a shit screaming at the top of our lungs but no one is listening anymore.”
On the flipside. Stories that former publisher would want to read.
One year later with Funkytown Brewery. This Black-owned brewery now has more than 500 accounts in the Chicago and Milwaukee metropolitan areas. Many of those places are near communities that are “underserved by the craft beer industry.”
Be as into beer as you need to be. “Talking about beer beats talking about the weather, or football, or wallowing in the grim state of politics.” To which I would add, at least it should.
Four days, two baseball games, five sandwiches, 10 beer bars. “May all your days be equally full of good gustation and convivial company as mine turned out to be.”