Last year, the Brewers Association completed its first benchmarking survey on the diversity of owners and employees in the craft-beer industry. The numbers were not surprising: “Brewery employees are disproportionately white relative to both the general U.S. population and where breweries are located.” Only 11.6 percent of brewery owners and 11 percent of brewers identified as a racial category other than white.
Just 7.5 percent of brewers identified as female, although the survey found the ratio of males to females was roughly equal among brewery service staff. (A fraction of a percent of staff identified their gender as “other” or “non-binary.”) Summarizing the results of this benchmarking survey, BA Craft Beer Program Director Julia Herz writes, “There is work to be done, and we as a craft-beer community can do better.”
The BA has put resources behind diversity and inclusion efforts, including a Diversity Events Grant Program. It published a five-part series on diversity best practices, and it instituted a code of conduct for large events such as Great American Beer Festival. Other groups—such as the organizers of Pittsburgh-based Fresh Fest, the nation’s first festival of black-owned breweries—have helped to keep diversity and inclusion top of mind for brewers.