Why is craft beer so white?

June 9, 2016 10:32 AM

Like many things in North America, beer–and even more so craft beer following in the footsteps of big beer–emerged from a place of privilege, both in the physical, geographical sense and in the symbolic sense: The interesting and locally-made products craft beer fans love are typically borne of beer-makers who still enjoy privileges that are not yet enjoyed by everyone.

Just a heads-up, this is Canadian beer blog, so it talks specifically about the Canadian craft beer scene, with some brief mentions of the US.

posted by Kitteh (78 comments total)

Craft beer is marketed? Doesn't he mean branding? Which in practice means can or bottle lable itself?
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 10:49 AM on June 9, 2016

whiter than a country club fundraiser for sustainable organic mayonnaise
white as Taylor Swift’s fanclub.
a Wes Anderson film festival

High-larious! Wow, for someone writing an article about perceived exclusion of POCs from a group, the author sure has some very clear ideas of where POCs won't (shouldn't?) appear.

Sorry if you like stuff this writer thinks only white folks like, POCs!

(I gave up on the article after the TS line bc painfully labored humor and my postprandial apple were not going to get along.)
posted by the sobsister at 10:50 AM on June 9, 2016 [8 favorites]

“I think it comes down to other cultures–blacks, Asians–just not giving much of a shit about beer,”

There's a lot of anecdotal evidence for statements like this in the article, and not much actual data, but i would say that as far as craft brewing is concerned, this might be true. these other cultures do have things that they care about, and spend discretionary income on, but hoppy beers doesn't seem to be a big priority.
posted by OHenryPacey at 10:53 AM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

I posted this because I go to a lot of beer events and really notice a lack of diversity. I do wish the craft beer scene were less white and it makes me sad it isn't. (It is also very male-dominated so I'm relieved when I see more and more women at these things.)
posted by Kitteh at 10:57 AM on June 9, 2016 [6 favorites]

Just because you like it, it does not automatically mean it appeal to someone else, sometimes good enough is good enough beer wise

and stop putting so much hops in everything.
posted by kanemano at 10:59 AM on June 9, 2016 [4 favorites]

I mean, just spitballing here, but it seems like anyone who actually is able to start a small business is probably starting from a place of privelege.

It's certainly not something I would ever jump at the chance to do.

"Oh, I could risk all my savings and most likely go into debt and end in bankruptcy!? Sounds like a smashing idea!"

Yeah, no.
posted by deadaluspark at 11:00 AM on June 9, 2016 [20 favorites]

Why brewers are mostly white finally gets addressed about two-thirds of the way through, and at least it's honest. Every "two-drunks-in-a-garage open a successful brewery" story really starts with a huge pot of money somewhere, and the people who have access to that sort of money are still largely white.

As far as consumers ... yeah, every craft beer event I go to, mostly in NYC, is shockingly white. Less and less male, but still overwhelmingly white.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:01 AM on June 9, 2016 [13 favorites]

Guns, germs and steel. Or, in this case, access to capital, willing lenders with a race bias and social safety nets.
posted by GilloD at 11:06 AM on June 9, 2016 [7 favorites]

these other cultures do have things that they care about, and spend discretionary income on, but hoppy beers doesn't seem to be a big priority.

This just appeared on my TL: Beer essentials: The craft beer boom in Japan shows no sign of running dry. So it may not just be cultures as whole entities but national scenes.
posted by sukeban at 11:17 AM on June 9, 2016 [7 favorites]

Given how women (beer drinkers) are marketed to, it's perhaps for the best that POC stay away.
posted by tommasz at 11:18 AM on June 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

Good article, thanks. It may be based on anecdote, but the analysis is sensible and the conclusions look mostly on point.
posted by Drinky Die at 11:20 AM on June 9, 2016

Why aren't there more white people opening Sichuanese restaurants? Or rather, why is that a fundamentally different question than the one the author asks? Beer as we know it in North America today is basically the end result of centuries of European culture (no pun intended). Why do we assume that non-Europeans should buy into it? Shouldn't we ask instead why there aren't more alcoholic beverages from non-European traditions being produced in North America?

And on a totally different note, you can start homebrewing relatively inexpensively -- notwithstanding the thousands of dollars I've personally sunk into the hobby :/ -- but I'd guess that opening a brewery is one of the more challenging small businesses to start. You need to juggle investments in equipment and rented space while managing the process of obtaining the right local, state and/or federal permits, a process whose completion date is pretty hard to predict. So maybe you're already paying a lease and a loan for equipment (and you've quit your "day job") but you can't actually start brewing until the paperwork settles.
posted by Slothrup at 11:22 AM on June 9, 2016 [16 favorites]

Here is also an article about this topic which is pretty good
posted by beerperson at 11:23 AM on June 9, 2016 [10 favorites]

(I mean to add a line about the fallacy that default culture = "white" culture, but it somehow got lost.)
posted by Slothrup at 11:24 AM on June 9, 2016 [3 favorites]

Why aren't there more white people opening Sichuanese restaurants? Or rather, why is that a fundamentally different question than the one the author asks? Beer as we know it in North America today is basically the end result of centuries of European culture (no pun intended). Why do we assume that non-Europeans should buy into it?

I don't even drink beer and I recognise Tsingtao, Kirin, Asahi, Sapporo and San Miguel.
posted by sukeban at 11:26 AM on June 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

Annie Johnson is on my podcast interview list! I just need a few more episodes under my belt and I'll be politely emailing her for one.
posted by Kitteh at 11:30 AM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

It's really hard not to compare this article to The Thrillest one that came out several months ago - "There Are Almost No Black People Brewing Craft Beer. Here's Why." The one that won a James Beard award. (which beerperson posted above, upon preview)

While the article is US-centric and Ben is right to try and continue the conversation for the Canadian scene, this blog post doesn't quite work for me. I would've liked more focus on Canadian marketing history/diversity statistics (and possible diversity outreach or lack thereof) about Canadian craft breweries than from a North American perspective. I also wasn't a fan of the "it's not quite racism, but..." thing that kept popping up.

I'm also mixed on the "African/Asian people didn't brew beer until colonialism" part. I'm kind of skeptical, but I honestly don't know anything about beer/alcohol making or its history. (Clicking on sukeban's links shows that Tsingtao was founded by Germans and San Miguel by the Spanish, so I dunno, it could be more legit than I'd like?)
posted by zix at 11:34 AM on June 9, 2016

Clicking on sukeban's links shows that Tsingtao was founded by Germans and San Miguel by the Spanish, so I dunno, it could be more legit than I'd like

Oh, certainly. Here's why Germans were in Qingdao.
posted by sukeban at 11:37 AM on June 9, 2016

I don't even drink beer and I recognise Tsingtao

Tsingtao was founded by German settlers in China. I don't know the specifics for Japan and the Philippines, but I'd bet their beer industries too can be traced directly back to Europe.

I hope it's obvious I'm not saying there's anything wrong with PoC brewing beer; I think it's great, because beer is great!
posted by Slothrup at 11:39 AM on June 9, 2016

Beer as we know it in North America today is basically the end result of centuries of European culture (no pun intended). Why do we assume that non-Europeans should buy into it?

this is my overall response, living as I do in a neighborhood that could never be accused of being predominantly white-Euro. Should I be concerned at the preponderance of Pho restaurants? Or just glad?
posted by philip-random at 11:44 AM on June 9, 2016

~ I don't even drink beer and I recognise Tsingtao, Kirin, Asahi, Sapporo and San Miguel.
~ I don't know the specifics for Japan and the Philippines, but I'd bet their beer industries too can be traced directly back to Europe.

Yup. Sapporo was founded by Seibei Nakagawa, who was a German-trained brewer. San Miguel was established under a royal charter from Spain. Both were established in the late 1800's.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:44 AM on June 9, 2016

Craft breweries need to start focusing time and resources on recruiting efforts because from experience 98% of the people who apply to job postings in the industry are straight white men, and if that's the only thing you're doing for personnel (plus hiring friends of your extant staff) that's all you're going to get.
posted by beerperson at 11:44 AM on June 9, 2016 [6 favorites]

I mean, just spitballing here, but it seems like anyone who actually is able to start a small business is probably starting from a place of privelege.

I know I bring this up in every one of those threads...

But that is only true if you limit "starting a small business" to a pretty narrow definition. Every immigrant who prints up business cards and cleans houses for a living has started a small business. Same with every small landscaping crew, house painter, one-person-and-a-truck carpet cleaner, or barbecue trailer. Every African hair braiding salon, tiny hole-in-the-wall-restaurant, in home day-care. These are all small businesses, almost all started by people who would not be relying on a lot of privilege (at least in the US) and these small businesses far outnumber microbreweries by many orders of magnitude.
posted by antimony at 11:51 AM on June 9, 2016 [30 favorites]

"African/Asian people didn't brew beer until colonialism"

Beer is neolithic. We had beer before white people existed.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 11:55 AM on June 9, 2016 [11 favorites]

I'd guess that opening a brewery is one of the more challenging small businesses to start. You need to juggle investments in equipment and rented space while managing the process of obtaining the right local, state and/or federal permits, a process whose completion date is pretty hard to predict. So maybe you're already paying a lease and a loan for equipment (and you've quit your "day job") but you can't actually start brewing until the paperwork settles.

That's why contract brewing exists!
posted by beerperson at 11:57 AM on June 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

I'm also mixed on the "African/Asian people didn't brew beer until colonialism" part. I'm kind of skeptical, but I honestly don't know anything about beer/alcohol making or its history.

Beer has been around since the dawn of civilization. It's not like it was invented by Europeans. Forms of it have been brewed all over the place. But I think the definition of beer has kind of changed to exclude beverages that aren't similar to the European style made with malt, yeast, and hops. Before the craft movement the definition may have been on the way to narrowing down to just meaning pale lager in the US. My hope is the craft movement continues to try and innovate and expand what people see as a beer. Trying new things is what makes craft beer a fun hobby for me. Elitism, snobbery, and high prices do not. And let's face it, craft beer's best accomplishments as a movement so far have been resurrecting mostly forgotten styles...not making up new ideas all on their own. Reach out here and around the world more and see if there is anyone you want to partner with to do something most North American beer drinkers haven't seen before. Working together with a diverse group of people is good for creativity and it's good for business.

Anyway, pale lager has had consistent global success after Europeans introduced it for a reason. A lot of people see it as pretty much the ideal style, even when made with additional ingredients beer snobs don't like such as corn or rice. It's tasty and light. It's not too sweet or bitter. It's refreshing. It has an attractive golden, bubbly appearance. It's usually mass produced and cheap but given prestige or an identity of some form through branding. It's very pleasant to drink. It's an incredible luxury. I don't blame anybody for looking at the sometimes snobby craft beer movement and saying they already have their beer needs handled with a pale lager.
posted by Drinky Die at 12:03 PM on June 9, 2016 [15 favorites]

Beer is neolithic. We had beer before white people existed.

Sumerians and Egyptians were brewing beer many centuries before Central Europeans did, so canonically, Asian and African people have been brewing beer since *they* invented it.
posted by sukeban at 12:04 PM on June 9, 2016 [14 favorites]

First Michael LeBlanc, co founder of the now-defunct Brothers Brewing Company of Oakland, CA deserves a shout out.

Meanwhile, why are northeastern diners so Greek? Why is motel ownership so Gujarati? Why is sailing so WASPy?

There are certain parts of the economy that need more racial and socio-economic integration, because of the economic and cultural opportunities these fields provide, giving those with access to those fields more economic prosperity and more presence in our national culture. These include public sector jobs, health care, the technology industry, finance, and teaching.

However, niche economic fields that have few to no economic advantages over other fields will always be dominated by people already well connected in that niche. You can take up a hobby of beer tasting, or you can take up a hobby doing something your close friends and family are involved in. You can open up a brewery, or you can start a small business where you have family and friends who have background and experience to give you advice and opportunities in the field.

If an industry is risky and not an order of magnitude more well paying than the alternatives and one you have few connections in, you're not going to participate.
posted by deanc at 12:16 PM on June 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

Beer culture, like golf and mayonnaise appreciation, is one of those things that you think of as being extremely white until you spend fives minutes hanging out with a group of Korean dudes.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 12:29 PM on June 9, 2016 [16 favorites]

If you have any interest at all in the history of beer, you should check out The Comic Book Story of Beer.
posted by BWA at 12:33 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

Maybe PoC steer clear of things that have Purity Laws?
posted by srboisvert at 12:42 PM on June 9, 2016 [5 favorites]

I suspect the demographics of Craft Beer are actually quite representative of the socio-economic bracket that can afford it?
- ie isn't the "somewhat wealthy" middle-class disproportionately white across all of north America?
I mean we are not talking about the 1%, at least in the UK the Craft Beer drinkers are the hip young urban professionals.
posted by mary8nne at 12:58 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

I suspect the demographics of Craft Beer are actually quite representative of the socio-economic bracket that can afford it?

No.
posted by beerperson at 1:00 PM on June 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

Annie Johnson previously in race-and-beer-filter.

Not only were Sumerians and Egyptians brewing beer thousands of years ago but speaking of demographics, as jedicus pointed out in that thread it was women who brewed it through most of history. In fact Kug-Bau, the only monarch known to be a woman in the Sumerian King List, was a brewer.
posted by XMLicious at 1:02 PM on June 9, 2016 [6 favorites]

I suspect the demographics of Craft Beer are actually quite representative of the socio-economic bracket that can afford it?

Considering the neighborhood I live in and how much shelf space the beer takes up in my otherwise very shitty local supermarket, they are almost definitely not stocking any of that beer for hipsters and yuppies or whatever.

And while there's obviously no upper limit on pricing, around here a six pack of e.g. Corona is not considerably more expensive than a six pack of any given craft beer they're currently stocking.
posted by griphus at 1:14 PM on June 9, 2016

98% of the people who apply to job postings in the industry are straight white men

Not surprising at all. I have poc friends who are amazing homebrewers and could certainly hold their own in the industry. They're knowledgeable, geeky, and make damn fine beer. They're just 1) in other industries they've been culturally steered toward, like science, where raw talent and success are more closely linked, and 2) never had it on their radar as "I could do this with my life and be taken seriously and be successful." There's an aspect of major risk-taking involved that many poc can't afford, and have been taught to avoid by their family and circles.

It also comes right down to something that applies across the board: never underestimate the outsized confidence of mediocre white men.
posted by naju at 1:29 PM on June 9, 2016 [5 favorites]

i am taking resumes
posted by beerperson at 1:32 PM on June 9, 2016 [4 favorites]

This isn't about beer, lots of folks of all shapes and sizes like beer; this is about craft beer, which, because the key elements are a northern european rhizome called HOPS and predominantly northern european YEASTS which ferment over a temperature range found in northern europe, is, culturally northern european in nature.
It's not much different, other than scale, than yankee woodworking, or bespoke blacksmithing, in that it speaks to a by-gone age that some hobbyists want to re-create.
The fact that 1) it's popular and very marketable and 2) prohibition created a vacuum that took decades to fill, largely in the form of homebrewers pushing into the market by having laws changed and then scaling up, has resulted in the current boom. but it really has been a white european male hobby/business for most of craft beer's history.
posted by OHenryPacey at 1:34 PM on June 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

Why aren't there more white people opening Sichuanese restaurants?

yeah, this is a totally bullshit understanding r history of Chinese restaurants in the US. food might be a cultural thing but Americanized Chinese food emerged directly out of racist exclusionary practices that forbade Chinese immigrants on the West Coast from owning or opening storefronts that were seen as 'respectable', instead forcing those immigrants to do 'lowly' work that was typically associated with femininity (ie food service and clothes washing)

most of that food, too, ended up being tailored to Western tastes too, for economic reasons

the Search for General Tso's covers this fairly well. the argument that class, race, or privilege has nothing to do with these restaurants, that they arose whole cloth via purely cultural means is a really vapid understanding that ignores the racism lurking underneath

if you want a fair criticism, you just have to look at where most Americanized Chinese restaurants are opened (lower income areas), who they're run by (immigrants with capital and education) vs who opens Asian fusion places (white) and where those exist (gentrified areas)
posted by runt at 1:52 PM on June 9, 2016 [8 favorites]

Just dropping in to offer a counterexample - it's a drop in the ... barrel ... but still. It's local to Denver, CO, if any of you feel like patronizing it.

http://comradebrewing.com/meet-the-cabinet/
posted by aperturescientist at 1:52 PM on June 9, 2016

This reminds me of the argument--valid in some contexts--that things like LGBT pride events are exclusionary to non-LGBT camps. It's not active exclusion, but it's noticeable and begs the question: if we want diversity, and diversity means inclusion of groups that are outside the explicit 'label range' of an event, how... do... we.... do... that? It's not gay privilege, it's a social inclusion challenge.

Beer ad campaigns that seek to speak to minorities seem to be, at best, a rarity. (from TFA)

This is a place I can think to start. This is the nutshell.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 1:54 PM on June 9, 2016

It seems that the Moonshine industry suffers the same malady.
posted by bitdamaged at 2:03 PM on June 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

...Craft beer really is just something of a luxury.

Like many things in North America, beer--and even more so craft beer following in the footsteps of big beer--emerged from a place of privilege, both in the physical, geographical sense and in the symbolic sense: The interesting and locally-made products craft beer fans love are typically borne of beer-makers who still enjoy privileges that are not yet enjoyed by everyone.

A lot of the culture of craft beer (and, truth be told, of the current food and drink industry) has massive overlap with geek culture, and there's a lot that is luxurious about geek culture. That is, it was easy to invest in a subculture once basic and secondary needs were met. Obsessive followings of TV shows or computer developments or gaming developments could best be done when living in a place of privilege, and that was traditionally the home of geek culture. Fortunately, geek culture has lost its subculture status and is becoming mainstream culture. It's no longer just the home of a privileged, largely white, largely straight, and largely male crowd, and quite frankly, geek culture is all the better for it. It still needs to adjust to no longer being the underdog, but that's a post for another day.

Craft beer culture has not yet gone through such a change. Sure, there's 4500+ breweries in the US, which is the most in the country's history, and depending on how you define craft beer, it holds 12.2% of the market (as of 2015). I still see a lot of the craft beer M.O. as not yet going through the wrenching drama that you're finding in the geek culture world, and perhaps that's good. I personally don't know if craft beer can or should handle a GG equivalent. That being said, articles like what Kitteh has posted show that great questions are being asked. Can the craft beer crowd be comfortable accepting the possibility that their product is a luxury item? Perhaps, once they get back from their $50 beer pairing dinner, they'll think about it.
posted by stannate at 2:26 PM on June 9, 2016 [4 favorites]

Micro-giant Surly from MN is a bit of an exception in that the founder is the son of a Pakistani immigrant. Not an exception in that the brewery was founded in dad's old factory.
posted by Ber at 2:43 PM on June 9, 2016 [4 favorites]

I mean I personally know four head brewers who are women but anecdotes don't have much to do with the overwhelming homogeneity of the industry.
posted by beerperson at 2:53 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

yeah, this is a totally bullshit understanding r history of Chinese restaurants in the US. food might be a cultural thing but Americanized Chinese food emerged directly out of racist exclusionary practices that forbade Chinese immigrants on the West Coast from owning or opening storefronts that were seen as 'respectable', instead forcing those immigrants to do 'lowly' work that was typically associated with femininity (ie food service and clothes washing)

most of that food, too, ended up being tailored to Western tastes too, for economic reasons

the Search for General Tso's covers this fairly well. the argument that class, race, or privilege has nothing to do with these restaurants, that they arose whole cloth via purely cultural means is a really vapid understanding that ignores the racism lurking underneath

if you want a fair criticism, you just have to look at where most Americanized Chinese restaurants are opened (lower income areas), who they're run by (immigrants with capital and education) vs who opens Asian fusion places (white) and where those exist (gentrified areas)

Slothrup said Sichuan restaurants, which don't really fall under any of the points you made. American-Chinese food (and British-Chinese, Irish-Chinese etc) is based on Cantonese food because that's where most immigrants were from. Sichuan food is radically different and is definitely seen as more adventurous due to its extreme spice levels. Here in Ireland (and I've lived in America and gone to Sichuan restaurants in SF etc which weren't that different) Sichuan restaurants are overwhelmingly owned by recent immigrants, their menus don't make concessions to Western tastes, and pretty much 100% of their non-Chinese clientele are middle class.

But back to the OP, if POC don't want to produce or consume over-hopped, overpriced hangovers in a bottle with cringey names, more power to them.
posted by kersplunk at 2:57 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

This topic is an anecdote zone. Oh well, anyway, the US was invaded by crappy diluted tasting beer a half-century ago. No need to go racial on this, most people were drinking the Anheiser and Miller Light and their diluted, shitty-tasting ilk most of that time (while most coffee drinkers were guzzling Hills Brothers and Folger's ... 'the richest kind', the adverts crooned) for lack of alternatives. Meantime, Canadian beer was the far superior go-to alternative if you lived near the border and went over there to get it (but not so much the imported stuff). ('Velvet Cream Porter' ... mmmmm!)

Since Americans got the right to make 100 gal per year per adult, I'm pretty sure that a few of them actually learned to make good beer. The 'horsepiss' from the major breweries was easy enough to beat for the smart and/or competitive.
posted by Twang at 3:06 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

Micro-giant Surly from MN is a bit of an exception in that the founder is the son of a Pakistani immigrant. Not an exception in that the brewery was founded in dad's old factory.

There are other POC brewers (and at least one distiller) in MN, and at least one of them managed to do what he did by keeping his day job and having a working spouse.

But, overall the craft beer scene here is a very white community in a very white place. And as a POC who is pretty into craft beer, I can't say that there's anything in particular that makes me feel unwelcome in the hobby/scene/business (being female is probably worse), so I have a hard time coming up with what the solution is.
posted by sparklemotion at 3:09 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

The writer is based in Ontario, and it's interesting that there are no BC-based microbreweries on his list of craft beer makers. BC has the most vibrant craft beer scene in Canada (Ontario is hobbled by the province's archaic liquor control laws) so I do wonder how much he really knows about the subject of craft beer in Canada.

To be sure, craft beer, and the love of craft beer, is a very white thing. On the other hand, it would be great to hear from people who actually identify as "Asian" or as "black" in Canada (in Ontario or BC or other places) to discuss their experiences. A blogger who self-identifies as "white" from the relative isolation of Ontario may not be the best person.

Victoria, BC (a very "white" city, although to call Victoria "white" is to ignore the many cultures that make up the city) has a vibrant craft beer scene, and it's developed pretty much alongside Victoria's booming tech scene. Indeed, small-scale microbreweries like Category 12 (Category 12 is based in a small rented space in an industrial park) receive investment from tech investors in town. But Driftwood (producer of BC's best craft beer, Fat Tug), Hoyne and even Phillips all started out as very small-scale.

The barriers to entry are not insurmountable. One of the problems with Ontario is over-regulation, plus the limited ability for small-scale breweries to actually market their product on government liquor store shelves. BC has largely solved that problem.

To put it another way, craft breweries are representative as a whole of the "whiteness" of startup culture. Typically when starting up any venture, besides "bootstrapping", founders are expected to raise capital from "friends and family" (a specific and regulated class of investors) first.

If you don't have that personal or professional network of "friends and family" (that is, if your social circle does not include people knowledgeable about the risks in investing in the early round of a startup) then you are going to have a harder time launching a startup.

But there are plenty of tech or conventional startups launched by "visible minorities" (i.e., "non-white") in British Columbia.

So maybe non-white Canadians simply don't buy the hype about beer? I like beer, and I am happy to drink locally produced brews, notably Fat Tug, Spinnaker's Kolsch and Hoyne Pilsner, but I really prefer wine.

The amount of pretentious hype surrounding craft beer is preposterous, and maybe "non-white" Canadians are just not buying it.
posted by My Dad at 3:29 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

In my experience, craft beer festivals tend to have tons of Very White People in attendance both as Brewers and as drinkers, and I am speaking of my adult life spent entirely in Japan
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:33 PM on June 9, 2016 [7 favorites]

I do wonder how much he really knows about the subject of craft beer in Canada.

This about sums it up - this is an interesting question, I suspect (but do not know for sure) that it has a pretty predictable answer and this is not a very well-written article.
posted by GuyZero at 3:43 PM on June 9, 2016

and stop putting so much hops in everything

No! More hops!
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:00 PM on June 9, 2016 [5 favorites]

Oh, just go eat a grapefruit
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:10 PM on June 9, 2016

Soon as they breed a grapefruit that's 6.8% ABV I will be right up in it.
posted by turbid dahlia at 4:43 PM on June 9, 2016 [9 favorites]

You get a syringe and a bottle of Everclear and a grapefruit...
posted by GuyZero at 4:47 PM on June 9, 2016 [9 favorites]

...Craft beer really is just something of a luxury.

I refill a growler every Saturday at Dryhop in Chicago for $7 with their growler special. That's closing in on mass produced lager prices.
posted by srboisvert at 4:54 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

I had a look for stats online about ethnic diversity in brewing in Canada. Unsurprisingly, I found none. But I did find a few interesting things about Canadian brewing... This infographic from the National Post and this fairly detailed statistical breakdown of the brewing industry in Canada [PDF].

Despite our "over regulation" here in Ontario which is changing, ever so slowly, I've had the perception that a lot of breweries have popped up recently - for instance in my general area (outside of Toronto) 4 or 5 have opened up in the last 2 years. From the linked PDF, it says that Ontario doubled its licensed breweries from 70 in 2009 to 140 in 2014! BC jumped from 50 to 100, Quebec from 90 to 140. That's definitely an explosion of beer. I've also noticed an increasing amount of distilleries opening up as well. So something is changing there.

For me, I think something that makes it difficult for a beer connoisseur to truly appreciate the diversity of craft beer across Canada is the lack of wide distribution (I assume it is Canada's perennial problems of high transportation costs, low population density, and large land mass). BC & the Prairies has a lot going but I never see their beer here. I see a small sample of Quebec beer but nothing from farther east. So yes it becomes pretty difficult to get a full sense of craft brew in Canada when we only have our homegrown breweries to enjoy or examine.

in Chicago for $7 with their growler special
Ha! I just picked up a growler for $16.50 before taxes. And I thought I was doing fine!
posted by Ashwagandha at 5:01 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

Not here. With the deposit, a growler of my beer of choice from my local craft brewer will run me close to $20. Getting another with a discount on the growler I exchange knocks off maybe $5.

Yeah, there has been an insane amount of breweries opening up here in Ontario. The list of soon-to-open places on MomandHops.ca floors me every time. I would love to visit all of them, but I can't because everything is so spread out. But I will be sampling a lot of ones I can't visit on Saturday at Session TO.
posted by Kitteh at 5:04 PM on June 9, 2016

The list of soon-to-open places

Wow, that's a lot. Johnstown? Embrun? Fenelon Falls? Just about every small town in Ontario is getting a brewery.
posted by Ashwagandha at 5:12 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

You get a syringe and a bottle of Everclear and a grapefruit...

But what about when it's time for a refill? Seems like that's just a needle stick injury waiting to happen. Maybe just go for a nice campari and soda....
posted by ghost phoneme at 5:15 PM on June 9, 2016

Even the small town my in-laws live in now have an award-winning microbrewery. It's nuts.
posted by Kitteh at 5:16 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

I used to brew my own beers and I had some peripheral connection to the craft-brewing scene (I actually have a few friends who have started their own breweries).

My belief is that, while exclusionary identity politics is an absolutely real thing, that's not really what's going on here. The truth is that the average person who is really into homebrew is actually pretty lame and would totally welcome anyone from a different background who wanted to join in, simply because it would make their overall lameness less apparent.

I guess what I'm saying is that, just because a hobby happens to culturally hit a bunch of markers that makes it predominantly appeal to lame middle aged white guys, doesn't mean that it inherently has a diversity problem. It might not be that this cool hobby has gatekeepers keeping women and POC out. The causation may go the other way. It might be that the hobby is so boring that women and POC aren't interested.
posted by 256 at 5:42 PM on June 9, 2016 [4 favorites]

I think it's still associated pretty strongly with hipsterism which as a "movement" (if that's what you would call it) is still overwhelmingly white. I don't know why that is. Maybe Wes Anderson films and craft beer don't appeal/speak to many POC.

It's not that these things don't appeal. It's just all of the cultural/social/financial capital required to buy in to the particular tastes, ideas and fashions, and keep up with them, has all accrued to the dominant and privileged class of people that happens to be overwhelmingly white. People with more money and leisure time and networks/friends with same will spend a lazy Sunday getting brunch at the hip new spot and drinking the new local saison and will expand their palate and get more recommendations and then try homebrewing and etc. The non-dominant class is more likely to spend that same Sunday afternoon working the second job, or saving money. It's not all like this but I think this is partly how creative/leisure classes keep being generally affluent white people. Money + time + networks + cultural in-roads. The personal is political. Even something as seemingly simple as beer is deeply mired in this stuff.
posted by naju at 5:51 PM on June 9, 2016 [4 favorites]

dominant and privileged class of people that happens to be overwhelmingly white.

Well yes and no. There's plenty of people of South Asian heritage in the Brampton area (for example) who have money and leisure time but my impression is that there isn't a big South Asian beer culture like there is versus, say, Kitchener which is still pretty German. There's definitely a correlation between ethnicity and economic class but at the same time there are plenty of POC in Ontario and other parts of Canada who are solidly middle-class and have both time and money.

Now, maybe the craft beer scene is exclusionary. I wouldn't know. I'd like to say it's not, but how as a white guy would I really know? Maybe it is. This article doesn't get very far in finding out.

Also, why pick on craft beer brewers? I get the impression that Niagara wineries are a pretty white affair.
posted by GuyZero at 6:08 PM on June 9, 2016

Not here. With the deposit, a growler of my beer of choice from my local craft brewer will run me close to $20. Getting another with a discount on the growler I exchange knocks off maybe $5.

I wish my local places did exchanges, because I have never figured out a low-effort way to get a growler all the way clean. I'd much rather they took care of that.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:16 PM on June 9, 2016

Wow, that's a lot. Johnstown? Embrun? Fenelon Falls? Just about every small town in Ontario is getting a brewery.

While I said upthread that I prefer wine, and I find the whole attempt to elevate beer to "gastronomy" pretty pretentious, I have actually done some copywriting for breweries and for a private liquor store chain that specializes in craft beers, and I've written on the subject for a couple of magazines.

Anyway, the craft beer scene is only just starting to take off in Canada. Although every single small town has its own brewery — or multiple breweries — they're also capitalizing on a large beer market in Canada that has been, for eons and eons, drinking crap. Pure crap. It may seem incredible, but Budweiser is the most popular beer in Canada by volume sold. After that you have Labbatt's and Molson — pure crap. And then there are the budget brews that are pure crap. Even some of the older small-scale microbreweries (you can't really call them craft breweries) are selling crap.

Under the right tax regime, and if given access to liquor store shelves, microbreweries can compete not only on taste, but also on price. And people like beer, and people also like drinking beers that are connected to where they live. Phillip's Brewery in Victoria is a prime example of that.

So there is room to expand. People don't want to drink crap... if they can purchase a unique product at a competitive price.

I can buy a sixer of Spinnaker's Kolsch — a purely refreshing beer on a hot summer evening — for ten bucks. A sixer of Kokanee or Stella is going to cost thirteen to fifteen bucks in British Columbia.

But it's the tax regime and market access in BC (not sure about other provinces, except Ontario) that allows this to happen. There is still a lot of room to grow.
posted by My Dad at 6:19 PM on June 9, 2016

I came in here thinking this was about weiss beer.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 6:27 PM on June 9, 2016 [3 favorites]

If I was a craft brewer, I'd make a Rocky Horror weiss beer called "Janet".
posted by I-baLL at 6:56 PM on June 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

In light of this FPP, I think I would call mine 'Weiss Man's Burden'.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 6:59 PM on June 9, 2016 [7 favorites]

Vice District Brewing, the closest brewery to my condo, deserves a shout out in this thread.
posted by hambone at 7:06 PM on June 9, 2016

It's not all like this but I think this is partly how creative/leisure classes keep being generally affluent white people. Money + time + networks + cultural in-roads

But prosperous members (or those with more free time) of non-white ethnic groups/social classes likely would not spend their leisure time evaluating beer. Rather, they have some other hobby/interest/pastime doing something else, which almost certainly provides comparable personal benefits and enjoyment.

Just because craft brewing is a pastime and interest of white people doesn't imply that it is necessary better or a more advantageous pastime for people to engage it. It just means that it is one that provides certain psychic benefits for that group, and there are some other pastimes preferred by people who do other things, whether that's motorcross or square dancing or whatever.

I think the sort of self evaluation of the craft brewing community is a good thing in that people are asking themselves whether they are doing anything to alienate other people. At the same time, it is a self absorbed question, effectively asking, "Craft brewing is SO AWESOME that EVERYONE would want to do it, if only they knew about it!" Quite possibly that's not true and people are only into craft brewing because their friends are and they aren't really aware of possible alternatives, and they wouldn't want to get involved in those alternatives because they like craft brewing and their craft brewing friends, and people with other interests feel the same way about their own interests, compared to craft brewing.

(Also that annoying obsession with coming out with the next "You-Can't-Handle-the-Hops extra-hopped hop-lover's IPA" that all the craft brew crowd is fixated on)
posted by deanc at 7:31 PM on June 9, 2016

(Also that annoying obsession with coming out with the next "You-Can't-Handle-the-Hops extra-hopped hop-lover's IPA" that all the craft brew crowd is fixated on)

Wait, I thought we were on to sours now.

I'm currently sipping on my very first gose from Reuben's Brews, which is neither as awesome nor as terrible as goses are made out to be.
posted by Existential Dread at 8:14 PM on June 9, 2016 [3 favorites]

Funny, the San Diego Union Tribune just published an article on this topic too: The Unbearable Whiteness of Craft.

It's got some actual stats on craft consumers, but I think the most interesting part is where it talks about a local Latino-owned brewery that brews Mexican-influenced beers (with hibiscus, or horchata, or Mexican chocolate) as well as the growing craft beer scene in Baja. It touches a little bit on the gender gap as well. It's not perfect around here, but it sounds like we're doing better than a lot of places. I wonder why that is...
posted by natabat at 8:25 PM on June 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

Vice District Brewing, the closest brewery to my condo, deserves a shout out in this thread.

Hey yeah I know those guys and they are great and it should be mentioned that their current head brewer is a super cool lady named Amanda.
posted by beerperson at 9:43 PM on June 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

Weirdly, this article makes no mention of religion. A significant percentage of Toronto's POC are members of (or at least culturally affiliated with) religions that don't drink alcohol.

Not trying to suggest there's no privilege or racism involved in the reasons why some POC aren't involved in the industry, but there's a weird white-centricness to the assumption that if we just hadn't screwed it all up in the marketing, of course all POC would be clamouring to share in our white-ass hobby industries.
posted by jacquilynne at 5:50 AM on June 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

Oh, just go eat a grapefruit
posted by DoctorFedora

Soon as they breed a grapefruit that's 6.8% ABV I will be right up in it.
posted by turbid dahlia

Brew Dog - Elvis Juice
Highwire - Grapefruit

Both great in their own way, but not exactly 6.8%ABV! I waver between which one I prefer, but usually Elvis Juice wins.

Northern Alchemy Marmalade and Assam Tea IPA is also fantastic, while we are in the realm of fruity ones. Also, blood orange ones are good IME
posted by asok at 6:03 AM on June 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

update: no one has sent me a resume yet
posted by beerperson at 4:28 PM on June 11, 2016

The spirit of Pierre Bourdieu to the white courtesy telephone, please.

(The most hyped brewery in this city of umpteen breweries was founded with money earned through infomercial sales, particularly a well-known acne treatment. The brewery that started it all was founded by a man of Chinese descent who was born in Jamaica.)
posted by holgate at 8:03 PM on June 11, 2016