Craft beer industry seeks greater racial and gender diversity - Lancaster Eagle Gazette

Mark Williams The Columbus Dispatch

Published 8:42 AM EDT Mar 8, 2020

The state’s craft beer industry is looking to increase diversity in the largely white and male business.

As part of that effort, the Ohio Craft Brewers Association put together a seven-member diversity and inclusion committee last year comprising minority and female industry insiders.

But it faces an uphill battle in a field dominated by white men.

One of the committee’s first tasks is to conduct a survey to measure diversity in a more scientific way.

There are no conclusive figures, but “the ratio I see here in Columbus is about 20% women,” said Julia Pikor, co-founder of Outerbelt Brewing Company in Carroll near Lancaster.

Although craft breweries are no longer exclusively staffed with big-bearded white guys in flannel shirts, minorities still see few people who look like them.

“I'm Hispanic, and I'm female, and that's not necessarily something you see represented in the (craft beer) culture in the U.S.,” said Katarina Martinez, marketing director for Market Garden Brewery in Cleveland and a member of the Pink Boots Society, which encourages women to join the industry.

The group held a Women’s Brew Day at Outerbelt Brewing Company in Carroll on Thursday to give women a chance to make beer together and expand their professional networks.

The majority of craft brewers start out brewing beer at home. That hobby requires time and money, making it largely the luxury of wealthy white men, and early craft brewers hired people from their social circle, said Betty Bollas, president and owner of Fibonacci Brewing Company in Cincinnati and the head of the craft brewers association’s diversity committee.

“I don't think there was ever anything exclusionary, but there was also not a conscious effort to welcome other people in,” said Jerrod Fisher, who is black and co-owns Alematic Artisan Ales in Huber Heights near Dayton. “And so I think it just naturally grew out of one segment” of the population.

Others were less charitable in their views.

“In the craft beer industry, it can be very sexist,” said Jennie Koeper, account manager for Lineage Brewing Company in the Clintonville neighborhood.

In practical terms, women said they are afforded fewer opportunities.

“I am not given the same options as men are, and my opinion is not taken as seriously,” Martinez said.

Additionally, beer ads often feature overtly sexualized and scantily clad women, and some craft beers still have degrading titles, said Koeper, who leads the Columbus chapter of the Pink Boots Society. Those images foster the impression that beer brewing is a boys club, she said.

Women also tend to be pushed into certain types of jobs in craft brewing, such as marketing or bartending, said Lori Wince, owner and brewer for Weasel Boy Brewing Company in Zanesville and a member of the Pink Boots Society.

Women and men offer different ideas and perspectives, Wince said. “When you have people bringing different ideas, different thought processes to the table, I think it makes for a more full and exciting industry.”

Bringing more women and people of color into the fold starts with fostering an inclusive atmosphere, Fibonacci’s Bollas said.

“We’re working on a few projects,” she said of the diversity and inclusion committee. “One we've already worked through is a code of conduct as it relates to events.”

Vendors at events such as the association’s annual craft-brewing convention should be inclusive of all races and genders and welcoming to everyone, according to the new code.

The Pink Boots Society raises money to send women to brewing schools and organizes events for women. Those occasions show women that the industry doesn’t have to be a boys club, Martinez said.

“Once people see that there are women and minorities (in craft beer), that opens the door,” she said. “It's very daunting being the only women in a room with a bunch of guys that don't take you seriously.”

Some people of color said they’re already seeing progress.

“I’ve met a couple of Latin people around this industry,” said Frank Estremera, head brewer of Muskellunge Brewing Company in Canton, who is Latino. “There are people from different places and different backgrounds.”

pcooley@dispatch.com

@PatrickACooley

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