Business & Tech

Is Craft Brewing Only Interesting to White People?

Almost all the nation's craft beer brewers are white, according to a recent story on NPR's website.

Of the more than 2,600 breweries around the country, only a few of the people who make the beer aren't white men, according to a recent NPR blog post.

The post goes on to say that almost all cultures in the world have made alcoholic beverages, but the U.S. craft brewing industry seems to be dominated by white males.

"It could be that beer is like a lot of things in the food industry which, as they grow popular, become very hip, yuppie and white," Babson College food historian Frederick Douglass Opie told NPR.

The public radio network asked a Petaluma local for his opinion: Lagunitas Brewing Co. Brewer Jeremy Marshall likened craft brewing to home brewing.

"And if you look at home brewing, you see nerdy white guys playing Dungeons and Dragons and living in their mom's basement, and I know this because I was and am one of them," Marshall is quoted as saying.

But the post also notes another local brewery, Sonoma-based Carneros Brewing Company, which is owned and operated by a Mexican-American family. The brewery produces a hefeweizen called the "Jefe-weizen," after the Spanish word for "boss."

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Readers, what do you think? Is craft brewing really dominated by white men, or is it actually more diverse than this report makes it out to be? And if it's lacking diversity, why do you think that is? Tell us in the comments section below.


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