7 Ways Craft Breweries Can Attract More Diverse Customers

Craft breweries have been working to create more welcoming, inclusive and accepting spaces. It’s practically built into the craft beer industry DNA. The craft beer industry was supposed to be a better alternative to the mainstream and corporate beer industries, explained Brandon Börgel, CEO/Managing Partner of Temescal Brewing in Oakland, CA, explained: “We could make better beer. We could make better quality [beer]. But now, it's become about culture. We can make great beer all day long, but if we don't have the culture to back it up, that’s another big problem.”

Groups like the Pink Boots Society helped raise awareness about the gaps in gender representation in the beer industry and worked to support women and non-binary individuals in their careers. But the perfect storm of George Floyd protests and the beer industry’s own MeToo moment in 2020 showed that there was more work to be done to welcome more people into the world of craft brewing.

In May 2020, Brienne Allan, a production manager at Notch Brewing, was fed up with the sexist comments she experienced and went to Instagram (@Ratmagnet) to ask: “What sexist comments have you experienced?” Known as Ratmagnet/Me Too moment in the beer world, people across the beer industry responded with their stories of abuse, which resulted in some people resigning or being eliminated from their positions for engaging or turning a blind eye to sexist, racist, and/or other hateful practices towards staff.

Growing the Market for Craft Beer

It’s just good business practice to open up your breweries to the wider community. Börgel pointed out that several brewery owners and other members of the industry recognize that there was a diversity problem in the beer industry. Cis-gendered white men aged 30-50 were predominantly the producers and consumers of beer from the craft industry’s beginning in the 1960s and 1970s.

But as craft brewing grew across the United States, it became clear that many groups were left out, notably women, minorities, and LGBTQ+ communities. Craft breweries needed to start appealing to these groups (and other marginalized groups) for their own success. Jack Dyer, Founder/CEO of Topa Topa Brewing Co., Ventura, CA, pointed out: “It is really intelligent sales strategies to expand our market base to outside of the traditional, bearded white male.”

Four breweries across the US have been working hard to make their breweries more open and welcoming. The breweries have employed a variety of strategies including messaging, mindful staffing practices, expanding beverage options, community events, and even calling people out for problematic practices.

Ways to Attract More Diverse Customers

Improved Messaging
Better Bartenders
Robust Hiring
Broadening Menus
Hosting Communities
Using their Privilege
Giving Back

Improved Messaging

Breweries can start signaling that they are open and inclusive through their messaging. At Englewood, CO based Lady Justice Brewing, their mission statement is “we’re brewing great beer to make the world a better place.” The company is upfront about being a queer and women-owned brewery.

On top of that, they’ve been very vocal about making house rules to undergird everything in the brewery and its taproom. The house rules start off: “Homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, racism, ableism, and other hateful or hurtful intolerance will not be tolerated.” Already people can start to see what the brewery is trying to aspire to right on its website and social media.

Temescal has a credo: “Fresh Beer. No Jerks.” Börgel pointed out that he joined the brewery because it aligned with his own philosophies. But he noted that it’s easy for companies to pay lip service to these ideas (as we saw with many companies in 2020). Having the credo is the first step but a better measuring stick is what the brewery actually does in practice.

Better Bartenders

Breweries are striving to be more conscientious of how hiring impacts their community-base. It’s important to have staff who reflect the people they want as customers. “We really do try to reach out and expand what our beertender troop looks like, sounds like, dresses like behind the bars,” Dyer said. With five taprooms, Topa Topa has many employees of all races, religious, gender affiliations. Dyer noted, “We then think that attracts people into our spaces; [we’re] known as a trusted space where they can come.”

At Temescal, they’ve thought about how the bartenders play a pivotal role in opening up the world of craft beer to its customers. They’ve hired several bartenders without bar experience that they’ve had to train on how to pour drinks, use cash registers, etc.

“I think that’s great,” Börgel, “We don't need somebody that's got 10 years of bartending experience, and I would rather have somebody who is excited to talk to customers.” It’s important to have a place that brings in customers, many of whom may not know much about beer or craft beer, be comfortable asking questions. Some breweries can gatekeep their beers, which turns people off to those places and possibly craft beer in general.

Robust Hiring

In addition to having a staff reflective of the community, breweries need to be aware of who they are hiring and what blind spots they may have. Börgel noted that they needed to cast a wider net at Temescal because they realized that “there may be applicants that on paper or an initial phone call that don't present as well in the way that you would expect, because [they’re] different.”

For Temescal, that means bringing in the pre-existing staff to help in hiring practices. They’ll bring in four or five different people to talk to the candidate and that means he gets many different perspectives about how the prospective employee will fit into the culture and the required skill set.

“I can't tell you the amount of times, not just here, but in my career, that doing that has brought a perspective that I completely missed,” Börgel said. “I don't always ask the same questions that somebody else is going to ask. They've had a different experience.” It makes a better team culture since people have more of a stake in the hiring process.

Topa Topa has the policy that all job openings are internal at first. They want to promote from within, which allows employees to possibly grow into new job opportunities. Dyer said, “we certainly bring people into the fold, and they can work their way up, and they have done that and that's been really cool to see.”

Fostering a great work environment also means treating staff well. Hiring more thoughtfully is great, but it’s important to be competitive in terms of salary and benefits, which helps breweries keep staff on longer. Börgel noted that Temescal generally has few job openings, which suggests that people tend to stick around in their jobs. That’s a testament to Temescal’s culture, hiring practices, and compensation.

Lady Justice (Lady J) also made sure to involve the staff in the construction of its famous house rules. The brewery brought in Ren Navarro, owner of B Diversity Group, a consulting group to make breweries more diverse and inclusive, to help write the house rules, but staff played a significant role in their construction. Co-founder and owner Betsy Lay said, “Everybody had a piece to say about it. Everybody's input went into that document. So right there, that's a document built by the people who work for Lady Justice.”

Lay also pointed out that their brewery also attracts a more diverse population because Lady J is queer and women-owned. “We have a lot of queer people and women who apply to work at Lady J,” Lay noted. “It’s that value match thing where people see a little bit of themselves and what we’re doing as a company and they want to work here.” Having more space for women, queer, trans and non-binary owners has helped foster that community.

Broadening Menus

Temescal Kolsch 5 beer — Kolsch 5 beer photo credit Temescal

In addition to being mindful of staffing, making breweries more approachable means widening the beverage options. For instance, Boston-based queer-owned Dorchester Brewing Company strives to meet the palettes of the people it serves. Matt Molloy, Co-Founder & CEO of Dorchester, pointed out that while India Pale Ales (IPAs) may be popular in the craft beer world, but “a lot of people are drinking lighter beers, and a lot of people want variety and choice that matches the people I’m serving.” Some people may say that young folks are not drinking but he doesn’t believe that, and shares, “You have to have the right thing for them. It may not be beer, it might be seltzer, it might be cocktails.”

Dorchester Spa Day Hard Seltzer photo credit Dorchester

Molloy challenged his brewers to make non-traditional styles, like “What’s Up, Doc?” which is a carrot, honey, ginger saison. He also noted that hard seltzers are popular right now. They’ve added “Spa Day” which is made of lime, cucumber, elderflower and mint. The label shows a flamingo with cucumbers over its eyes and high heeled shoes. “Even our straws are queer,” Molloy pointed out. The brewery has also added more no-proof beverages to the menu.

Börgel noted that Temescal tries to bring a different take on beer; craft beer had previously positioned itself as very masculine. At Temescal, he said that It’s “much less about hops and strong beer, and how many IBUs and overtly masculine names like BoneShaker.” Instead, the brewery wanted to make beers that were more approachable and drinkable so people who were not already craft beer drinkers could come into it.

Hosting Communities

Big Queer Food Fest photo credit Dorchester

One way that breweries also foster a more open and inclusive community has been by hosting events. Molloy has hosted a variety of LGBTQ+ events at Dorchester, including a Bear event, a Lesbian event, and even a kink event. “We have the ability for people to come and celebrate who they are in the sunlight,” Molloy noted, “A lot of these subgroups are related to a basement.” He believes that the kink group wanted to work with him to have a PG-related event, because they are able to celebrate who they are openly in the sun. Molloy noted, “People have come up to me from all these different groups and said, ‘Thank you for allowing me to celebrate my authentic self in your space.’”

Dorchester has also previously hosted Blacktoberfest, which had members of the Black community come out. “They had a safe space for themselves. I think that was probably one of the more satisfying events I’ve ever had here. It was really cool to provide that space for everybody,” he said.

Taproom at LadyJ photo credit TruBluImages

Lady J has also made itself a space for marginalized folks in their community. Lay said that you need to listen to the community. She noted that recently a friend reached out to ask to do a vintage resale clothing market, named the “Fat & Fresh Market,” for plus-sized people. It was not something that Lay had thought about doing, but really appreciated that someone could reach out to host such an event. It was quite successful since it provided a need for folks in the plus sized community to find vintage clothes that made them feel good. Lay explained, “it was something that our community brought to us, and we felt comfortable providing the space for them to do that.”

Topa Topa hosts a variety of events to boost the community. For instance, earlier in 2025, the brewery partnered Runners for Public Lands to host the Trail Running Film screening. The brewery has also partnered with Dated and Faded, a night vintage market for all ages where dance crews and beat boxers regularly perform.

Using Their Privilege

Lady J has been vocal about challenges within the brewing industry. Lay and her wife, Alison Wisneski, own the brewery so they do not have to worry about getting fired for being so vocal, which puts them in a privileged position.

In 2021 when the RatMagnet/Me Too moment happened, Lady J decided to host an event to talk about it. “Nobody else is going to think to host something except for Lady J,” Lay explained, “whether we want to or not, we have to make ourselves vulnerable and be the ones to have this conversation with our community.” The event was so popular they hosted it in a community theatre down the street.

More recently, Lady Justice had serious issues about the 2023 Craft Brewers Conference. It was held in Tennessee, which was increasingly hostile to members of the LQBTQ+ community. They did not fault the organization for hosting it there (since conferences are usually booked five years in advance), but Lay and other members of Lady J were not satisfied by how the conference handled potential threats to its attendees. Lady J asked how the conference was assuring the physical safety of people in space, but when they were told that they’d bring in the police, that did not reassure Lay and other folks. Historically, there has been a fraught history of police and queer people.

Folks still went to the conference that year, but saw a lot of their Black, Brown, Queer friends have damaging experiences at the conference. So Lady J decided they had to do something. Lay explained, “It was one of those moments where [we realized that] we're the ones who have the privilege and the power to be able to write this letter without any recourse against us.”

They’ve been dues paying members of the Brewers Association and believed that they could have a conversation. Lady J published three letters (still available on the website) to the Brewers Association to hold them to account. It resulted in several conversations that resulted in some changes to the association's practices moving forward.

Lay concluded, “things changed because of that. That's a moment that I won't say we're proud of because it shouldn't have ever had to happen in the first place,” but it was a way for Lady Justice to show up as an example of how to address issues within the community.

Giving Back

For some breweries, being a part of the community means giving money to the community. Lay pointed out: “the whole reason Lady Justice started was to let people use their beer money to give back to their community.” When the company began brewing beer in 2014/2015, it was one of the first breweries that donated money to nonprofits. Since opening, Lady J has donated over $60K to nonprofits that empower women, girls and non-binary folks. However, it’s now less of a focus compared to the rest of Lady J’s efforts.

Topa Topa Brewing donates at least 1% of its profits annually to 1% for the Planet, “a global organization that connects dollars and doers to accelerate smart environmental giving. It pairs businesses and individuals with 1% FTP approved environmental nonprofits, creating high-impact partnerships that amplify the impact of members’ giving.”

The brewery also has a special beer, the Dozer Line Black Lager, that is “named after the heroic firefighters who bulldoze firebreaks in the hillsides as they burn” (Topa Topa Facebook page) and the brewery donates a portion of the proceeds to the Ventura County Fire Department Widows, Orphans, and Assistance Fund VCFD WOAF Auxiliary in memory of former VC Fire Department Dozer 12 Swamper, Zack Gregson. Since Topa Topa opened its doors, it has given over $359,532 to environmental nonprofits as well as partnering with nonprofits to hold events in the brewery.

Where to Start

Just Do It!
Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
Believe in the Mission

Implementing community-focused values is a process. Dyer said that if you want to make your brewery more community-oriented, you just have to get started. It’s important to recognize that “You're never going to be a master at this,” Dyer said, “It's an ongoing journey to continuously do it…and know that there's really no finish line.”

Börgel pointed out that you have to step out of your comfort zone and be curious. It’s important to ask questions and realize that you need to learn more. “The first step is to acknowledge that you don't know,” Börgel said, “I need to learn because I don’t have the answers.” Humility is key, which can be challenging for leaders. So if you want to be more reflective of the community you want, go out and ask questions. Börgel said, “I don't think anyone's ever going to be offended if you genuinely come and want to learn from them and just say, ‘Hey, I want to understand what your perspective is.’”

But Börgel pointed out that you need to believe in the mission. He pointed out that the recent backlash against community inclusion is misguided. There are no plans to change what Temescal is doing to make the brewery more open and inclusive.

“When we say craft beer as a diversity problem, it starts with inclusion of voices that are not currently being talked to,” Börgel said, “If you keep doing the same thing you've been doing, and your business isn't growing, that's not a recipe for surviving.”