Allow ourselves to introduce… ourselves. Hi, we’re Radical Brewing Cooperative. We are a new brewery founded on the radical principle of leaving behind the old guard of the brewing industry in order to make beer for good. We are guided by the desire to be community-centered while giving workers fair wages and benefits. These are big goals that will take a lot of work, but we’re prepared to put that work in. In fact, we’ve already put a lot of work into our big ideas, and we’d like to start sharing what we’ve come up with.

The beer industry is not a particularly transparent industry. Massive international conglomerates own 88% of the beer market in the US, with about 68% being domestic brands that many know: Budweiser, Coors, Miller, etc. In 2020, craft beer accounted for 12% of the overall beer market. Craft beer is still the underdog, especially with medium-sized regional breweries being bought up left and right by corporate beer. For many years now, corporate beer has been a boy’s club that hasn’t been very good at including people that aren’t white guys. Craft beer proclaims to be “99% asshole-free”, but craft beer hasn’t been very good at including people that aren’t white guys with beards. That kind of attitude doesn’t reflect what is actually happening in the industry and it leaves many feeling like they’re being left out in the cold. What the industry needs in order to move forward is a strong sense of community. A community is best when it has many voices bringing a wide range of ideas to the table.

This brings us to Beer for Good. What does that mean? It’s easy to come up with inspirational taglines and slogans. It’s not so easy for a business to have true intention in its goals, especially in the behemoth of an industry that is beer. However, 2020 and 2021 were years of tangible and permanent change. Workers’ rights, social justice, climate change and equity within the industry have been big issues over the past two years and for good reason. The COVID-19 pandemic illuminated a number of socioeconomic problems not just in the beer world, but all over the globe. The wheels of change have started to turn. There is still a lot of work to do, but there are many clear voices in the industry who are leading the charge to truly make the craft beer industry 99% asshole-free. It’s a movement that has inspired us at Radical Brewing to build this ship the right way. We want to join this phalanx of change and reform and carry the flag into the future. That starts with integrating into our community and putting our time and effort towards making that community stronger. How are we going to accomplish that? We have a log of great ideas that we think will go a long way.

1. Partner with local and regional nonprofit organizations by donating a portion of profits to these causes and promoting them at the brewery.
2. Use best practices in the hiring of our employees and strive to give workers a living wage and competitive benefits.
3. Use environmentally responsible practices in our day-to-day operations.
4. Provide the community with a safe and comfortable space to enjoy a pint and connect with each other.

These are just a few of the ideas we have. We feel that they are pretty radical compared to current beer industry standards. That’s not to say nobody in this space is doing any of these things. There are a growing number of craft breweries standing up for what they believe is right, and we are eager to join them in making this industry something we can all be proud of!