With New Award, the Craft Beer Industry Addresses Its Evolving Diversity and Inclusion

While big beer brands continue to wage their various wars, craft brewing, perhaps under the radar, continues its global growth, though the pandemic is throwing a wrench in the works. But the marketing of those handcrafted brews has finally gotten its due with its own awards show, the Craft Beer Marketing Awards (CBMAs), which features more than 30 categories celebrating the best of beer marketing and design and the people behind them. It’s also showing there's diversity in brewing, and not just in different beer styles. The CBMA recently awarded its inaugural "Woman of the Year" award to Megan Stone, a brewer at Societe Brewing Company in San Diego. Stone got into the craft brewing business much as many people do—she started at the bottom, learned from the best and worked their way up. The difference with their journey is that she had to overcome some of the sexism ingrained in the boys club of brewing. The Baltimore native worked at a craft beer-centric restaurant early in her career and later got a job at legendary brew house Dogfish Head, where they found a passion for brewing. Stone's path eventually took her to more craft breweries. Over the years, they have brewed, consulted and marketed for breweries across the country, including Mispillion River, Mikkeller and DuClaw. Last year, Stone brewed collaborations in Panama and the U.K., where she founded a diversity and inclusion apprenticeship with U.K.-based Laine Brew Co. At Societe, she found her calling on the marketing end of the brewing biz. “I was hitting up Societe, begging them for jobs,” Stone told Adweek. “But when I showed up, they said, ‘We'd love to hire you, but we just don't have any remote production.’ But they were growing and they desperately needed someone in social media and marketing, and they knew that I had the experience from my own account and from consulting for other people.” On Stone's Instagram account—which has more than 33,000 followers—she courts diversity as a member of the LGBTQ community in the craft beer industry, spurred by the feeling that sometimes they didn’t belong. View this post on Instagram A post shared by megan ✻ beer ✻ travel ✻ style (@isbeeracarb) “There were interviews where I got looked up and down by the owner, and they asked, ‘Can you even lift anything? Are you going to be good?’ There are all sorts of microaggressions,” she said. When they started raising her voice for equality, Stone gained plenty of support. Now, she keeps sparking conversations to get people to think outside of their own perspective. “With everything happening recently, there's a lot of things that I've shared in regards to racial inequality and social justice," Stone said. "I had a guy message me who said that he was an ‘All Lives Matter’ person, and now he's a Black Lives Matter person. Just to hear that from someone is awesome, because you never know if that person is going to go and impact somebody else." Being a conversation starter has now gotten Stone recognized by her peers, which is something that fueled the "Woman of the Year" win. The first-ever CBMAs were founded by Jackie DiBella and Jim McCune, who saw a huge hole in craft beer awards shows. McCune and DiBella had been to plenty of craft beer competitions that were about the beer and the taste, but none that centered on marketing. “We found that there are so many other people like us who were making the beer labels and designing tap handles—and the merchandise and the branding. We knew that there needed to be some competition for us,” McCune said. The upstart competition—with trophies designed by the same people who created the MTV Movie Awards statues—has so much steam behind it that the 2021 CBMAs will feature winners from across the globe. The awards will accept entries through the end of January. The judging panel, which features Stone and other diverse individuals in brewing, marketing and advertising, shows that the craft brewing industry is changing. Even on the marketing side, the business has become more diverse. “When I started with Jim, it was very strange sitting in a room dominated by men," DiBella said. "But now, when we go to these big beer events, more and more you see women behind the beer, which is awesome. What I always say about this industry is that it's inclusive and that everyone is cool and accepting.” McCune and DiBella are proud of what Stone and other women in the brewing world have been able to accomplish. Jim McCune and Jackie DiBella, CBMA founders. “We’re here to support her endeavors, and equally proud to honor and celebrate the amazing efforts our industry has contributed in our new category for Human Rights,” DiBella said. As the CBMAs expand to include the rest of the world, they hope to find even more women to strengthen the industry's diversity. Stone said she'll be watching as both a judge and a fan. “I seize every opportunity that I can to talk about beer, but also discuss DEI, and the ways we can celebrate diversity, equality, and inclusion for a beautiful, stronger humanity,” they said.