The group is dedicated to expanding opportunities for underrepresented people from brewhouse to taproom.
February 25, 2021
IMAGE COURTESY PITTSBURGH BREWERY DIVERSITY COUNCIL
Pittsburgh is a region teeming with breweries. There are more than 40 independently owned breweries in Allegheny County and a bunch more in the surrounding counties. Despite the numbers, they are, like most breweries across the country, suffering a lack of diversity from brewhouse to taproom.
According to a 2019 report from the Brewers Association, a craft brewery trade group, 88 percent of the breweries in the United States are white-owned. Harris Family Brewery, for example, will be the first wholly Black-owned brewery in Pennsylvania when it opens this year in Harrisburg. The same report notes that women make up just 7.5 percent of the brewers and 37 percent of non-production staff at breweries, yet are 54 percent of service staff in taprooms. The population that typically fills those taprooms is primarily white and male, too.