by afampov · April 6, 2021
March 23, 2021
SPRINGFIELD For anyone interested in cold, tasty beer, here are some sobering statistics:
Out of some 8,000 breweries in the United States, only 60, or less than 1 percent, are black-owned businesses. In Massachusetts, a virtual hopbed of craft beer with more than 200 breweries, only about a half dozen are black-owned. One of them is White Lion Brewery in Springfield.
“The fabric of the craft beer trade doesn’t mirror the fabric of the communities we work, play and live in,” says Ray Berry, White Lion’s owner and founder, who sits on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee of the Massachusetts Brewers Guild.
Joel Macleod submerges a case of empty cans into sanitizing solution before filling them with beer at Brato. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
March is finally here, but Massachusetts craft brewers are still struggling to reach the end of this long, cruel, pandemic winter. We reached out to a few brewpubs, tap rooms and breweries to find out how creativity, community and a getting a lot more beer into cans is helping them survive.
Mobile canners State 64 cans Brato Brewhouse’s N. Beacon Light Helles Lager in a tight space inside the brewery. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
Our first stop was Brato Brewhouse and Kitchen in Brighton where the clinking, whooshing sounds of aluminum vessels being filled with sudsy beer rang in a momentous day.