The early months of the COVID pandemic in 2020 were universally disconcerting. They were especially rocky for Dedrick McFadden, an Army veteran who’d moved home to Charlotte, North Carolina, less than three years prior in hopes of breaking into the beer industry. As the pandemic raged, he also experienced a romantic breakup, and he wasn’t making headway in his search for a brewing job. He’d taken the Certified Cicerone exam in 2019 but didn’t pass. Then he saw an Instagram post about a Beer Kulture’s “This Ain’t the Beer That You’re Used To” Scholarship. It would provide free “Road to Cicerone” books and study materials as well as mentorship for aspiring Black, African American, Hispanic, Native North American, and Pacific Islander beer professionals.
McFadden applied and was awarded the scholarship in late 2020. Before he even began studying with the new materials, the scholarship was “a big win.” Feeling a boost of confidence in being chosen for the program, he began studying in earnest, poring over each book chapter by chapter and spending money and time acquiring even the most obscure beer styles for the tasting portion of the exam. Finally, nearly two years later in September 2022, he had his results.
“I walked into the Certified Cicerone exam and just aced it,” he says. “We got the scores back immediately and I was like, man, this feels good.”
In the three years since the murder of George Floyd sparked demands for racial justice, the beer industry has responded to calls for greater opportunities for people of color with scholarship programs like Beer Kulture aimed at historically marginalized groups. Today, recipients of those scholarships are making their mark in beer and, each in their individual way, contributing to a richer and more successful industry.
Beer Kulture offers several scholarships to advance BIPOC beer professionals’ careers, including the Cicerone preparation program and one that covers the entire $5,000 tuition cost for the University of South Florida’s Brewing Arts Program.
New England Brewing Company and the Connecticut Brewers Guild in 2020 launched a scholarship that provides tuition assistance to African American students enrolled at Sacred Heart University’s brewing science certificate program.
The Michael James Jackson Foundation and its brewing and distilling scholarships for technical education were created in 2020, too.
Graduates of these programs aren’t passive recipients of aid; they’re actively shaping and creating an industry that couldn’t exist without them.
“It’s building an entirely separate new section of an industry, not just diversifying it,” says Jamal Robinson, director of sales and marketing for New England Brewing Co. (NEBCO) who spearheads its scholarship program. He’s also the founder and president of Change in the Air Foundation, a nonprofit that helps fund the scholarship and create inclusive spaces in beer. “That’s the big thing here for the long term: It’s a new identity for what craft beer is, not just a Black version of what’s already there.”
McFadden credits the study materials he received through the Beer Kulture program with making all the difference in his career. The “Road to Cicerone” preparation materials cost $59 each, or can be bundled (up to six courses for $279).
“It’s just knowing the wording, I’m seeing the way [the questions are] written here,” McFadden says. “I know for a fact I wouldn’t have bought those books on my own because I looked at the price and—nope.”
The scholarship sparked a quest for more beer knowledge and supercharged McFadden’s career path. While studying for his Cicerone exam, he also earned an associate’s degree in brewing and distilling science from Asheville Buncombe County Technical College, and completed a Siebel Institute of Technology course in June through a scholarship from the Michael James Jackson Foundation for Brewing & Distilling that took him to Chicago and Germany.
“I was asking, ‘What else can I do to get into the position I want?’ School was one of those things,” he says. “It completely changed my career.”
McFadden now has the job he’d hoped for: Since January, he has been a brewer at Petty Thieves Brewing Co. in Charlotte, North Carolina. He has not totally achieved his dream yet, though, saying he’d still like to open his own brewery in Charlotte one day.
“I want my work to speak for me completely,” he says. “It’s one thing working for somebody else’s name, but if everybody else can do it, why can’t I?”
Beer Kulture cofounder, CEO and president Latiesha Cook says the scholarship programs were designed to create this type of growth and advancement. Beer Kulture’s Cicerone scholarship boasts a 100% success rate; all recipients who have taken the exam have passed.
“Reflecting on our graduates makes me really emotional,” Cook wrote via email. “Especially as I think through our Cicerone candidates and the level at which these scholarships impact their lives both professionally and personally; I’m grateful, humbled and thankful that we get an opportunity to be a very small part of their very large stories and futures.”
Christopher Williams always wanted to attend brewing school. Having a hand in making a tangible product that people consume was what attracted him to beer, an industry he’s worked in now for 14 years. But despite his long experience with cellaring and packaging beer, a brewing job that allowed him to flex his creative muscles and have ownership over the beer-making process remained elusive. He knew more education could be his ticket to the next level, but couldn’t afford it.
“Brewing school is extremely expensive and the brewing industry does not pay that well unless they have a stipend or scholarship to help you out or you’re lucky and [the brewery] likes you enough,” Williams says.
Still, Williams was initially hesitant to apply for the NEBCO scholarship to Sacred Heart’s brewing program. He figured he already had a foot in the door, and he should let someone new to beer apply. But Robinson, a friend and colleague of Williams’ for years, convinced him that the scholarship was also for Black professionals who want to advance their careers. Williams, who was by then working as a cellar technician and brewer at Wormtown Brewery in Worcester, Massachusetts, applied and was the scholarship’s second recipient. He graduated from the certificate program at Sacred Heart earlier this summer.
“This is going to change my life, I know it is. So far things have been changing slowly but surely,” Williams says. He says his coworkers have asked him technical brewing questions that he can confidently answer because of his coursework, and he’s been afforded more opportunities to brew at Wormtown. He’s also been contacted by a few other breweries asking him if he’s looking for a job. “The first thing people look at is what’s on paper. They’ll look at a resumé and see you had that scholarship and it helps. … It definitely puts my resumé out there a little more; people say ‘he has knowledge.’”
Even recipients who aren’t currently working in beer have had their career paths changed by these programs. Rodney Woodard was a recipient of a NEBCO and Athletic Brewing scholarship to Sacred Heart’s brewing certificate program and graduated last year. He’s working in construction while he searches for the right beer-related opportunity. He hopes to find a role, potentially in sales, that uses his previous education and experience in computer engineering, bookkeeping and accounting. Though he hasn’t found it yet, completing the coursework and receiving mentorship from Robinson through the scholarship has helped Woodard clarify his career goals.
“I thought that I just wanted to be a brewer until I got here and realized: I know how to set up charts and accounts. I know how to communicate with people. I understand so many things, so let me readjust,” Woodard says. “I’m looking for that position that will utilize my ability to communicate with people and influence change.”
Robinson has no doubt the right opportunity will come along for Woodard if he’s patient. Much of his mentorship of Woodard, he says, has focused on helping him identify his goals and introducing him to a wide swath of people in and adjacent to the beer industry.
“Rodney is the guy that can walk into any room and get to know anybody. Alright, so how can I introduce him to people who he wouldn’t have already met?” Robinson says.
Many scholarship recipients say the mentorship and networking provided by the programs are nearly as important as the coursework. In an industry famously built on relationships, expanding a job seeker’s contacts can be as critical as financing their education. Multiple recipients of the Beer Kulture and NEBCO scholarships have found jobs through contacts related to those programs.
Esan Guerin and Joanna Mumbey are two graduates of the Beer Kulture Cicerone scholarship who now work at Green Bench Brewing in St. Petersburg, Florida. Green Bench’s head brewer and co-founder, Khris Johnson, is the vice president of Beer Kulture and hired Guerin and Mumbey for production and taproom roles, respectively.
“When Khris emailed me about the job, I could not believe it was happening because it was literally what I wanted to do,” says Guerin, who left a job in insurance the day he received the offer from Green Bench. “The only reason I got into the industry is because people opened the door for me, showing that it’s not impossible to do. I was literally sitting at a desk selling insurance; and the next day I was making beer.”
Mumbey began barbacking at Green Bench while she studied for her exam; after some months away, she’s returned to the brewery—Cicerone certification in hand—as a bartender. Ultimately, she’d like to use her experience in culinary school and as a registered dietician to host pop-up pairing events that center foods from Africa and the Caribbean that aren’t typically considered “beer food” in the U.S.’s mostly white beer scene. During her childhood, Mumbey lived in Russia, Uganda and the U.S., which gave her the perspective that “beer is anywhere in the world.” Long term, she’d like to open a brewery in Uganda, where much of her family still lives. She knows just who to call for help creating a business plan for these ventures: Rob Day, vice president of marketing for Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers in Framingham, Massachusetts, and her appointed mentor through the Beer Kulture program.
“Once again, Beer Kulture has a mentor for that. I know I could reach out to him for advice on getting that down,” Mumbey says.
Numerous scholarship recipients praise Robinson and Cook for being personal friends, mentors and career coaches. That’s especially critical to new-to-the-industry professionals from historically marginalized groups. Research shows that Black job seekers use their social networks to the same degree as white applicants, but that it still leads to fewer job offers.
“I can always email Latiesha and if she can do it, she will. If I need to get in touch with somebody, I can ask her,” McFadden says. “Sure, you win the scholarship but you also meet the right people. You never know what people see in you that you might not see in yourself.”
Scholarship programs are part of a larger push within the beer industry, from individual breweries, trade groups and nonprofits, to increase representation among people of color in beer. Scholarships benefit the recipients, of course, but they also critically benefit the companies and industry that employ them. Repeated studies conducted by workplace consultancy McKinsey & Co. since 2014 show that companies with more diverse leadership financially outperform those with low racial and gender diversity among their leaders. That message has become critical as breweries feel less public pressure to keep issues of race and inclusion front and center.
“It was a very hot topic in 2020, everyone was thinking and talking about diversity in general. It feels that’s cooled down overall while me and my team have been keeping the foot on the pedal,” says Robinson. “I don’t want to say it’s more difficult. It’s just work, really.”
Scholarship recipients vary in the degrees to which they see themselves as part of a larger effort to diversify the beer industry. Virtually all of the recipients interviewed for this article are aware of that effort, but some are wary of being pigeonholed as so-called diversity hires.
“There are a lot of people in the industry who just want to be recognized for their talents. If [scholarships are] what we have to do to bring awareness to it, so be it,” says McFadden.
He says that being a recipient of the Beer Kulture scholarship and achieving his Cicerone certification has helped him recognize the value that he brings to a brewery and to the overall industry. He says he wants to be recognized for those skills, nothing more.
“There are people in this industry just fighting for recognition and a spot at the table. Equality. I don’t want anything that the person next to me doesn't have; I just don’t think I should be denied it,” he says. “I know a lot of people who walk into this industry and have no experience and it’s like: boom, head brewer. But I just wanted to brew in any capacity. I’m smart. So it’s like, can I help your brewery?”
Mumbey also acknowledges that the scholarship and her Cicerone certification have opened doors for her. Now that she’s working in the industry she loves, she’s careful not to shut the door behind her. She especially wants her presence as a woman of color to make other people of color feel more comfortable at beer events and taprooms.
“I definitely keep it in mind every time I have interactions with customers. Now that I’ve been in the industry for a while … I try to make sure I’m not being elitist or keeping anybody out,” Mumbey says.
Words by Kate Bernot