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So, here’s the all-important question: What can you do? And Hop Culture is honored to announce this pioneering brewery will be our presenting partner for the second annual Queer Beer Festival. Their groundbreaking work led us to name them one of “ The Most Important Voices in Craft Beer in 2020.”Īll in all, New Belgium has made huge strides to support the Queer community. They also started an internal program at New Belgium called with over eighty members that hosts bi-monthly Queer Sips. Most recently, Patrice Palmer (they/them/theirs), a Black, queer, trans intersectional leadership educator, held the position, working to create and manage programs and projects on diversity and inclusion within the brewery.įor instance, brewing a beer called Biere de Queer that celebrated National Coming Out Day, an annual LGBTQIA+ awareness day observed on October 11th, to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people to “come out of the closet” and celebrate their sexual identity. Similarly, New Belgium was one of the first breweries to hire a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Specialist.
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At the time of writing, New Belgium is the only craft brewery in the country to receive this distinction. In fact, last year the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), an organization leading the fight for LGBTQ+ rights and “creating a society where none of us is left behind,” recognized New Belgium as one of the Best Places to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality on its Corporate Equality Index, giving it a perfect score of 100.
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New Belgium is not only one of the world’s revolutionary craft breweries, but also a longtime and ardent supporter of the LGBTQIA+ community. One of those breweries is also one of craft beer’s most prestigious pioneers. An industry that has traditionally been predominantly straight, cis-male, and white saw people speaking out about being more inclusive, crafting events supporting equality, and breweries showcasing the stories of underrepresented communities, bringing justice and voices to those who may not have previously been heard.įor our part, in April 2022, Hop Culture hosted its fifth annual Beers With(out) Beards, the largest festival of its kind supporting the achievements of women in the industry.Īnd most recently, we announced our second-ever Hop Culture x New Belgium Present Queer Beer Fest, aimed at capturing the unique, diverse, vibrant, and colorful voices of the queer community in craft beer.Īll together we’ve seen a surge of Black, Brown, woman, Latine, Indigenous, and Queer voices urging change, bringing new perspectives to the table, and highlighting BIPOC businesses that deserve recognition. Our community realized that beer has the power to create change. The craft beer industry has been called to action. These three words have become a cornerstone for Hop Culture Magazine.įor the past two years, movements around the country have spotlighted racial injustice and police prejudice and acts of aggression against women and minorities.