This feature is part of our 2024 Next Wave Awards.
Like the rest of the world, Garrett Oliver had plenty of time alone with his thoughts in the first half of 2020. With the country gripped by the pandemic and convulsing from the murder of George Floyd, he found himself pondering his own place in the American experiment. What was a brewery’s responsibility to the project of social justice? What about its longtime brewmaster’s?
Oliver, who is Black, is a testament to the career growth craft brewing has to offer. He had achieved sustained success in business, kept a globetrotting travel schedule, and enjoyed genuine fame in the food and drink world. Sure, he is uncommonly talented, and his first-ballot, hall-of-fame career in beer unfolded in step with the craft segment’s explosive ascent over the past couple of decades, rather than the tough sledding of this one. But even though the path he took has indisputably narrowed, it was still there.
Credit: Jeff Brown
Yet in his three decades working as a brewmaster, he couldn’t recall a single Black applicant to work in his brewhouse. Why had no one followed his lead?
Oliver was certain this wasn’t his fault. How could it be? Brewing is highly specialized, potentially dangerous work. He couldn’t hire Black workers just because he wanted to; they had to be qualified. And besides, hadn’t Brooklyn Brewery, where he’s been at the helm since 1994, gone above and beyond its peers in the American craft brewing industry
