Beth Demmon

A monthly column of interviews featuring diverse voices in the global craft beer community.

Monthly column in Good Beer Hunting: Commentary, musings, and hot takes from San Diego-based contributor Beth Demmon.

“It’s very American to have our identities completely driven by our professions,” says Julia Herz.
Herz is both familiar with the concept as well as representative of it. For over 16 years, she was an integral part of the Brewers Association, and for 13 of those years, she served as the face of its craft beer programming. Her responsibilities included writing and publishing content for CraftBeer.com, helping update bylaws and codes like the 2017 Marketing and Advertising Code, presenting at n...

Disasters have long served as a catalyst for communities to coalesce around a common goal. In depriving us of the connection we’re used to, COVID-19 has forced us to find and construct those communities in new ways.

In so doing, the virus has also shone an unflinching spotlight on society’s racist and inequitable structures and systems. Recent civic uprisings across the country—and the wider world—make plain the urgency of the need for change. Now is the time to confront all the ways that whi...

The Time is Now
“Community” is a word that has become clichéd in craft beer. Its overuse suggests that the industry’s culture is broadly warm, inclusive, and accepting—that it’s true that “beer brings people together.”
But that notion of “community” is being called into question—particularly as it becomes clear that few breweries are taking the time to understand who it is they’re welcoming and who remains stuck on the outside looking in. Since COVID-19 has prompted new calls for “community s...

Lest any business owners still have reservations about the urgency of creating a more equitable beer industry, know that working towards inclusivity is not just a moral imperative—it’s a financial one, too. Ignoring this reality isn’t just ethically bankrupt; it may well be bankrupting.
As the craft brewing industry reaches maturity, the meteoric growth in production volume that characterized previous decades has leveled off. However, up until the arrival of COVID-19, new brewery additions re...

No two days are the same for Danii Oliver. She’s the owner and brewer at Brooklyn’s Island to Island Brewery as well as a homeschooling mother of two. Like many parents who are also small business owners, Oliver’s life isn’t neatly separated into “work” and “family,” which means her kids are beside her every step of the way.
“My children are my coworkers. They are where I am,” explains Oliver. “Breweries are classrooms. They are laboratories. They are places where people come together.”
She l...

For just about every business, industry and individual, 2020 forced long-simmering issues to a boiling point. The beverage industry, like so many others, had to react quickly to address shutdowns, sheltering in place and supply shortages, all while confronting the burgeoning social justice movement and cries for accountability after years of exclusion, inequity and prejudice.
Some beverage segments have responded quicker and more deftly than others, and while contrasting the approaches of win...

At the end of every year, it’s common for publications to put together roundups of notable people who’ve made their mark: who you should read, who you should listen to, who you should follow on social media, and so on. And every year, while those mentioned absolutely merit recognition for their work, some people also deserving of attention inevitably get missed. Any list covering the craft beer industry that doesn’t i...

“Sometimes you want to go / Where everybody knows your name / And they're always glad you came / You want to be where you can see / Our troubles are all the same / You want to be where everybody knows your name.”

The theme song from Cheers has never quite landed the way it does now—weeks into COVID-19-induced quarantines, when imposed isolation has deepened into deprivation. Following its sudden arrival several months ago, the virus has since brought the entire world to a collective halt. Wit...

For the Eat the World feature in Saveur's "Growers" issue.
"Overshadowed by high-end viticulture, the art of growing hops for beer might not always get the recognition it deserves."

Julia Herz has been a notable figure in craft beer for nearly two decades. Much of that time was spent as the face of the Craft Beer Program at the Brewers Association. Her diminutive stature contrasts with her comparatively monumental influence in the industry: in that role, she was a familiar face at beer festivals and conferences like the Craft Brewers Conference and BeerNow Conference; she helped helm online publications like CraftBeer.com; and even wrote a 2015 book with Gwen Conley titl...

Stephanie Grant has an infectious positivity. You can’t help but enjoy watching her cook amazing meals on her Instagram stories; or celebrating Black women in beer in her newsletter, The Share; or scrolling through her vibrant photographs. Her projects and pursuits all seem to radiate joy. But Stephanie’s not afraid of getting real—far from it.
In her latest story for Good Beer Hunting titled “Beyond the Beer — Colorism, Black Pride, and the Black Is Beautiful Initiative”, which was published...

This is the first of a four-part series, one part of which will roll out every quarter in 2021, specifically focusing on how the local beverage industry is poised to change with the times (and with the tides, as is the case for desalination). By examining the origins of our region’s water usage, infrastructure, treatment, cost, and predictions for the future through sustainability efforts and political plans, we’ll begin to uncover how water affects San Diego agriculture—as well as local food...