Beer With Big Ideas

“What would it mean to you?,” I asked Charlotte, “If you walked into a supermarket and saw a product with the word ‘queer’ on it, how would you feel?” It would be fantastic, she replied, “because you’d see yourself in that product, and feel validated. You’d want to try it!”

So much of what we do is about standing tall, taking up space, and providing visibility and representation for LGBTQ+ people in and around beer. Ever since our first beer launched in 2019, we’ve seen the power of seeing the word ‘queer’ on tap lists and in fridges; the empowerment and recognition that a little visibility can instil. It’s one of the primary motivations for us to do what we do: getting messages from all sorts of folks who see value in what we’re doing or who feel seen by our efforts only makes us want to grow bigger, louder, and more vocal. 

I asked Charlotte that question because it’ll soon no longer be a hypothetical. From Monday the 19th April you’ll be able to walk into one of 470 branches of Tesco, and find the word ‘queer’ in the beer aisle. This is likely the first time the word ‘queer’ will grace the shelves of a major supermarket.

We’re incredibly proud to be a part of the Beer With Big Ideas collaboration pack, led by our friends at Cloudwater Brew Co. Beer With Big Ideas is a four-pack of collaborations between Cloudwater and Eko Brewery, Good Karma Beer Co, Rock Leopard Brewing Co, and ourselves. The pack comprises three 6% IPAs, and one alcohol-free IPA, all hopped with different single hops: Simcoe, Talus, Citra, and Mosaic.

Eko and Rock Leopard are the UK’s only two Black-owned and -operated breweries, and Good Karma is an alcohol-free beer brand with Indian roots. We are one of only a minute handful of queer-owned breweries in the UK, and are one of even fewer in the craft beer sector. 

Why does this matter? Craft beer as a sector has prioritised diversity and inclusion as a topic of discussion for about as long as I’ve been working in beer, though efforts beyond discussion aren’t as common as the industry would like to believe. Craft beer is still overwhelmingly white, male, able-bodied, straight, and cisgender. It is inclusive perhaps in spirit, though not so much in practice, and its audience and consumer base reflects this. 

By stepping outside of the common routes to market with this collaboration pack, we’re putting beer brewed by people underrepresented in craft beer in front of a different audience—an audience that may feel excluded by craft beer’s homogeneity, or by its insularity. Not only are we putting great beer in front of different communities, we’re also providing visibility and representation on a bigger scale than we’ve ever worked at before. 

If the desire for change and a more diverse industry is as profound as the industry at large would have us believe, we have to approach diversity and inclusion work in a different way: we must acknowledge that the current routes to market and, indeed, the market itself only serve certain communities at present. We must address that, with so much conversation and comparatively little action, other avenues must be explored.

Grocery—supermarkets, convenience stores, corner shops, and other local, non-specialist retailers—is key to this change. These spaces offer craft beer in a slightly more democratised manner: at a more accessible price point, and on neutral ground. As much as we adore independent bottle shops and craft beer bars—and owe a great deal to their championing of Queer Brewing—we acknowledge that people from more marginalised communities may not feel as comfortable. The importance of putting great beer in everyday spaces cannot be overlooked.

There are, of course, legitimate concerns from a number of parties about breweries selling in supermarkets. Independent retailers are justified in their upset when a brewery sells beer in a supermarket for less than an indie retailer can buy it; there is a risk, too, of indie retailers and venues losing custom to supermarkets. Fears of ‘selling out’ abound in craft beer, and, again, with good reason. But the Beer With Big Ideas pack has been carefully put together to not only minimise risk to the independent sector, but to stand to benefit craft beer as a whole. 

At £10 a four-pack, we’re ensuring that we’re not complicit in aiding the ‘race to the bottom’. The pack is, for all four collaborating breweries, the only product we’ll have in Tesco, so all of our other beers will only be available through independent retailers and venues—if, as we expect, this pack excites new drinkers and they want to check out Eko, Good Karma, Rock Leopard, or us, they’ll have to head to their local bottle shop or bar to do so. By branching out and addressing new audiences and communities, we’re committing to bringing new people in. Not only does this bring craft beer to new people, this brings new people to craft beer. By putting in work to diversify the industry, the whole industry stands to gain from it.

Finally, what does this mean to us? 

The idea of this pack going into nearly 500 supermarkets is incredibly exciting. Not only are we presented with the opportunity to break new ground and work to make the industry a better and more diverse place, we’re about to put Queer Brewing, a project about which we care so very deeply, in front of thousands of new people. I mentioned the visibility we hope to bring about through our brand above, but we’re also so excited about the visibility this brings us, and the opportunities for people to find out about what we’re doing. I started Queer Brewing two years ago as a meagre side project, and now we have a beer in a major supermarket, standing shoulder to shoulder with peers we look up to so greatly.

This endeavour will also allow us to grow in unforeseen ways: both Cloudwater and BrewDog (who are producing the beers under Cloudwater’s watchful eye) are waiving any proceeds from the sale of the pack, so all profits come directly to Eko, Good Karma, Rock Leopard, and ourselves. The financial investment in our business that that will entail could very likely allow us to get to work on a brewery of our own, or the taproom we’ve been dreaming about. 

We hope that you’ll stop by your nearest big Tesco and pick up a Beer With Big Ideas pack, and join us in working to make beer a better space. 

Lily x