Maine Beer Co. has created a new internship and scholarship program, seeded by a $100,000 gift to the University of Southern Maine Foundation, a nonprofit that supports the university and its students. The Brewing Up Opportunity program is designed to promote diversity within Maine’s craft beer industry by recruiting from traditionally underrepresented groups, adding racial, gender and class diversity to an industry historically dominated by straight white men.

“The craft beer industry has done a lot in terms of creating jobs and being a driving force in our economy,” said Maine Beer co-founder and USM alum Daniel Kleban. “We have a lot of work to do to make this industry a better reflection of our actual community. Our hope is that this collaboration with USM creates an access point into craft beer and expands the understanding of what a career in this industry can be, while at the same time cultivating the industry’s next generation and changing the narrative of who makes up that community.”

The program’s existence reflects both some of the industry’s major challenges, as well as how some breweries and organizations are meaningfully attempting to confront those issues. The sexism, racism and classism endemic to society at large is also, of course, baked into the beer industry, illustrated by a number of high-profile incidents in recent years that have exemplified more enduring structural problems. But we’ve also seen a more direct engagement with problems of bias and harassment that helped inspire the Brewing Up Opportunity program.

Anne Marisic, head of marketing and communication of Maine Beer Co., points to the work of organizations like Beer Kulture, a nonprofit established in 2017, which creates opportunities for people of color by facilitating internships, scholarship programs, and funding for conference travel and industry certifications. She also notes the influence of Crafted for All, a consultancy launched by Dr. J Jackson-Beckham, who was the first diversity ambassador for the Brewers Association (the nonprofit professional organization representing independent brewers nationally) and the keynote speaker at the New England Brew Summit in Portland in 2019. Crafted for All lists a number of Maine-based companies as participants in their commitment to increasing inclusivity and equity in beer: Fogtown, Maine Beer Co., Allagash, and Blue Ox Malthouse. Bissell Brothers, another participant, hosts a paid “equity internship” for those underrepresented in the industry.

Maine Beer worked closely with USM to develop the Brewing Up Opportunity program. The internship lasts 15 weeks, during which the student recipient will work 32 hours per week and get paid $18 per hour. At the internship’s conclusion, the intern will also receive a $5,000 scholarship.

The program is open to students from a variety of educational backgrounds, appropriate to the manifold needs of a brewery like Maine Beer Co., which relies on a textured network of people with expertise in fields as divergent as chemistry and hospitality, sales and design, and communications and environmental science.

“Too often people feel excluded or that they can’t be part of the beer community because they aren’t technical brewers,” Marisic said. “By opening this up to a wide range of majors, we hope to give students from a number of different backgrounds the chance to see where they might fit in the beer world.”

Sean Sullivan, executive director of the Maine Brewers’ Guild, also sees the significance of pitching the program broadly, beyond just technical brewing. Doing so “puts a big ‘Welcome’ mat at the front door of our industry,” he said. “The best way to attract a more diverse crowd is to let them know, ‘There’s a place for you here. We value your experience.’”

The barriers to access aren’t just perceptual, of course, but also practical. The program is designed to give students from underrepresented backgrounds the funding, education, training, experiences and mentorship essential to success. Andy Osheroff, director of the USM Career & Employment Hub, emphasizes how crucial the scholarship component is to the program, as it “allows more students with financial barriers to consider these powerful learning opportunities.” Sullivan also notes the importance of the funding component, which opens up the program – and potentially the industry – to more socioeconomic diversity.

USM is a logical partner for the brewery for a number of reasons. Its heterogeneous student population makes it a good match for a program of this type. The university is already connected to Maine’s beer industry through the QC2 Lab. Founded by Dr. Luci Benedict in 2016, it provides USM students experience performing quality testing for Maine breweries. It will expand its scope this year, providing opportunities for more students. The Cutler Institute at USM’s Muskie School of Public Policy has a program in partnership with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection in which student interns work to improve sustainability at small breweries. Osheroff says that there are other smaller initiatives in development, matching breweries with the business school and the Cutler Institute. But the partnership with Maine Beer is, according to Osheroff, “a significant boost” to the university’s support for the brewing industry, setting the stage for potential future partnerships.

Arrangements like these can help Maine breweries attract the best talent. And the greater the diversity of Maine breweries – and the people that drink in their tasting rooms – the better it is for the industry, according to Sullivan. Craft beer still accounts for less than 20% of the beer market in the state.

But more than just being good for the industry from an economic standpoint, being welcoming to as broad a range of people as possible is, in a sense, a civic benefit. “I think craft breweries are one of the few places remaining in America where you can feel comfortable striking up a conversation with a stranger,” Sullivan said.

Marisic sounds a similar note: “Our culture and our product become so much richer and more interesting the more inclusive we become.”

Ben Lisle is an assistant professor of American Studies at Colby College. He lives among the breweries in Portland’s East Bayside, where he writes about cultural history, urban geography, and craft beer culture. Reach him on Twitter at @bdlisle.