This Is Supposed To Be Fun

There’s bustling in the background — Elm Street Brewing, located in Muncie, Indiana, opens in an hour and employees are getting prepared. Classic rock softly plays in the front of house, but you can hear jazz coming from the kitchen. Yukon, the brewery dog, meanders around sniffing various corners.

Seth started here in June 2016, before the brewery opened in November. He only started brewing in 2015 when his friend, Tyler, got him into it. “I did one home brew, like, 6 years before, and I didn’t like it. What I made didn’t really — well, I let my friends try it and they said ‘It kinda tastes like beer.’”

I’ve worked at Elm Street for 4 months, and known Seth for as much time.

Seth used to work at a liquor store where people would bring in their home brews for him to try, but Tyler was the first person who’s home brew he actually liked, and it all started from there.

“We’d get off our day jobs at six, and then come here and brew until midnight or 1.”

Two years later, and now Seth is the head brewer of Elm Street.

“It’s nice working with your hands...doing a lot of stuff, tasting a lot of things. But I think the big thing is people’s reactions.” For him, the payoff is when someone loves a beer that he made.

“I think there’s a lot of people that would look at [craft beer] in certain ways. You know? There are people who’ll say it’s like a boys club. And, maybe not a whole lot in Indiana, but there are a lot of women in craft beer. But there definitely is this weird mix between like, a bro-y and a nerdy vibe”

“But at least from our side of things, everyone is super nice and super inclusive. People are willing to help out. We’re all just trying to lift each other up.”

He explains to me how some of the breweries nearby help each other out and give each other ingredients and trade recipes for free instead of look at each other as competitors.

“It’s like…a bunch of friends. Everyone is usually pretty cool.”

I ask him if he thinks breweries do a good job being inclusive.

“I can’t think of many brewers, guys or women, who aren’t just like, white.”

“For me, I don’t look at it like such a big deal, cause I don’t really care. Just make good beer. I don’t care who you are. But at the same time minorities and women are pretty under represented. Indiana is a little behind in beer trends and cultural trends in general."

"I don’t know why it has to be that way. I don’t think it has to be that way.”

Seth tells me how the environment of a brewery might affect who goes there. If a brewery is blasting metal super loud, it might drive some people away.

“I think the big thing is just education," he adds, "if you come into it knowing that you’ve drank some Budweiser, it’s like ‘Here’s all this information. Now make a decision.’”

“If you’re very new to it, it’s kinda hard to not be intimidated." He describes that for a craft beer newbie, there are times when someone working in the industry will roll their eyes at you if you don't know something, or if you order a certain beer.

“This is supposed to be fun. It shouldn't be ‘death to everyone that disagrees with me.’”

“You don’t always have to take a beer and pick it apart. I think, especially now, if you’re trying to jump to craft beer without knowing really anything, it’s hard to figure out where to start. And it’s hard to figure out what you should know or if you're gonna ask a stupid question.”

“It’s easier to say ‘yeah everyone is pretty inclusive’ because the people we deal with come in here in a good mood. Even based off of the guys I know really well, if someone makes really awesome beer, but is a dick, everyone would be like ‘screw those guys’. Everyone’s kind of in the same boat, even if we are a bunch of white guys. You know? It’s like, let’s at least be the fun white guys.”

“Let’s not be the angry pitchfork white guys.”