The law is clear: protect your employees, not a problem customer

He's a regular. Spends money. Knows the beer list. The kind of customer small breweries are told they can't afford to lose.

But the female staff would disagree.

Over time, they start to notice things. Lingering looks. Comments that don't quite cross the line — but get uncomfortably close. Walking employees to their cars when no one asked him to. Nothing overtly sexual. Nothing you can circle in red and say, that's the moment. Just a steady accumulation of unease.

Then management learns something else: the customer is a registered sex offender. His offense? Sexually propositioning a minor.

Ohio beer is the best beer!

For years, I've told anyone who would listen that Ohio has the best beer in America. Now, we have the proof.

At this year's Great American Beer Festival — the country's largest professional beer competition — Ohio's breweries showed up and showed out. Eleven breweries from the Buckeye State brought home 21 medals overall — tied for sixth among all states and marking our best result ever.

The undisputed star of the festival, however, was my local, Fat Head's Brewery. No brewery won more medals than Fat Head's, which took home five in total: two golds, one silver, and two bronze.

🥇 Goggle Fogger — South German-Style Hefeweizen
🥇 Battle Axe — Strong Porter
🥈 Bone Head — Strong Red Ale
🥉 Hop JuJu — Imperial India Pale Ale
🥉 Excursion Journeyman — Specialty Non-Alcohol Beer

🏆 Fat Head's also won BREWERY OF THE YEAR (15,001 – 100,000 barrels). 🏆

Not to be outdone, its downstate compatriot, Cincinnati's Third Eye Brewing Co. won three medals of its also and Brewery of the Year (2,001 – 5,000 barrels).

From neighborhood taprooms to nationally recognized powerhouses, Ohio beer showed that it belongs on the stage with the industry's heavyweights.

So yeah, I'm proud to be a beer lawyer. But even more, I'm proud to stand with an industry that captures the best of Ohio — authentic, passionate, and quietly exceptional.

If you love beer, put Ohio on your map. The pints are top-notch, and the industry's people are even better. The lawyers? Not too shabby either. 😉

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Click here for information on Wickens Herzer Panza's craft beer legal practice (or just email me).

For more info on Ohio's craft-beer industry as a whole, check out the Ohio Craft Brewers Assocation.

The importance of preaching (and training) calmness in the workplace

Until today, I had never heard the phrase, "gratuity riot." I bet you hadn't either.

It allegedly happened in Nashville, where a bartender, pushed past her limit by a bachelor party that ran up a large tab and left no tip, hurled a pitcher across the bar. Words were exchanged, bottles followed, and soon the bar was a scene out of a country-western apocalypse — stools overturned, beer spraying, a shattered glass everywhere.

By the time the police arrived, the bartender was under arrest for aggravated assault, inciting a riot, and destruction of property.

We can all shake our heads and mutter, "What a mess," but there's a real workplace lesson buried under the spilled beer and broken glass.

Strollers and stouts can coexist: making the case for family-friendly breweries

There's a growing trend in craft beer: no kids allowed.

Forest City Brewery, for example, recently banned guests under 16. They cite too many safety issues involving unsupervised toddlers and distracted parents.

They're not alone. Breweries across the country are shifting to adults-only policies… or at least adults-only hours.

I get it. Staff shouldn't have to dodge strollers or play babysitter. And if someone really pulled out a travel potty in the middle of a taproom (as one brewery reported)? Yikes! That's not just inappropriate; it's gross.

Brewing up a tipped wages nightmare

Brewery owners: Let's talk why class-action lawyers are just as interested in your payroll practices as your flagship IPA.

A new lawsuit against a Georgia craft brewery is making the rounds, and it's the same old recipe—alleged FLSA violations in how tipped employees are paid. Don't brew the same legal trouble for yourself. 

Here's what every taproom, brewpub, and brewery owner needs to know to stay out of court in wage and hour lawsuits:

What do dolls have in common with beer?

“Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30.”

That was Donald Trump’s response yesterday when asked about the impact of tariffs on imported consumer goods.

Charming.

But here’s the thing—those tariffs aren’t just about dolls. They hit a lot closer to home for small businesses, like the craft breweries I work with.

I spent the past four days at the national Craft Brewers Conference, and tariffs weighed heavily on every single attendee.

Heading to CBC? Let’s connect! 🍻

I’m in Indianapolis this week for the Craft Brewers Conference — the biggest global education and networking event for the craft beer industry.

It’s a massive scene: 10,000+ attendees, 600+ exhibitors, 100+ seminars, and countless networking moments. It’s a blast — and a lot to take in.

If you’re here, find me at the Start A Brewery Lounge (proudly sponsored by Wickens Herzer Panza).

Hate is winning, and it sucks

"We are so thankful for the community we built together. And we’re confident that the connections we've made will continue to have a positive impact in Marysville. Thanks for 3 whimsical and zany years."

That's what Teddy Valinski, owner of Walking Distance Brewing Co., shared on the brewery's Facebook page on Feb. 25, three days before it poured its final pint and closed its doors for good.

Valinski didn't elaborate on the closure, except to tell The Columbus Dispatch, "Without a doubt, our business was slowed down from the slander. ... It's sad that the attacks made even supporters feel unsafe coming."

Taking from your employees' tip pool? It's illegal

It’s Dry January, and brewery owners are feeling the pinch. You might be tempted to supplement your income by dipping into your employees’ tip pool. That would be a huge mistake. It isn’t just bad form to take your employees’ hard-earned tips. It’s also illegal.

Under the FLSA, owners, managers, and supervisors are strictly forbidden from taking any part of pooled tips. There are no excuses.

A tip on employee tips

Here's a tip for management — keep your hands off of your employees' tips.

A recent case filing by class of employees against a cannabis company accusing management of pilfering their tips. The Department of Labor and the Fair Labor Standards Act, however, are crystal clear: tips belong to the workers who earn them, period.

Tipped wages and sexual harassment

"Are you on the dessert menu? Because you look yummy."

First, ick!

 
Secondly, these are the types of comments to which customers expose servers in the hospitality industry on the regular. In fact, the restaurant industry has more sexual harassment claims than any other industry, with as many as 90% of women report experiencing some form of sexual harassment. In large part, I blame tipped wages.

Long live Anchor Brewing! We'll have to wait and see about its labor union. ⚓ 🍻

News broke earlier this month that Hamdi Ulukaya, the billionaire founder of Chobani yogurt, purchased the assets of Anchor Brewing after its former owner, international beer conglomerate Sapporo, had unexpectedly shuttered the brewery nearly a year ago. Anchor was one of the country's few unionized craft breweries. Ulukaya has said that he would hire back as many former employees as possible but didn't know whether the union would be part of his new operations. If he hires enough of the former employees, however, he may not have a choice on the union. That issue will depend on whether Ulukaya's Anchor Brewing is a "successor" of Sapporo's Anchor Brewing.

Cheers to the CHEERS Act! 🍻

If today's dysfunctionally fractured Congress can agree on anything on a bipartisan basis, it must be a good idea.

Raise your glass to the Creating Hospitality Economic Enhancement for Restaurants and Servers (CHEERS) Act, which Reps. Darin LaHood (R) and Steven Horsford (D) recently introduced.

The CHEERS Act would provide tax incentives for bars, restaurants and entertainment venues to install energy-efficient keg and tap systems. The goal is to help stabilize and revitalize hospitality establishments, which are still struggling years after the pandemic.

Bankrupcy, labor unions, and remaining union free

Fair State Brewing, one the nation's first unionized craft breweries, just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Meanwhile and elsewhere, Aslin Beer Co. just said that it will voluntarily recognize the union petition filed by a group of its taproom employees to join the SEIU.

Evan Sallee, Fair State's founder and CEO, tells Eater than its union has nothing whatsoever to do with the bankruptcy filing.

Join me at this year’s Craft Brewers Conference

If you google “brewery harassment” you’ll polish off an entire six-pack before you finish reading all of the horror stories.

 

🤮 “Breweries named in wave of sexual harassment claims; CEO steps down.”

🤮 “Brewery ownership group ‘steps back’ after sexual harassment claims.”

🤮 “’This behavior should not be endorsed or tolerated’: harassment allegations explored as brewery reportedly closes.”

🤮 “Couple who helped start major brewery accuse owner of sexual harassment.”

🤮 “Brewery founder steps away from operations amid allegations of sexism and racism.”

🤮 “Findings of investigation into toxic brewery workplace are ‘troubling and heartbreaking.’”

And on … and on … and on. It’s an epidemic in our craft beer industry.

Which is precisely why I am so excited to be returning to this year’s Craft Brewers Conference to present, “Crafting a Harassment-Free Craft Brewery.”

Discussing a couple of pay deductions for service-industry employees

Consider the following two policies, which restaurants and bars have implemented to save a few nickels against their tight margins:  

“Effective Jan. 1, we will begin implementing a tip refund for credit card processing fees for all gratuities left on a customer’s credit card; 2.5% will be deducted from your final check-out for each such gratuity paid.” 

 -and- 

“The full value of the check from which a patron flees the facility (‘dines and dashes’) will be deducted from the server’s paycheck.”  

Each of these policies is 100% legal under federal wage and hour laws. (Check your state laws, however, which may differ.) 

Craft beer isn’t facing an apocalypse … but the industry is changing

In addition to running the employment & labor practice at Wickens Herzer Panza, I also run our burgeoning craft beer practice. Which is why a recent article in Paste Magazine — "For Many Craft Breweries, the Apocalypse is Now" — caught my attention.

Here's the author's thesis:

The tragic breaking point for major brewery closures is no longer "coming soon." It's a macabre event that has been framed as something perpetually on the horizon for years, but there's no use in denying it anymore–the great die-off is here. It's now. The culling of the herd is underway in 2023, and simply making great beer is no guarantee of survival.

I wholeheartedly disagree. I do not believe that craft beer is facing an "apocalypse." 

I do believe, however, that a combination of the lingering impact of Covid (staffing shortages, rising inflation, and higher interest rates) plus changing consumer tastes means that craft beer's salad days are over.

So, what does this mean for our industry?

Your business is not a charity

Your customers are not your bank. It’s not their job to bail you out from poor business decisions.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this idea as I’ve been following the recent news from R. Shea Brewing.

Here’s the Cliffs Notes version of what’s happened.

From 2015 - 2019, R. Shea was a small local brewery. In 2019, it opened a much larger, 60,000 square-foot second location, which enabled it to significantly expand its production and operations. That expansion, however, also included a vast expansion of its debt, to the tune of a $2 million SBA loan. A combination of the lingering impacts of Covid, rising wages and production costs, and skyrocketing interest rates have created a situation in which R. Shea in now unable to service that debt.

As a result, it just launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise … wait for it … $2.3 million. Thus far, it’s raised approximately $17,000.

Is this what the future of union organizing looks like?

Last week, the employees of Creature Comforts Brewing Co. voted by a margin of 32-21 to reject the Brewing Union of Georgia as their bargaining representative and for their workplace to remain union-free. The National Labor Relations Board conducted and supervised the secret-ballot election, and the result presumes to reflect the choice of Creature Comforts' employees.

Except maybe that secret-ballot election is not the choice of Creature Comforts' employees?

I fully expect BUG to file a petition with the NLRB seeking a Cemex bargaining order. What is a Cemex bargaining order, you ask? 

Join me tomorrow: Tips on Tips webinar (free)

I spent my Saturday night at 8th Day Brewing Company watching my 17-year-old daughter, Norah, play a killer 3-hour set of music. When we sat down at our table, I was giddy to find the latest issue of The New Brewer, the bi-monthly trade magazine of the Brewers Assocation. That issue features my article on how to legally pay tipped employees.

Since access to the magazine and my article are for BA members only, you won't be able to read it if you're not a BA member (unless you happen to wander into a brewery that has it on display).

I can, however, offer you a great alternative. Tomorrow at 4 pm ET, I'm presenting Tips on Tips: How to Legally Pay Your Tipped Workers, a free webinar for the Craft Beer Professionals Fall Virtual Conference. You can watch live on the Craft Beer Professionals Facebook page or on its YouTube channel.