Behind the Bar with Alex Morris
Alex Morris was very quick to be at the top of my list of people I wanted to talk to for the Behind the Bar feature. Alex and myself both work in Brewdog bars and we had met a few times before this interview. Alex works in Birmingham and is also the Central Regional Trainer, looking after 12 bars from Leeds to Swansea. She is a Certified Cicerone and has been at her bar for 6 years.
Very quickly after our first brief meeting, and then at a longer training session on cellar management, Alex became someone within our industry who I looked up to and we struck up an online friendship. Our chat was conducted over zoom on the 13th of June 2020, we spent most of it drinking wine and laughing (or cackling as she very aptly described it) and trying not to trigger each other into mental breakdowns about the pandemic.
HAD YOU WORKED IN BEER BEFORE YOU STARTED AT BREWDOG?
Alex: No, so when I left uni I got a standard bar job, but then somebody had told me that a Brewdog had opened and they were selling all of this crazy beer - obviously 6 years ago craft beer wasn’t what it is now. So I went in and had a Punk IPA; I remember thinking that it tasted like sunshine. I used to basically just go in every day nagging them for a job until they gave me one. So yeah, this is my first beer job and then… the rest is history!
Helen: Were you into beer at all at this point?
Alex: No, which is why when you give somebody craft beer who hasn’t had it before and they don’t like it I’m like: “but when I had it it was like an epiphany, it changed my whole life?!” But no I wasn’t a beer person at all, Punk IPA was the first craft beer I ever had.
Helen: How have you found working in beer, have you enjoyed it?
Alex: Yes, in terms of the people I’ve met, the friends I have made and the community around me in craft beer has been amazing. I’ve been pretty much obsessed with every single person who has worked in our bar, they have always been amazing and I don't think the job attracts bad people. But it’s weird how the craft beer community at large isn’t like that to me? It's still very much a white man's world inside of a white man's world and I think that that’s very clear with some of it’s attitudes… but like I said I don’t think I have ever personally been a victim of that in terms of the craft beer circles that I’m in, I think everyone is great.
Helen: I think it’s very much down to where you live, I feel really sorry for people who are in really remote areas and are into or work in craft beer but it’s just old white men; if you aren’t within that category then it’s more of a daunting thing to put yourself into it. I mean our bar (Cardiff) isn’t overly diverse and when I started there was only me and one other womxn working in the bar as well, it has been more diverse in the past but there was a big chunk of time where it was just all white boys.
Alex: *laughs* Yeah, I think in terms of Brewdog they are really good at employing women, they’ve got so many GMs, AMs and high up people who are women, and then most of the time that I worked in my bar it’s been a pretty women heavy team but yeah in terms of racial diversity that’s still a massive struggle I think. How long have you worked for Brewdog?
Helen: Coming up to 2 years
Alex: So on the leap year they shut everything down for Blackout Day and every single Brewdog employee went to an event in Manchester and I made a joke that it was like “whiteout day” because there was literally just me and one other person of colour at the whole thing. I was just like wow, that’s insane! I don’t think the blame is on Brewdog, I just don’t think the craft beer community has made that step yet.
Helen: Yeah 100%, especially in the UK. It’s been really interesting following the beer scene in America, they talk about having a diversity problem and yet I’m looking at the comparison between the UK and America and I’m like you guys have got some really cool scenes and black owned breweries and writers. Even if you were to look at just Wales, it’s not like there aren’t any Welsh people of colour here because there are, but the beer scene is especially white. I wonder if it is because of the lack of representation or if the culture of craft beer where we are hasn’t been super welcoming but I don’t know for sure…
Alex: I can never really put my finger on it either, it’s quite weird so there’s one brewery in Birmingham Digbrew and whenever you go there, their clientele is so diverse there is literally everybody there and I’m just like “how have you got all these cool people in your bar and I’ve just got farting Steve?” You know??
Helen: And you do wonder if it’s purely a locational thing but also I suppose it goes back to the conversation people have been having at the moment of “are you not racist or are you openly anti racist?”. If you’re not openly being like “this is a safe space”, hiring diversely and making that environment then naturally it will just become a majority white environment... because of the fact that the world is built on white people being in charge so it will just happen naturally unless you go against it, otherwise you’re just adding to the problem.
Alex: Of course, and our bar is super diverse now. Literally the entirety of the time I have worked there it has been me and our chef who is Chinese and that’s been it for anybody of any sort of racial diversity but now we’ve got someone from the Philippines, Mexico, Greece, China and me still. And I’m just like “finally, maybe we’re getting somewhere!” so that’s pretty cool. I guess like that’s maybe what you’re saying in that, maybe the Digbrew crowd are coming our way.
Helen: Yeah I guess if people are actively making those spaces then that’s how change will start to happen. That’s kind of why I decided to make an online community because I felt like; if you’re the only person of an entire group of people that you’re supposed to be representing in one place like that’s really hard. Whereas if you can meet others like you who are also doing that in their own town or city then that will be a really nice thing and will help you be more confident.
Helen: I feel like a big thing is happening and lots of things are changing but then also is that just because of the bubble that I’m in? But from my perspective it feels like for the first time a bigger change is coming because there’s a bigger push back and there are people I know who would never have even posted something political before who have suddenly become super vocal and that’s just incredible.
Alex: Yeah, maybe the world will be nice one day
Helen: Definitely, there is niceness in craft beer and I think we need to stick together and help each other.
Alex: It can also be such a scathing community as well, if you don’t say the right thing there can be a big pile on sometimes.
Helen: It is interesting though because unlike with wine where there seems to be mainly a large classism and racism issue, in beer we also have a very specific subset of toxic masculinity in the form of the “whale chasers” and “haze bros”. The gatekeeping isn’t just in terms of discrimination against minority groups. It can be a case of ‘well I have drank some of the best beer in the world and you don’t know what you’re talking about’ which I just find bizarre and difficult because you almost don’t know how to fight against that?
Alex: Yeah that is so a thing, you’re just like “... okay?”. There’s this guy locally who seems to be a king of that faction, and he’ll just scream at you about all the amazing beers he has drank since you last saw him, how much he spent and how much he has sat at home… like I don’t make enough money to listen to you brag about how much beer and money you have... I can’t handle that shit.
Helen: They just make it tricky because when you do attend an event you just feel like you don’t fit it in but you’re not 100% sure why… I could be wrong but I imagine they will just view wanting to be a larger community as wishy washy, “they just wanna hold hands and be friends” kind of vibe and I’m like… yeah that is what I want *laughs*
Alex: *also laughing* Yes! That's exactly what we want to do.
Helen: How have you found doing more of the Senior Trainer (Guide Dog) role?
Alex: I was originally a Guide Dog and then I had to go on a few training courses on how to become a Duty Manager from Keyholder and I think I was just really gobby in those sessions so… here I am? Because I have worked for Brewdog for so long and have been a bartender for so long, it means that those elitist customers or the customers who don’t want to talk to you because you’re a woman, starts to become super tiring. Having this training role has been re-invigorating because I get to focus my energy on my team and other people’s teams and talking to them and helping to make their jobs better if I can. To me that was the next logical step so I’m glad I was gobby enough to get seen.
Helen: That’s the difficult thing often with being a womxn in a male lead industry is that you sometimes have to be loud otherwise unfortunately you might just shrink into the background.
Helen: I remember the first time I met you which was probably about a year ago and you were doing a training session with our Guide Dog; Ben. I was just so excited because I love meeting other womxn in beer because it makes me really happy and I remember Ben saying that you were a Certified Cicerone and I was just immediately like ‘I want to be friends with this person’. At that time I thought you were the first person I had met who was a Certified Cicerone and female - as far as I was aware anyway but then not long after that discovered that one of my friends is. She just doesn’t really talk about it?
Alex: *laughs* Mate I was the first Certified Cicerone in Birmingham, not just the bar but the whole of Birmingham so I talk about it all the time.
Helen: Did you decide to do it immediately after Certified Beer Server? Or did you take a break?
Alex: To be honest I think it’s because someone else I knew at the time who didn’t like me had failed it 3 times and it was more for revenge? I was kind of like ‘fuck you, I’m a super academic person and if you make me take an exam I will pass the fuck out of it’ - but it just sort of happened naturally, at the time there were lots of slots available so I was like I am absolutely doing this.
Helen: It’s not an easy thing to do though, I have found the syllabus quite overwhelming... but since meeting you I have gone out of my way to find other womxn who have done it because even just knowing that other people have done it is a really nice feeling. The pass rate in Cardiff isn’t super high, as far as I am aware there are only two Certified Cicerones in Cardiff and one in Newport currently.
Alex: I can’t really remember much, the bit I remember the most was trying to get my head around the German beers because I was like… these beers are all the same. There’s such minor differences between them, especially if you were to look at it in terms of IPAs, they would just be classed as the same style…
I felt like I was capable of doing it, and I couldn’t not do it because I wanted to know all of the information so I wanted to prove that I could learn it so I did it! The form went round for Advanced Cicerone not too long ago but I don’t think I’m going to do it because you have to sit in a room and be interviewed and that’s my least favourite thing to do, in the world, ever. I have been trying to get Sam (Alex’s partner) to do it though because he has an arts degree and he loves to perform.
Helen: Yes! I am mainly just trying to see if I can do Certified and to just prove it to myself more than anything else, but also just learning the information is important to me.
What do you think your plans for the future are within craft beer?
Alex: I don’t know, my concern with Coronavirus is that my training role might not exist anymore and that’s the bit that I really like... but I don’t think it will exist anywhere because why would anybody spend money on a trainer in these desperate times? So I’m very uncertain about what my stance is at the minute, ideally I would like to look after my bars full time but we shall see.
Helen: I guess everything feels like it’s been paused
Alex: What I like to do most is talk to people about beer and talk to people about their jobs and see if they are okay but like I said I’m unsure on whether or not I will be able to continue to do that.
Helen: Well maybe not right now, hopefully in the future things will level back out again and travel will be less restricted. There have been a lot of exciting things happening online, have you been able to attend any virtual events or tastings during lockdown?
Alex: No, I’ve kind of just hidden from the world to be honest! Actually during lockdown, wine has become my thing… I don’t think I’m at your level of knowing anything about wine, I just pick ones that look like they might taste like cherries? There’s a natural wine shop a 5 minute drive away (Grace + James) so we go and spend all of our money there! I did say to Sam that maybe it could be my new thing that I care about as well. It’s all I have been drinking for the past few months. Although as soon as I got back into work and all of the beer was around me I was like “I love beer, what have I been doing for the past few months??”.
Helen: I have found learning about other things has been really helpful with tasting beer. Not at the same level at all though just a basic understanding, it’s obviously easier to learn about beer when you work in a beer bar because you are surrounded by it all the time. I don't know much about wine to be honest, I also still pick reds on whether or not they looks like they might taste like cherries.
From here our conversation then digressed into awkward interactions with people who sell wine, video games, how male customers talk to us when we are behind the bar (a classic discussion for any women and non binary folk in hospitality), the Sims, Midlands accents, Peaky Blinders and the anxiety of just trying to function daily when in the middle of a pandemic. We also discussed some of her favourite places in Birmingham to drink and buy beer, wine and cider:
Thank you so much to Alex or chatting with me, as always it was an absolute pleasure and a fun way to spend a Monday evening. Next we’ll be chatting to Ren Navarro of Beer Diversity.
