Behind the Bar with Beers A’ Go Go
For the penultimate interview in our Behind the Bar: Pride Edition Project, I spoke to couple Britne and Caitlin who run the popular Instagram account Beers A’ Go Go. Britne is a Certified Cicerone and now runs their blog full time. Caitlin is the manager at a Japanese second hand fashion store.
Britne and Caitlin started their Instagram blog as a way to encourage more women of colour to drink beer and now have over 6000 followers.
I came across their Instagram over lockdown and really enjoyed their energy and passion for beer. Meeting them over Zoom was no different, they were so friendly and fun to talk to.
How did you both meet and have you always been beer fans?
Caitlin: We met through mutual friends at a birthday party at like a hookah lounge.
Britne: She ended up sitting by me and we start talking
Caitlin: And now here we are, what? Nine years later
Britne: Even like on first dates and things like that we were going to like one dollar Pale Blue Ribbon places or with five cent Sierra Nevada deals. I was a bartender and I started working on a 100 tap bar. I wasn't into craft beer at the time; I didn't know much about it. But from working at that bar, on slow days things they would be like “try whatever, you can just try stuff”. So that's what I did. I was trying everything and got into IPAs and sours, and stouts. From there I started working at breweries and that was it.
Caitlin: Yeah I have always been like a beer drinker. Of course at first it was pretty shitty beer and I always played like beer pong and things like that, I was a college athlete. But I did develop a love for craft beer around 21 or 22. It just developed from there, me and Britney were dating and she worked at the bar with 100 craft beers like on tap and it was crazy. Then they had more bottled beers and weekly specials. And I was pretty much there, like all the time drinking beer for a discount.
Helen: My wife does the same thing at the bar I work in. You have just done a brew day with Indie Brew Co. on their Black is Beautiful beer, how did that go?
Britne: It was our first full brewday, like from beginning to end brew day and man it was it was a lot! I learned a lot, I got paid in knowledge. I wanted to be a brewer but now I want to go ahead and open up my own brewery and hire a brewer.
Helen: Would you open it up where you’re based now or would you move?
Caitlin: We're happy with the beer scene here but starting our own brewery, I think that this might not necessarily be the place to do it. We might be travel back home to Atlanta. Well, my home, her second home but yeah, just because Atlanta is growing steadily and there is so much diversity there. And they have really great beer. I mean, in LA, like the beer scene is good, but I think it is kind of few and far between. You have to travel a lot for beer whereas, you know, maybe in a smaller state, the good beer can really be more centralised.
Helen: I saw that you’ve done some collabs with some beer groups, are either of you in any beer societies at all?
Caitlin: We are a part of a collective that was founded in Atlanta called Craft Women Connect. It's a place for, all femme presenting people or women identifying people who enjoy beer like as a whole. Some societies are basically for people who are already brewers, or cellar people or people within those organisations, not really for people who are bloggers or enthusiasts.
Helen: I think it happens even just as bartenders, there is an element of not being seen as in the industry. Which is frustrating because we make sure that your beer tastes right and is pouring correctly. I imagine it is even worse for bloggers, which sucks for both of you as the work that you’re doing is so important, especially for representation in beer. It would be nicer if more of these societies were inclusive.
Britne: I think they are working on it, I’ve been working in a brewery for a while now and I’m a Certified Cicerone so, they are letting more people in in those situations but…
Caitlin: It’s still pretty exclusive.
Britne: Yeah it is.
Caitlin: The exclusivity isn’t really welcoming, even though I have beer knowledge, I’m a home brewer and a blogger but because I am not working in the industry it’s not for me.
“ Seeing opportunities for themselves, people who are chefs or who have good palettes should know that they can be a part of this life as well. Beer people are the best people.”
Helen: How have you found your experience both online and as consumers as a queer couple?
Caitlin: It actually hasn't been too bad. I think that because we are in bigger cities, everybody is pretty, like open about things. We've even gone to femme centered beer festivals that celebrate women and people from like all walks of life. Those were very welcoming in that sense. I feel like you know, having a decent amount of followers on your platform does have something to do with it. Like with that success is how we're able to maneuver. Overall, it has been a pretty positive experience.
Helen: That is really nice to hear. How do you feel about Pride beers? I’ve been finding that they are something of a divisive topic with queer people in the beer world.
Britne: I think they are cool, I’m down to do one next year actually. I’m originally from Memphis so I have been talking to a Memphis brewery about doing one with them. They have always wanted to do one and they know we’re gay so, it should be cool. So yeah, I like them [pride beers] I think they are cool, I always like seeing the can designs.
Caitlin: For me, I feel like it can kind of be half and half. I feel like a lot of it can be appropriation like just being like “well, we don't want to lose these people's money, so we would like to like make a beer that feels like they're being represented” but they're morals, standpoints and mission like aren’t really for us. But I mean, a lot of times you're able to see those people for what it is and then you're able to also see when people have like genuine motive in doing beers for an initiative. Whether it be pride beers or something like Black is Beautiful. You can kind of see how the different breweries like to maneuver and how they are able to do things that are centered towards an initiative and like what their motives are genuinely.
Helen: And that’s the most important thing as well. More breweries need to do charity work and get queer people in the community to come and do collaborative brews. One of the other problems is there are so many companies creating disingenuous diversity panels and initiatives as hollow gestures. In your opinion, what do you think are some of the steps that you would like to see breweries and businesses taking?
Caitlin: I don't really want to say inclusion, but if you have people who are queer on staff or if you have people who are of a different ethnicity, don't just like let them be the token person, and let them have some say or involvement. And just because it is pride does not mean you have to put rainbows on everything, you can give it a different name and it doesn't have to be a super appropriative approach. Your proceeds can go to your nearest, LGBTQ shelters it can go towards, you know, diversity and inclusion in your staff, it can go towards a number of things that I feel like people don't really necessarily want to throw the money at first. They want to throw it on the can design and be like, we painted this, or we had this up for a month. It could just be small changes that are very much more monumental than, something that can be physically seen from the outside.
Helen: What is coming up for Beers A’ Go Go?
Caitlin: There may be some things in the works for us, in terms of getting our roots planted here and brewing more. When we were in Atlanta we were definitely very much homebrewers and just before we left we brewed like five beers and cider. Since we've been here like we've only been really doing like parts of collaborative brews. But the Black is Beautiful beer is our first real collaborative effort and we got to have a say in the can art was going to look like, how the brew day goes, what the different variants and adjuncts were for the brew. I think that is more so like the direction we will be going in is brewing more and working more with the breweries that are here, specifically Indie.
Helen: It’s super great for you both, getting more exposure as a brand. How did your Black is Beautiful beer turn out?
Caitlin: Honestly, it's probably one of my favorites out of the ones that we've had. And that's not me being biased or whatever, but like just having ourselves represented on a beer can, that's not something that I've honestly ever seen. A lot of people are color represented like one on one can. So that was pretty awesome. I don't know if that contributed to the taste of it or whatever.
Helen: There are scientific studies about certain vibes affecting your taste so I guess if you are feeling super passionate about something that can’t hurt the taste. I did see some amazing looking versions of the beer that had glitter and gold flakes in them. I’m very easily drawn in by things like that.
Caitlin: We actually had a gold glitter one today from…
Britne: Ingenious.
Caitlin: It was a salt, hazelnut and caramel version of the Black is Beautiful beer.
Helen: Whats the scene like in LA for food and drink? Where do you generally like to go?
Caitlin: I mean this is LA, I really love a good taco truck.
Britne: Yes, tacos and ramen.
Caitlin: I mean, I'm partial to just a cocktail bar these days but I always want a beer and they never have good beers. I would like to see that more merged together where they have really good cocktails or are considered a cocktail bar but with great craft beer. It's always only one of one or the other.
Helen: I would also like to see that, but also as someone who works in a beer bar, I do not want to make cocktails.
Britne: Yes! I am just like you. I do like making cocktails but not whilst working.
Caitlin: What about draft cocktails.
Helen: Oh my god.
Britne: Oh, yeah, the last place I worked at had those, you would garnish them and then they were gone, so I could keep the same rhythm going. So you work in a beer bar?
Helen: Yes I do, I work for the Brewdog in Cardiff.
Britne: What is the black beer scene like in the UK?
Helen: The UK beer scene is not very diverse to be honest, it is very white male heavy industry. I guess that's kind of why I am trying to do this because I want to celebrate the people from marginalised groups who are within our industries. Representation is so important. I am also hoping that, especially in terms of blogging, one of the things I really want to do is obviously be able to like pay people to write. I am kind of hoping that maybe Burum could become a platform for people who don't have it otherwise.
When the Black Lives Matter protests started in the US, there was this sort of weird narrative happening here, which was like, “we don't have we don't have racism here” I was like… are you crazy?
Caitlin: There is an air of that in LA too, it’s kind of like a passive aggressive situation. We’re from the South where we are much more abrupt and if we don’t like something we’re going to say. Here it’s just so passive aggressive and… just a very different situation.
Helen: More like microaggressions too?
Caitlin: Yes, if you're not feeling it and if you don't want me here, don't act a certain way, on undertones.
Helen: Do you have anything else you would like to plug?
Britne: Yes, we have things coming so just keep an eye on us, you can follow us on @beersagogo. You know we started this to like, educate women of colour on beer because that was the thing, we wanted to drink with more of our friends who wouldn’t come to beer bars with us. That's how we got started with blogging, just teaching them about beer and then everybody else too you know?
Caitlin: Yeah, I feel like people of color or black people especially, our views of beer are very skewed because America, for the most part, used to make really shit beers. It was just like, everything tastes the same but now with the craft beer industry I feel like there is a place for everything and every palate. And so we just want to get more people interested in drinking craft beer - especially people that are our age, in their 30s.
It’s just getting people to be willing to try something different when they already have these skewed views like “I've had beer before and I think it tastes like this” and encouraging people to be more open to things.
And seeing opportunities for themselves, people who are chefs or who have good palettes should know that they can be a part of this life as well. Beer people are the best people.
