EP-253 Edwin Methu of Cloudwater Soda
My guest today has been in beer sales for the best part of a decade and\xa0seen how fickle and complicated the trade can be.\xa0
Edwin Methu\u2019s first job was at the infamous London Fields Brewery, an\xa0early innovator in the scene that slowly disintegrated due to the criminal\xa0dealings of its owner. Bouncing back from that he was part of a Camden\xa0Town Brewery sales team overseeing huge\xa0growth, before becoming a\xa0sales rep for Sierra Nevada at a time when local craft was forcing U.S.\xa0imports into decline.\xa0
It could be that diverse experience that made Cloudwater founder Paul\xa0Jones approach him for a sales role in his new venture, what was then\xa0named Good Call Soda. I\u2019ll let Methu tell the story of his introduction to the\xa0brand and the idea of hopped soft drinks, but it\u2019s clear that he loves a\xa0challenge and takes great satisfaction in changing people\u2019s minds.
In the last year or so he\u2019s turned those personality traits to a bigger cause. As a person of color in an almost exclusively white industry, Methu has\xa0always been self aware in his work and socializing but the experience of\xa0taking some friends to a beer festival turned that unease into\xa0a feeling that\xa0something had to be done. He has become a vocal campaigner for the\xa0beer scene to cast its net wider and bring in people of all backgrounds and\xa0to challenge prejudice in all its forms with no exceptions. He is no keyboard\xa0warrior either\u2014as\xa0he tells me, in the wake of the Founders racism scandal\xa0he has spoken to many stockists and convinced them to stop stocking the\xa0brand at all. At the same time he loves to champion those working towards\xa0diversity and the benefits and joy it can bring everyone.
This is Edwin Methu of Cloudwater Soda, listen in.