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Last year, while attending the Georgia Brewers Conference, I heard a DEI presentation from Isaiah Smith, the CEO of Our Culture Brewing Co, Fenwick Broyard, vice president of culture at Creature Comforts Brewing Co., and Tracy Bardugon, then a taproom manager at Fire Maker Brewing who now works at\xa0 Elsewhere Brewing.

You might think once you\u2019ve heard one DEI talk, you\u2019ve heard them all, but I found this one to stand out because it detailed the importance of creating an inclusive environment before injecting diversity into it. Instead of focusing on bringing in diversity first, make sure your brewery is inclusive and ready to accept more diverse employees. The trio also detailed during the talk about the value of collaborating beyond the brewhouse\u2014connecting different departments within a brewery with each other to share knowledge and best practices. Since then, I haven\u2019t looked at brewery collaborations the same.\xa0

What\u2019s so valuable about this idea is that breweries in planning like Our Culture can benefit from years of experience from a brewery like Creature Comforts, one of the biggest craft breweries in Georgia. I was excited to learn how their ideas became action\u2014in May 2023 Creature Comforts created a brewing residency program where the Our Culture team was partnered with a counterpart at Creature Comforts.

I recently had a chance to join both breweries in Athens where they shared their experience of creating this partnership and how it was beneficial to both parties. First, you\u2019ll hear from Jossette Footman-Smith, co-owner and head of operations and community engagement at Our Culture Brewing, and Issac Smith, co-owner and head of brewing operations, as they share how Our Culture got their start.\xa0

Then, you\u2019ll hear from Isaiah Smith and Creature Comforts\u2019 Fenwick Broyard about the residency program, and what they learned along the way. We also dive into the story behind their collaboration beer, \u201cSeeds Take Up the Soil,\u201d a sweet potato Ale that is a great representation of the beers Our Culture is planning to bring to market, focused on highlighting flavors of the African diaspora.

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