Why are Washington state breweries considered ‘essential’ during the coronavirus pandemic?

Breweries might seem like an unusual suspect on the essential business list during the state’s coronavirus outbreak, but the industry plays an important role in manufacturing, agriculture and the food supply chain.

As a “food manufacturer,” according to Gov. Jay Inslee’s list of critical infrastructure workers, brewers, their employees and those of companies that facilitate the creation, distribution and sale of their products, are indeed “essential.”

The Washington Brewers Guild shared an explainer page on its website Tuesday emphasizing that not only can breweries continue to make and sell beer, but they may now offer curbside pickup and delivery. Their taprooms, of course, remain closed due to the ban on in-person dining — or in this case, imbibing.

As Paul Gatza at the Brewers Association, a national trade group based in Boulder, Colo., told The News Tribune via email, breweries have not been excluded from any municipality’s list of essential businesses or workers. He also noted their places in the “agricultural chain in provision of spent brewers grain that are used to feed local livestock.”

(In brewing, the mash of heated grains and water is lautered, or filtered, to remove the solids, leaving behind spent grain. The remaining liquid becomes the wort, which after fermentation becomes beer.)

Washington is home to more than 400 breweries and directly employs more than 6,300 people, according to the guild. Every congressional district has at least one.

They are community hubs, third places, family gathering spots and everyday destinations. They buy millions of pounds of barley and hops and have an economic impact of $1.4 billion, says the Washington Beer Association, a state agricultural extension.

“That’s part of what makes us essential,” said Eric Radovich, the group’s executive director, in a phone call this week. He was quick to point out that breweries, like all food service and grocery establishments, continue to follow health guidance of social distancing and sanitizing.

In fact, three-quarters of all U.S. hop production happens in Washington state. At $490 million in annual output, predominantly from the Yakima Valley, hops are one of the state’s top-10 crops, according to data from the Washington State Department of Agriculture.

As hundreds of millions of Americans are told to stay home to curb the coronavirus pandemic, breweries will suffer, said Radovich.

In many cases, they already are.

“For most of the breweries, there’s going to be an impact on their business,” he said, estimating that, with utmost optimism, sales might reach 20 percent of their standard levels.

Staying open “might make a difference in treading water for another month, or more.”

BEER IS ‘RECESSION-RESISTANT,’ BUT NOT A DONE-DEAL

An informal survey from the Brewers Association, to which 600 breweries responded, revealed that 9 of 10 have been affected by the loss of in-person drinking at their taprooms. Another 60 percent have seen orders drop with their distributors.

Perhaps more striking, a quarter reported ceasing their production schedule completely, though a majority have instead pulled back for the time being. More than half “anticipate layoffs.”

The group — which already canceled its annual Craft Brewers Conference scheduled for mid-April — has shared an array of resources with the beer community, including the sobering guidance for shutting down a brewery in the event of a positive COVID-19 test of an employee or known guest, or a corporate mandate or government decree.

Like other service industries, breweries are seeking monetary relief from Congress, loan and tax deferments, unemployment insurance for laid-off or furloughed workers, and paid sick and quarantine leave.

If you’ve ever noticed the upside down beer bottle on a craft beer, that’s the Brewers Association seal, verifying that the brewery is a member and indeed an independent brewery. As the industry has blossomed to contribute $80 billion to the U.S. economy with more 550,000 workers, it has also consolidated, as giants like AB-In Bev, Miller Coors and Constellation Brands scoop up smaller outfits, often with big checks.

Nonetheless, America is home to more than 8,000 breweries, at least 80 percent of which have adopted the independent seal. In Washington, the same percentage produces fewer than 4,000 kegs of beer each year, “a bulk” of which is purchased on-site, according to Radovich of the state beer association.

“It’s pints of beer in the beer garden, at the tables in the tasting rooms,” he said, adding that the timing could probably not be worse. Summer is the industry’s biggest money-maker.

E9 Brewing in Tacoma’s historic brewery district is open for carryout beer but has slimmed down staff to just the brewers. Donovan Stewart, a brewer and sales rep, said distribution has shrunk from within the city to south of it, into Oregon and California.

“This is not a good situation for craft breweries,” he told The News Tribune in an email. The best way to support the breweries you love, he added, is to buy direct from the source.

Besides, that’s where it’s fresh, and these days, the brewer will probably be the one to serve you.

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This story was originally published March 26, 2020 at 5:00 AM.