Bulk of Wormtown Brewery ownership steps back amid accusations of harassment, sexism, racism
Photo | Courtesy of Wormtown
Wormtown's expanded Shrewsbury St. taproom in Worcester
Most of Wormtown Brewery’s ownership team will step back from business operations at the largest brewery in Worcester after allegations of discrimination and sexual harassment the company described as “disturbing and heartbreaking" circulated on social media this week, Wormtown said in a statement Thursday night.
The statement did not specify who exactly fell under that category, but a staff page for the brewery on Friday morning listed five people at the head of the company, including Managing Partner David Fields, Partner Rich Clarke, Partner Jay “Digger” Clarke and CFO Kary Shumway.
Founding partner Ben Roesch, the fifth leader, will continue in his role, according to Wormtown’s statement.
The allegations, which appear to have first begun circulating on Wednesday, were first posted to Instagram Stories by Brienne Allan, a brewer at Notch Brewing in Salem, on her Instagram account @ratmagnet. Allan has been in the spotlight for weeks after she began fielding and sharing stories about sexism in the craft beer industry earlier in May. Those stories ballooned to include reports of discrimination, racism and harassment from breweries around the country.
Wormtown, which was founded in 2010, is the fourth largest brewery headquartered in Central Massachusetts, and the largest in the city of Worcester. In 2019, it brewed 30,000 barrels of beer. The brewery opened a location at Patriot Place in Foxborough in 2019, and the same year was named the official brewery of the Worcester Red Sox.
Allegations about Wormtown appear to have surfaced around Wednesday of this week, according to screenshots of Allan’s Instagram Stories shared to local Instagram accounts and on Twitter.
The anonymous allegations paint a picture of Wormtown as a hypermasculine workplace where employees were subjected to sexist and racist comments, harassment based on race, gender and sexual orientation, as well as pay discrimination. One complaint alleged harassment was perpetrated by multiple people at the company, including ownership and others.
Another anonymous complaint from a person who described themselves as of Asian descent alleged that person was sexually harassed by a former colleague more than once, and accused the company’s general manager of falsely claiming pay equity would be in place among taproom employees while providing opportunities for advancement to white staff members.
The same complaint alleged a brewery owner suggested naming a beer after said employee, floating a racist trope as the would-be beer’s name.
A separate complaint alleged, when a female employee broached harassment issues with one of Wormtown’s owners, the owner responded that he had been sexually harassed by women at the company, too.
Another complaint alleged sexual harassment at Wormtown was a routine occurrence.
The only member of the leadership team specifically named in the allegations was Jay “Digger” Clarke. At least one complaint specifically accused Clarke of drinking excessively in the taproom, berating female department managers, and of having female staff members drive him home or to hotel rooms while intoxicated. The complaint accused Clarke of coercing three female employees into visiting a strip club with him.
Wormtown did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday morning about the allegations.
In the company’s Thursday statement, General Manager Scott Metzger described the reports shared on Instagram as “disturbing and heartbreaking.”
“Wormtown Brewery is successful because of our passionate and committed team,” Metzger said in the statement. “That any member of our team may have experienced the harassing and discriminatory behaviors described, is not acceptable.”
The statement detailed specific actions the company was taking to combat workplace harassment and discrimination, and noted the company established a committee to make recommendations and improve workplace culture, which has already reportedly met twice.
The actions Wormtown is reportedly taking include investigating alleged reports of misconduct and taking disciplinary action against perpetrators; reviewing and updating company policies; implementing mandatory diversity, equity and inclusion training for all employees, as well as enhanced leadership training for supervisors; and, evaluating and implementing internal and external human resources options.
Metzger said Wormtown plans to create an advisory board to help steer the business, with more information on the board to be forthcoming.
“While there is work to do, we know a critical first step is to make room to listen and learn, and in turn, to provide support in the most helpful ways we can,” Metzger said.
Notably, the May reckoning within the craft beer industry came just weeks after Mass. Bay Brewing Co. in Boston, the makers of Harpoon, and the Massachusetts Brewers Guild announced they were launching a website toolkit aimed at providing resources for furthering diversity, equity and inclusion work at breweries in Massachusetts. The initiative, HopForwardEquality.com, was designed to help diversify an industry that has historically been dominated by white, male stakeholders.
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What has happened to our country? Someone makes a claim, and people believe it. Innocent until proven guilty as been thrown away.
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