Since co-founding San Diego’s first full-scale craft-beer business back in 1989, Chris Cramer has seen a great deal and learned a lot about the business of brewing and the state regulations governing it. That applies not only to the lessons afforded him as the CEO of Karl Strauss Brewing, but also knowledge gleaned from serving in key roles for numerous trade organizations in which professionals like Cramer band together to provide a voice and a backbone to the industries they represent. This is especially true of the California Craft Brewers Association (CCBA), a state-focused entity he first joined in the nineties when it went by its original name, the California Small Brewers Association, and had but a single employee. Since then, the Golden State’s brewery count has risen to well over 1,000, accounting for more than 10% of the country’s total. Over that span Cramer has invested time, energy, heart and soul, serving as a chair, committee head and board member, working with his craft-beer compatriots to develop the fledgling CSBA into the current CCBA. Now a long-respected organization, its primary focus is on protecting and advancing the rights of brewers at a state-legislative level, something that has arguably never been as difficult or as essential as it is now given the economic hardships and challenges facing California small businesses. It’s the necessity of the organization and its efforts to safeguard already ailing brewing companies – as well as the urging of his colleagues – that led him to run for another term on the CCBA’s Board of Directors. We caught up with him at the onset of his three-year term to find out more about the CCBA, how it serves its member breweries and what it means to volunteer as a board member.
What is yours and your company’s history with the CCBA?
Karl Strauss joined back in the very beginning and were members for a long time. but I was more focused here locally for a number of years trying to help build the San Diego community and make sure the government here embraced the whole idea of craft brewing. As the very first craft brewery – and first brewery of any kind to open in 50 years – we had to convince the government we weren’t going to be blighting the neighborhood and causing lots of problems, but instead elevating the lifestyle here in San Diego. Over time, it became more and more apparent to me that a lot of things that impacted our industry were happening at the state level. The CCBA – then the California Small Brewers Association – really needed to be organized professionally to be able to ensure craft beer was not going to get attacked by other interests at the state level that do not necessarily align with our own. So I ended up joining their board of directors at a time when the association was transitioning from a small group of people who’d been on the board for a long time and an executive director into a professional organization. I had a background as president of the local chapter of the California Restaurant Association, and had been Chair of the San Diego Convention Center Board of Directors and was its representative for the San Diego Tourism Board, so my idea was to take what I’d learned from them and help the CCBA be more effective at empowering breweries and giving them a voice in California policy. Over time, California brewers have gained more privileges than brewers in any other state, but it doesn’t stop there. We have to remain eternally vigilant to protect the rights we’ve gained. As we go through a challenging time where we have been damaged by a pandemic, societal changes and other factors, I think we need to really make sure that our members understand the value the CCBA provides. That’s one of my goals going forward, making sure we listen to our community and focus our efforts, first and foremost, to continue our advocacy to protect our rights.
What are the major issues the CCBA and Board are focused on?
One of the big Issues we face right now is having a membership base that’s challenged. It’s an era where people don’t necessarily want to join things like they used to. We have to make sure we have a member base that’s as strong as it needs to be so we can continue to have resources and a voice behind us to speak for the industry by getting members engaged and supportive. The upcoming California Craft Beer Summit is a huge example of how we are focused on something that helps educate our industry. We locate it in Sacramento so that we are proximate to lawmakers and decision-makers and they can see our industry. As part of the Summit, we have a Legislative Day where we meet with our legislators. Every district in California now has a brewery in it, so it’s important that we put a face to these craft breweries. Fortunately, we are very popular as an industry. It’s easier to be popular as a brewery than a member of an auto union or maker of widgets. With craft beer, people get it and like it, and we like to share it. Another thing I love about the Summit is it gives the Board of Directors an opportunity to interact with members and hear their voices.
With respect to specific topics, we have had a run of a number of very good years where we’ve promoted our own legislation. This year is more about making sure that we’re on top of what the next arc is. We’re just starting our terms as board members and will be developing what our goals will be legislatively. There’s always the threat of franchise out there and we have to protect ourselves on that front at all costs. Franchise laws exist in a number of states and, essentially, what they do is tie brewers to particular distributors and relationships that they can’t get out of. At the end of the day, it’s like potentially finding one’s self in a bad marriage and having no chance of getting a divorce. It’s really challenging in those states and it’s something the wholesalers would love to have; that opportunity for control. It does not exist in California and is not something brewers would want to have because it would really proscribe their ability to run their businesses over time.
How have the issues facing California craft brewers changed since the last time you were on the Board?
I’ve seen the rapid growth of our industry and I remember back in 2016, which was the turning point in terms of that growth. The first half of that year the industry grew 12%, then the second half it had zero growth. It was the first year in more than a decade that we hadn’t recorded double-digit growth. Since then, the number of breweries have continued to grow – it’s doubled at least, if not more – so we have a lot more people in the industry. Their focus has been mostly on selling beer across their own bars versus distributed beer, and it’s a model that’s worked for a lot of brewers, but there are so many craft breweries now that those in California are finding it’s really hard to achieve any continual growth unless they really have a solid business plan and reason for being in business in the first place. They need to be able to differentiate themselves in ways that are meaningful to consumers and incite them to purchase their beers and frequent their establishments. Regrettably, we’ve seen a number of really fantastic breweries in San Diego not be able to make it economically. In the last year you’ve seen this acceleration of people throwing in the towel. Government assistance money is gone and people don’t have a way to plod forward. As an association, we need to really be hearing the challenges our members are facing and giving them more opportunities to maintain their businesses.
Does participating on the Board of Directors require a certain level of sacrifice?
It’s a significant investment of time and money. You travel to meetings and you’re not paid to be on the Board. Because it’s so important to have participants at all levels of our industry represented, we passed a policy that if your brewery produces under a certain number of barrels, you can be a member and have your Board-related expenses reimbursed. The economics of a small member being able to afford to take time away from their businesses and invest their own money on travel, hotels and meals seemed too burdensome and we wanted to make sure smaller brewers didn’t miss out on having their voices heard because they couldn’t participate due to financial reasons. Over time we’ve managed to get a good, diverse cross-section of representation across our industry, from Sierra Nevada Brewing at one end of the spectrum down to small craft brewers like Sante Adairius Rustic Ales. The Board is made up of little and big breweries, but we all get along so well and have aligned interests, which is important since we’re speaking for the entire industry.