One of the most asked questions in the beer industry right now is, “Will the Craft Brewers Conference be canceled due to concerns over COVID-19?”
The answer from the Brewers Association (BA), as of press time, is that the situation remains fluid but the show will go on as planned April 19-22 in San Antonio, Texas. (As such, Brewbound’s Brew Talks meetup on April 21 is also a go.)
CBC is the largest annual gathering of beer industry professionals in the U.S., expected to attract more than 13,000 attendees. In an update Monday, the BA said plans remain in place “to move forward with CBC and World Beer Cup.”
“We are in daily contact with local and state agencies and closely monitoring a variety of COVID-19 reliable resources to plan for a safe event,” the BA said. “We will re-evaluate as needed.”
The BA’s update followed one from the city of San Antonio in which officials said there are currently no community cases of the coronavirus disease in Bexar County or the city of San Antonio. The only confirmed cases in the area were people who were transferred to Lackland Air Force base under a federal quarantine and those isolated for treatment.
“Therefore, the risk of infection remains low,” the city said.
As such, the BA said, with recommendations from San Antonio Metro Health, CBC and its related events would be “proceeding with safety as the top priority.” Additionally, the BA said less than 1% of attendees have canceled since February 1, a similar rate to previous years.
Nevertheless, BA officials have described the situation as fluid, and another update is expected later this week.
Another industry gathering, the National Beer Wholesalers Association’s (NBWA) Legislative Conference, scheduled for March 29 to April 1, has been canceled.
“Developments over the past several days, including exposure and self-quarantine of members of Congress, meeting cancellations and travel restrictions, flight reductions and guidance from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other health agencies, have made hosting this year’s conference a significant challenge,” NBWA president and CEO Craig Purser wrote in an update to members. “For these reasons, we have made the difficult decision to cancel our Legislative Conference.”
Purser closed the note saying the NBWA will see its members during its Annual Convention, scheduled for October 4-7 in Orlando, Florida.
The Latest on COVID-19
On Wednesday, the World Health Organization referred to the spread of coronavirus across 100 countries as a “global pandemic,” the New York Times reported. There are now 1,000 cases of the disease in the U.S. and more than 30 deaths. Worldwide, there are 124,578 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 4,584 deaths due to the disease, as of press time.
During a meeting with a House Committee, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the spread of COVID-19 is expected to continue and that a vaccine is about a year away. He added that major sports organizations, such as the NBA, should avoid playing games before large crowds.
At least one NBA franchise is following suit. The Golden State Warriors are planning to play empty arena home games, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The Golden State Warriors are planning to play foreseeable home games without fans in observance of the San Francisco Health Office's order prohibiting group of events of 1K or more from assembling, source tells ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) March 11, 2020
The league has considered several options, including holding empty arena games, moving contests to unaffected cities or even suspending operations, ESPN reported.
In addition to the NBA, top sporting leagues in the U.S. — NHL, MLB and MLS — have each closed access to locker rooms and clubhouses to all nonessential personnel due to concerns over the potential spread of the disease.
There is also the possibility that some NCAA basketball tournament games could be played without fans. Prior to the start of conference basketball tournaments this week, the Ivy League canceled its tournament, while the Big West said it would play in empty arenas. The College Basketball Invitational has also been canceled.
Even Democratic presidential hopefuls Sen. Bernie Sanders and former vice president Joe Biden have canceled political rallies.
The list of canceled or postponed events in recent weeks continues to grow.
In early March, the producers of Natural Products Expo West 2020 postponed the four-day trade show just days before it was slated to begin in Anaheim, California. Hundreds of exhibitors and attendees had already backed out of the event over concerns related to the coronavirus disease.
In Austin, the city and Travis County declared a “local state of disaster” on Friday that led to the cancellation of the 2020 South By Southwest (SXSW) festival and conference. SXSW draws around 417,400 attendees from 106 different countries, according to the Austin Chronicle. The fallout was felt on Monday as SXSW laid off around 50 employees, the Chronicle reported.
The Coachella music and arts festival, which was slated for mid-April in Indio, California, announced Tuesday its postponement until October.
St. Patrick’s Day parades have been canceled in Boston, as well as Ireland. Also in Boston, the Boston Beer & Cheese Fest announced it would cancel this year’s event due to concerns over the spread of the disease.
“With the recent events around COVID-19 and the current public health situation, we can’t in good conscience hold a food and craft beer event,” Drink Craft Beer’s co-founders wrote. “These conditions prohibit us from delivering the experience that you’ve come to expect and we refuse to compromise our standards. More importantly, due to this situation, we can’t fully ensure the health of attendees, volunteers, and vendors. That’s not acceptable to us.”
Beer companies Taking Precautionary Measures
Boston Beer Company CEO Dave Burwick said company leaders have met daily for the last two weeks due how rapidly the situation is evolving.
“We’ve been communicating pretty aggressively,” he said, adding that the safety of the company’s co-workers is paramount.
As such, Boston Beer has placed a moratorium on travel by plane and train in March, Burwick said. Additionally, the company has reviewed events it is either hosting or taking part in with more than 50 attendees, and the company canceled several events and training sessions.
“We’re trying to keep people where they are,” Burwick said. “We’re set up for people to work remotely from home.”
Part of the planning process for the U.S.’s largest craft brewery is preparing contingency plans for its breweries in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
“We just want people to stay safe,” Burwick said.
Among those plans are encouraging workers who are sick to stay home.
Among the biggest concerns for craft brewers are their retail establishments. BA chief economist Bart Watson recently estimated that about 3.5 million barrels of beer was sold directly to consumers at brewery taprooms and tasting rooms in 2019.
Boston Beer operates around 11 retail outlets, including a new brewery and taproom near Faneuil Hall in downtown Boston. Burwick said those establishments are being monitored daily and the company, like every other, is stressing maintaining cleanliness and handwashing.
Due to concerns over COVID-19, Burwick said on-premise businesses will likely be affected. However, he said he expects off-premise purchases to help offset those declines.
At Seattle-based Reuben’s Brews, co-founder Adam Robbings said due to the King County Health Department’s recommendation to postpone or cancel large gatherings, some charity events at the brewery have been canceled. Reuben’s Brews also moved a bottle release for a barrel-aged barleywine/imperial stout blend scheduled for last weekend to an online sale in an effort to reduce the number of people in one place at the same time, Robbings said. In addition to moving that release to an online sale, Reuben’s postponed a festival around the release to a future date.
“Our tasting rooms remain open as usual, and our team are taking care to sanitize the POS system regularly and any other areas people may be touching, as well as being triple focused on the cleanliness of public spaces,” Robbings added. “I’m worried right now if the alert level increases which could require us to close our doors, like you’re seeing in Italy right now. So I’m pretty focused on scenario planning situations where we could have to close our doors for weeks – which would be very material to our small business.”
Framingham, Massachusetts-based Jack’s Abby announced a number of measures, including switching from community seating to a table seating model at its taproom, suspending tours, sanitizing high-touch areas throughout the day and more.
“We hope these steps bring you some comfort and assurance of our effort to keep you happy and healthy,” co-founders Jack, Eric and Sam Hendler wrote in the note. “Similarly, we ask all of our patrons to be extra responsible as well. If you are even slightly ill or worried about being in contact with someone who is then please exercise the same caution and avoid coming to the brewery.”
No-Li Brewhouse founder John Bryant said the Spokane, Washington- based craft brewery is remaining vigilant.
“This is where craft brewers are such a positive voice in their communities,” he said. “In tough times, we’re here, open, available and positive.”
Darden, the parent company of the Yard House, the Olive Garden, and Longhorn Steakhouse restaurant chains, announced Monday it would offer paid sick time to hourly employees.
The protocol, plans for which were set in motion well before the COVID-19 outbreak, will allow Darden’s 180,000-plus hourly employees to accrue one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. The pay rate for these accrued hours will be based on the employee’s 13-week average pay. Darden has issued current employees banks of sick leave based on their hours worked over the past six months. Up to 40 hours can be carried over each year.
Yard House, Darden’s craft beer-centric property, operates 83 locations in 28 states, each with 100-plus draft lines.
“As we continue to make investments in our employees, we strengthen our greatest competitive edge — because when our team members win, our guests win,” CEO and president Gene Lee said.