The Brewers Association (BA) is accepting ballots from voting members through November 19 in its annual board of directors election.
Five three-year terms are open to represent the board’s three member classes. The taproom brewer class, which represents BA members who sell at least 25% of their volume on-site but do not offer food service, will select one director. The pub brewer (BA members who sell at least 75% of their volume on-site and operate restaurants) and packaging brewer classes (BA members who sell at least 75% of their volume through distribution) will each select two directors.
Candidates for the two pub brewer director roles include:
- Rich Clayton, California Coast Beer Company (Paso Robles, California);
- Tracy Cryder, Southern Tail Brewing (Little Rock, Arkansas);
- Wesley Keegan, TailGate Brewery (Nashville, Tennessee);
- Jason Lavery, Lavery Brewing (Erie, Pennsylvania);
- And Jason Spaulding, Brewery Vivant (Grand Rapids, Michigan).
Candidates for the two packaging brewer director roles include:
- Anthony Derby, Florida Avenue Brewing (Wesley Chapel, Florida);
- Dan Gordon, Gordon Biersch Brewing (San Jose, California);
- Sierra Grossman, Sierra Nevada (Chico, California);
- James Hildreth II, Meier’s Creek Brewing (Cazenovia, New York);
- Donn Lacoste, Gnarly Barley Brewing (Hammond, Louisiana)
- Mike Pensinger, Parkway Brewing (Salem, Virginia);
- Jason Perkins, Allagash Brewing (Portland, Maine);
- And Mitch Steele, New Realm Brewing (Atlanta, Georgia).
Candidates for the single taproom brewer director role include:
- Tyler Forbes, Burzurk Brewing (Grand Haven, Michigan);
- Ron Hockersmith, Amorphic Beer (Milwaukee, Wisconsin);
- Hutch Kugeman, Brewery at the Culinary Institute of America (Hyde Park, New York);
- And Melissa Romano, Lake Anne Brew House (Reston, Virginia).
Lavery, Perkins, Romano and Steele are all incumbents whose current terms are set to expire in February 2026. The only director with a term expiring who is not seeking re-election is Kris Spaulding, whose husband Jason Spaulding is running.
Elected directors are limited to three three-year terms and cannot serve more than 10 consecutive years. After three terms, a director may regain eligibility after a one-year absence from the board, according to the bylaws.
The board consists of six taproom brewer directors, four pub brewer directors and three taproom brewer directors, as well as appointed at-large directors, according to the bylaws.
At-large directors are appointed by the elected directors for one- or two-year terms. The board can contain between zero and four at-large directors, per the bylaws.
To be considered eligible for voting, BA members must hold a brewer’s permit from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) “or control the intellectual property for one or more brands of beer, have that brand or brands brewed for it in the United States, and have as its primary business purpose the resale of the brand or brands it controls,” according to the BA’s bylaws. The latter was added to the bylaws in early 2024 to include contract-brewed beer companies among voting members.
Voting members may submit one ballot per company for their designated member class. Contract brewers vote for the member class their business most closely resembles.
“For the vast majority of contract brewers, that is packaging,” BA VP of marketing and communications Ann Obenchain told Brewbound. “If they contract brew but sell greater than 25% of their beer in their brewpub/taproom then they would vote in those classes respectively, but since most do not have taprooms/brewpubs by default they are in the packaging class.”