Allegations against Wormtown

Wow, not familiar with this brewery but just read the litany of very similar posts, and they sound like utter scum.

 

Wow. I've been a regular customer of theirs. Suffice it to say I'll be looking to spend those dollars elsewhere until this is addressed publicly and making sure Wormtown knows why.

 

Saw these stores yesterday. Mental. I mean even setting aside what's clearly a horrific workplace, are these guys that fucking dumb that they're doubling down internally despite seeing the continued fallout/repercussions for other breweries; many of which went straight into damage control from the outset?

 

Before you use the Image function, you need to upload your picture(s) to a picture sharing service/website that creates a URL for the image. You can't directly link Instagram images anymore. Personally I use Imgur which you can use as a phone App or the Website.

If the image is already posted to a website somewhere, sometimes you can right-click on the image as use the "Copy Image Address" command.

 

The thinking here might be that doubling down is better.

They could be seeing that many breweries are doing damage control and still can't win. Because then people say, "that's not enough" or "that's a lawyer's response".

Moreover, I imagine the largest percentage of their audience is white males. If doing damage control potentially won't appease the other side, then all it does is alienate the white male asshole that's a considerable percentage of your business.

They probably figure, none of this can be proved and eventually it'll blow over. Then business as usual (if business even suffers in the short term).

Look at Founders, they're still as popular as ever (even on this website).

I want to finish by saying, I DO NOT support or advocate for this approach. But I'm just trying to understand what, as you said, appears to be really fucking dumb.

 

I'm meaning specifically the employee stories being posted; the last said "Stating that this me too movement means nothing to them and they'll keep treating us how they want to"

 

Well much like TH, having read these it's clear the biggest problem is the ownership, but yet they're even worse than the TH power couple, who seemed to keep the sexism and racism at least a tad closer to plausible deniability. I don't see how their continued ownership could be construed as acceptable if any of these stories disgust you. So I guess, at this point, it's go the "cancel culture tour" route as you more or less said, or give up major stake in your company.
I mean, it's a profitable scam to run. I won't bore anyone with the "who" but take one look at podcast and book sales charts and "news channel" ratings and you'll see a whole lot of "canceled" people making money off (usually white male) rubes.

 

Statement from Wormtown

 

It's a similar statement they made after they fired the woman with a prosthetic leg 2 years back because she couldn't walk fast enough for them. Saying you've been growing too fast to realize bad things are going on a second time seems just a tad ingenuous.

 

>With just four employees a short time ago

is a great way to start an ingenuous excuse.

 

Am I on crack or didn't Wormtown get bought out a couple years back? Was there ever a time the current ownership had only 4 employees?

 

Its gut wrenching.

 

Hmm. Are you thinking of Clown Shoes, maybe?

 

Good question. I got off my butt and googled it and it looks like the remaining founder sold to a trio of beer distributors in 2017. So not a buyout but it doesn't look like any of the original founders are with the company any more.

https://www.bostonmagazine.com/restaurants/2017/08/18/wormtown-sale-keene-nh-brewery-expansion/

 

Per their announcement Ben Roesch (formerly of Cambridge Brewing, Wachusett & Nashoba Winery) one of the original co-founders & current Brewmaster is still around in that role.

Side anecdote re Ben: I met him many moons ago during his stint @ Nashoba & found him to be a friendly, decent guy. A view which was shared by many beer folks back in the day. Nashoba put out some really good beer back then too.

 

Thanks for the correction. I found the way they referred to Roesch's role kind of hard to follow in that article.

 

are any of these people- victims and perps alike- aware of the civil and legal penalties attached to this type of behavior. A victim is not powerless- sue them. A falsely accused person is not powerless- sue them. If the behavior crosses into to physical abuse- have them arrested.

 

Ditto regarding Ben - I met him both at Nashoba, then a few more times at open houses at Strange Brew hombrew supplies - I think he was active in one of the clubs at the time - around the time he was at Nashoba. Seemed a nice guy and certainly a good brewer.