Salem Craft Brewery Employee Makes $35K On GoFundMe For Using Instagram To Smear Competitor Breweries With Anonymous Allegations Of Sexual Harassment And Racism
This is Brienne Allen, an employee at Notch Brewing in Salem.
She recently made headlines after documenting hundreds of anonymous allegations of alleged sexual harassment and racism at various craft beer competitors of Notch on Instagram. One of them is Wormtown Brewery in Worcester, and they’re caving to the mob she’s formed with her activism.
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 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.
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.
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.
OF COURSE they’re doing “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” training now. They’ll hire someone who checks off at least 3 diversity boxes, pay them an inordinate amount of money, force their employees to sit through 6 hours of being lectured about their privilege and microaggressions, declare that they’re fixed, and go right back to work.
Rinse. Repeat.
And all because of a bunch of anonymous complaints on IG put together by a woman who works at a competing brewery. If I were Wormtown Brewery I would’ve told them to get bent, because businesses shouldn’t make personnel decisions based off of anonymous complaints from a craft beer tattoo chick, but they know who buys their product, and they know what they have to do to attempt to appease them.
Let’s look at some of the anonymous complaints about sexual harassment at random breweries she’s harvested on her IG.
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I have no doubt that there is probably sexual harassment going on in many of these places because there is sexual harassment everywhere. Andrew Cuomo is still the Governor of New York and if he ran for re-election right now he would win. The President of the United States was credibly accused of sexual assault by Tara Reade. Bill Clinton got blowjobs in the oval office from an intern he had power over and he’s not nearly the pariah to his party that George Bush is to his. Donald Trump was President one time. Hell, you can get your way onto the State Police if you sleep with someone high enough up. Sadly, it’s just the way of life and clearly nobody cares because the perpetrators are the same people virtue signaling about “believing women.”
I have a bigger problem with these online burn books filled with unvetted anonymous allegations, being used to destroy small businesses. These are from people who use terms like, “cis het white guys.”
Nuff said.
Here’s a quote from the WBUR story about Brienne:
If you think for a second that there are overqualified black microbrewers going around looking for jobs but not finding them because craft breweries are looking to hire underqualified white dudes, then you’re just an idiot. This is an unverified anecdote, and not a believable one either. Craft beer companies are some of the wokest around, because they have to be when this is what their clientele looks like:
Bearded white bros, copious amounts of arm tattoos, and lots of unnecessary wool hats being worn indoors during the summer. Probably not too many Trump voters in that crowd. Try to find a black person anywhere on Notch Brewery (or any breweries) Facebook page. Finding Waldo in the candy cane forest is easier. It is what it is. White people like craft beer and black, Hispanic, and Asian people by and large do not. I used to work at a liquor store in bottle returns. Asian people STRICTLY brought in Heineken. So yea, I don’t believe for a second that overqualified black people are getting denied jobs at breweries. The people you see in those pictures would love nothing more than some diversity, because they’d be the first.
Coincidentally one of the loan breweries that wasn’t smeared and defamed on her viral posts was Notch Brewing.
Meanwhile places like Wormtown are losing business and getting destroyed online because of these viral allegations.
Brienne has just shared what seem to be multiple accusations of harassment and discrimination that have occurred at Wormtown Brewery here in Massachusetts. These accounts paint a picture of a hostile work environment with current employees living in fear. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/uzplJLJ7TA
— Raising the Barstool (@RTBarstool) May 26, 2021
Employees who are afraid to speak out and risk being retaliated against for doing so. These stories suggest that these people are frightened of sharing more details, even anonymously, which is truly troubling. I can’t support a brewery that treats its employees this way. (2/2) pic.twitter.com/5EOfJzxLGl
— Raising the Barstool (@RTBarstool) May 26, 2021
Given the ubiquity of Wormtown in these parts, and the volume of Wormtown stories shared with Brienne, this deserves some awareness and consideration here. Just based on the volume of stories presented, this seems like one of the most serious cases levied against a New England brewery. I for one will not be drinking Wormtown anytime soon.
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.
Wormtown’s big crime was that they didn’t get down on their knees and grovel fast enough like other breweries did. Search the name Brienne Allan on Facebook and just look at what these businesses from across the country were forced to do.
Brewery ARS’ owner made a post about how he had 3 “females” in his family, so he took sexual harassment seriously.
Here’s a response from a customer.
The brewery is sexist because the owner has 3 daughters who he acknowledges are girls based on their chromosomes and sexual organs. But that was offensive to Kate Eckert because it wasn’t inclusive for men who think they’re women too, therefore she had to lecture him. Instead of standing up for themselves the brewery cowered, because their clientetele demands it. Does this look like the kind of person who would ever be satisfied with an apology?
Nope. That woman exists to see you grovel.
Of course no attention seeking scam would be complete without the GoFundMe at the end of the rainbow, and Brienne has made over $35K off of her’s. The money is going towards legal fees for an imaginary lawsuit that hasn’t been filed.
Don’t worry, none of these breweries are going to sue her. They understand that she has a right to free speech, and that curating and disseminating other people’s accounts protects her from libel claims. They also know what the repercussions would be if they stood up for themselves, which is why they all cowered and virtue signaled. Just throw some money at her and they’re alleviated from their sins.
“As a cis het white dude.”
Nuff said.
Meanwhile Brienne has pocketed a lot of cash and gotten tens of thousands of followers, but she’s earned it because it’s really hard screenshotting messages and posting them on Instagram.
Notch Brewing even made a beer for her due to her bravery.
Because they might as well profit off of this too.
The media has definitely helped amplify her message and GoFundMe as well.
Shockingly she’s sought the media out before about this very same topic.
Almost like its a pattern.
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