DEI and the Tap List: A Diversity Problem We Can All See
- Mar 10
- 3 min read
In recent years, we’ve heard a lot about DEI — Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Corporations issue statements. Consultants are hired. Posters are printed. Panels are formed. And yet, somehow, one of the most visible and measurable public spaces in America continues to operate as if DEI were never invented at all:
The bar tap list.
Walk into nearly any pub, sports bar, or neighborhood tavern and observe the taps. Really observe them. Count them. Reflect.
What you will find is not diversity.
What you will find is tap monoculture.
Diversity (or Lack Thereof)
Out of 20 taps, the breakdown is usually something like:
11 light lagers
7 IPAs (labeled “hazy,” “juicy,” “double,” or “aggressively confusing”)
1 seasonal wildcard (pumpkin or sour, depending on the month)
0–1 dark beers, often hidden at the end like an afterthought
This is not diversity. This is performative variety.
Dark beers—stouts, porters, and other respectable black beers—are routinely excluded from meaningful tap representation. They are technically “allowed,” but rarely included. Bottles are offered as a consolation prize, as if glassware equality somehow replaces tap access.
Black Beers Matter, and tokenism is not inclusion.
Equity: The Tap Allocation Problem
Equity is not about giving every beer the same outcome—it’s about acknowledging historic disadvantage and adjusting accordingly.
And if ever there were a historically disadvantaged group, it is the dark beer family.
For decades, stouts and porters have endured:
Seasonal segregation (“winter only”)
Stereotyping (“too heavy”)
Assumptions about demand (“people don’t want that”)
The burden of education (“No, it’s not warm”)
Meanwhile, IPAs are given unlimited tap access regardless of flavor redundancy. Two IPAs can taste nearly identical, yet both are welcomed without question.
Equity would suggest a rebalancing of tap space—not because dark beers want special treatment, but because they’ve never had fair treatment to begin with.
Inclusion: More Than Just a Bottle
Inclusion means participation in the core experience.
Being offered a bottle of stout while light beers enjoy full tap privileges is not inclusion. It’s exile with a cap.
True inclusion means:
Nitro taps
Proper glassware
Year-round availability
A bartender who doesn’t say, “We used to have one”
Until then, dark beer drinkers remain present—but unheard.
The IPA Industrial Complex
Let’s address the elephant in the taproom: the IPA industrial complex.
IPAs dominate taps not because they are diverse, but because they are loud. They shout with hops. They demand attention. They crowd out nuance. One hazy IPA leads to another, then another, until the tap list resembles a hop-scented echo chamber.
Meanwhile, dark beers wait patiently, dignified, robust, and underrepresented.
This is not organic demand. This is structural imbalance.
A DEI-Informed Tap Policy
A truly DEI-conscious bar would commit to:
At least one stout or porter on tap at all times
Equal glassware respect
Bartender training that does not involve apologizing
Seasonal rotation that does not automatically remove dark beers in March
This isn’t radical. It’s reasonable.
The Call to Action
If we are serious about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, we must be willing to apply those principles consistently—even when hops are involved.
The tap list is public. The imbalance is visible. And the solution is literally right in front of us.
For continued discussion, photos of unjust tap lists, and advocacy on behalf of underrepresented beers everywhere, join us at:
Because DEI isn’t just a policy.
It’s a pour.
Black Beers Matter. 🍺
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