Even though their EngiBeering Certificate program is postponed due to COVID-19, CSU San Marcos continues to use their Brewchive platform to engage with the local brewing community. We messaged Brewchive curator Judith Downie to learn about the new Glass Half Full project, which is now “collecting thoughts related to our community’s lived experience during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.”
– Where did this idea come from?
This is a subset of the CSUSM Special Collections’ Together/Apart: The COVID-19 Community Memory Archive project. Part of the mission of the CSUSM Special Collections unit is to capture not only campus history but our local North San Diego County community history. The trying times we are going through certainly need to be recorded and archived. There are other special collections and archives doing much the same thing, both in San Diego and nationally for their community members, but we were very quick in creating a way to capture the memories and getting it out there.
I suggested we develop the Glass Half Full project specifically for all the beer community (producers, consumers, and related industries.) To my knowledge, there is little being done in other brewing communities to capture this history to this extent. This is another means to collect evidence of our phenomenal local craft brewing industry, recording the collaboration and adjustment to the impact of such a broad-scale event. It seemed a given for us to create a special outreach to the local brewing community — not only the employees and owners, but also the consumers, since they are an essential component of the local success.
– How many have contributed to the project?
We have not yet gone widely public as I have been waiting for some tweaks to the appearance of the website but the site is live for submission. We will be posting to the CSUSM Library Facebook feed, sending an email blast, etc. So far, we have a couple of submissions, one from an employee in the industry who changed employment, and one from a beer consumer/podcaster.
The site is set up to take written comments, images, videos and audio files. We can also arrange to take objects once the campus buildings are re-opened, so artwork and physical items will be welcome with a description of what it represents. The Together/Apart submission page has been active for a longer period of time and has received a sizeable number of writings, images, and videos.
Part of the submission process is to give permission to share the submitted comments. We are offering the option to remain anonymous and part of the submission process involves permission to share or publish. Here are snips from the submissions.
Submitter 1:
How has COVID-19 changed your life? How has it changed your work and/or employment?
Let go from another brewery but slowed finding work tremendously. It’s given me time to re-evaluate my professional goals.
What are you most looking forward to when the pandemic passes?
Being able to hug my friends and sit at my favorite barstool.
Submitter 2:
Do you think that COVID-19 is going to have permanent, long lasting effects on the craft brewing industry? If so, what effects do you think the pandemic will have?
Yes. Some good, some bad. Delivery and beer-to-go options expanded. Many breweries are not going to survive this situation.
What are you most looking forward to when the pandemic passes?
Sitting in a brewery chatting with brewers, patrons, friends and friends-to-be. The convivial nature of beer-drinking has really taken a hit, but shouldn’t be hard to reestablish once we get green lights.
– What else would you like our readers to know?
The overall sense from these submissions and from everyone I talk to (generally Zoom) is they miss the community and social interaction experienced in the tap rooms and breweries. I certainly feel that way.
Everyone is grateful for the breweries that continue to innovate and adjust to a continually-changing legal and physical landscape to survive. There is hope that the few breweries that have closed will be all that will do so. Some of that hope is based on the two breweries soft-opening during this time, as well as other pending breweries moving ahead.
I feel there will be a new appreciation for being able to sit in a taproom and enjoy a beer with strangers who will become friends.
As much as everyone agrees the post-COVID landscape will be different, this could lead to positive changes to ABC regulations making business operations easier for the small business owner. In the meantime, it will continue to take the active support of consumers and continued collaboration in the brewing community to survive and come back stronger.