EP-253 Edwin Methu of Cloudwater Soda

My guest today has been in beer sales for the best part of a decade and seen how fickle and complicated the trade can be.  Edwin Methu's first job was at the infamous London Fields Brewery, an early innovator in the scene that slowly disintegrated due to the criminal dealings of its owner. Bouncing back from that he was part of a Camden Town Brewery sales team overseeing huge growth, before becoming a sales rep for Sierra Nevada at a time when local craft was forcing U.S. imports into decline.  It could be that diverse experience that made Cloudwater founder Paul Jones approach him for a sales role in his new venture, what was then named Good Call Soda. I'll let Methu tell the story of his introduction to the brand and the idea of hopped soft drinks, but it's clear that he loves a challenge and takes great satisfaction in changing people's minds. In the last year or so he's turned those personality traits to a bigger cause. As a person of color in an almost exclusively white industry, Methu has always been self aware in his work and socializing but the experience of taking some friends to a beer festival turned that unease into a feeling that something had to be done. He has become a vocal campaigner for the beer scene to cast its net wider and bring in people of all backgrounds and to challenge prejudice in all its forms with no exceptions. He is no keyboard warrior either—as he tells me, in the wake of the Founders racism scandal he has spoken to many stockists and convinced them to stop stocking the brand at all. At the same time he loves to champion those working towards diversity and the benefits and joy it can bring everyone. This is Edwin Methu of Cloudwater Soda, listen in.