Delta Beer Lab

“The German beer hall was the community hub where people would get together in a huge room and talk to the people they came with—talk to the people they didn’t come with. I’m sure ideas were sprung; I’m sure disagreements were had. But that’s community. We see it in our state politics, our national politics, and our local community. I think breweries are a ripe place for change, one way or another.”

Pio (Tim Piotrowski),
Chief Beer Officer at Delta Beer Lab

Just about every Greater Madison area craft brewery has embraced their role as a community hub. This doesn’t mean they look or function identically, but that they operate with a strong sense of the values and goings-on around them. In the case of Delta Beer Lab, that recognition translates into actions promoting equality and equity through almost every business decision they make.

But promoting progressive philosophies wasn’t always Pio’s mission. Growing up and going to college in Stevens Point gave him the heart of the Lorax in nature preservation and resource management. “After college, I moved out to California and was the camp director for the YMCA of San Francisco. I lived at this beautiful camp—1,000 acres of redwood forest in the Santa Cruz Mountains.”

Awe-inspiring as it was, Pio also found he was learning a lot about life and diversity from the counselors and campers in the program he directed. He was also doing something he called camp brewing, which is essentially homebrewing in his private residence at camp. A new calling came, so he took the supplemental American Brewers Guild education program, which meant six months of intense biology, chemistry, and engineering courses ending in an internship.

Pio’s internship took place at the revered Oskar Blues Brewery in Longmont, Colorado. From there, he worked at three Rock Bottom Breweries in the Boulder/Denver area before transferring to their Minneapolis facility as head brewer. “I got to work in the shadows of some incredible brewers and form my own brewing philosophy based on what each had taught me.”

There was one more thing Pio had to do before committing the next phase of his life to Delta Beer Lab: hike the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. “The business plan was mostly written before that. Fundraising was started. The Delta name came up when I was about halfway through in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia—it’s the mathematical and chemical symbol for change. When I finished up the trail, I moved to Madison and wrapped up the fundraising side and got a lawyer, an architect, and a loan from the bank.”

Every experience up to that point proved influential in developing Delta’s mission statement, to expand the community through quality local craft beers without barriers to gender, race, and sexual orientation, when it opened in February 2019. The trick was striking a balance between wearing their progressive values on their sleeves without rubbing people’s faces in it.

“We want it to be a place where if you identify as LGBTQ+, you would immediately notice, and you’d feel welcome. There are folx in our community that don’t feel safe leaving Atwood because, even in Madison, they don’t feel safe in different parts of the community or different establishments. That’s not okay.” Signage outside makes Delta’s values clear, and the inside has a few rainbows hidden in plain sight, like the laboratory glass display behind the bar and some geometric wall art.

Messaging alone might be enough for some Greater Madison area businesses to feel good about the impact they’re making, but Delta needed more. They started by hiring bartenders that truly believed in the cause. “Everybody who walks through our door should be treated like a human first and foremost. We expect our staff not to treat everybody exactly the same, but we expect that they start from a place of humanity and welcome them into our home.”

Staff are paid Madison’s living wage plus revenue sharing, which means your tips are actually donations to a local nonprofit partner, rotating monthly. Each nonprofit has gone through a vetting process to ensure the majority of monies donated are being spent toward improving people’s lives. It’s been almost five years, and Delta Beer Lab has raised over $200,000 total for 42 nonprofits.

Delta also donates 1 percent of their revenue through 1% for the Planet, a program started in 2002 by Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia, and Craig Mathews, founder of Blue Ribbon Flies. After 21 years, 1% for the Planet has raised over half a billion dollars for environmental causes.

“Oh, and we make great beer,” says Pio.

In the world of craft beer, there’s generally a spectrum of focus a brewery will take when designing their beers, with true to style on one end and experimental on the other. Delta might have some fun beers, like their PKL.01 (Pickle Ale), but Pio’s passion in brewing lies in recreating styles as close to time and place as possible.

Getting the grain, hops, and yeast to be close to what was used centuries ago is easy enough, but in terms of water profiles, you’re generally victim to what’s available nearby. That’s where Delta’s industrial reverse osmosis water filter comes in. If you have Delta Beer Lab’s porter, the water is built up to mimic water in Dublin, Ireland. If you have their pale ale, that’s Burton-on-Trent, England, water.

Pio likes to call what he’s doing with beer a science, but I maintain there’s an art to his process. He was quick to agree. “That consistency could be considered art because I controlled the situation to present something beautiful to you while getting to an end goal or providing a message. … Part of the art is introducing people to flavors that they thought they were not supposed to like, but they actually do when presented in a different manner.”

We were essentially saying the same thing from two different perspectives, but finding a shared language is something Pio strives for. He doesn’t expect the values of his guests to always align with his own, but he insists on every person starting from a place of shared humanity. “I feel like it’s okay to encourage people to see equity as the only way forward.” Whether you come for beer or conversation, Delta Beer Lab is sure to welcome you with open arms.

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Delta Beer Lab

167 E. Badger Road
Madison, WI 53713
(608) 640-4500
delta.beer