West Allis bar gives out free beer from brewery involved in racial discrimination lawsuit

WEST ALLIS, Wis. (CBS 58) -- With Founders Brewery involved in a racial discrimination lawsuit, "The Drunk Uncle"  is pouring it all down the drain.

“For moral reasons, sometimes it’s not sad," owner Neal Steffek said. "It has to be done.”

Steffek then decided he would rather just give to customers for free.

It started for Michigan's largest brewery in 2018, when a former employee sued, alleging the company used the n-word around him multiple times.

The lawsuit also alleges the company referred to the printer for management as "the white guy printer,” while calling the general employee printer the “black guy printer.”

“I opened up all my cans and bottles and poured them down the drain," Steffek said. "I had a keg of their beer left. And I thought to myself, that’s going to be a long process.”

Customers were ready to participate.

“That’s great," Patrick Gunderson said. "I’ll drink it. But again, that’s the last Founders I’ll ever have.”

Steffek says the final straw was this leaked transcript reported by the Detroit Metro Times, where a Founders general manager would not answer whether the fired employee was black.

When attorney’s asked the manager if Barack Obama or Michael Jordan were black, he said he didn’t know because he’s never met them.

“I thought to myself, I can’t believe this is happening," Steffek said. "Founders made some - still makes some really good beer, but I just don’t want to be associated with their product anymore.”

Founders did not respond to our request for comment.