The Founders Brewing Co. racial discrimination lawsuit that drew national attention this week has sparked anger and disappointment from the local craft beer community — and it's leading to some Detroit bars, restaurants and shops pulling Founders beers from their shelves.

PJ's Lager House, Standby, The Skip, Bobcat Bonnie's, UFO Factory and 8 Degrees Plato are among the Detroit establishments who have said this week they've stopped or will stop carrying Founders products.

"Until we hear something different from the company as far as them taking a plan of action to address some of the things they got going on internally within their company, we just decided not to sell the product anymore," said Paul Maiale, PJ's Lager House operations manager.

Meanwhile, Standby and The Skip, two downtown Detroit bars under the same ownership, pulled their Founders beers Tuesday.

"We understand that our vote is with our dollar and we want to spend that dollar with companies who operate with integrity and champion their community and their employees," Brent Foster, a bar manager for Standby, said via email.

Founders Brewing Co. backlash:Read the leaked deposition here

Though the lawsuit against Michigan's largest brewery was filed last year on behalf of former Founders employee Tracy Evans, the case reached a boiling point Monday, when a Detroit Metro Times story leaked a deposition from the case involving the Founders Detroit taproom general manager who fired Evans.

In the deposition, the manager, Dominic Ryan, would not answer whether he knows Evans is black, and proceeded to say he doesn't know the race of Barack Obama, Michael Jordan or former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick because he has "never met" them.

Those comments — and Founders' response via its lawyer, who continued to deny the allegations — sparked a barrage of angry comments from customers and craft beer enthusiasts across social media. Founders, usually active on social media, has gone silent across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram since Monday, and has pulled out of this weekend's Fall Beer Festival, Detroit's largest annual beer festival hosted by the Michigan Brewers Guild.

8 Degrees Plato, a popular beer store for craft enthusiasts on 3409 Cass Ave., said Wednesday it will no longer sell Founders beers once the current allotment on its shelves is sold.

"We are choosing to no longer carry Founders products until the current situation resolves itself in a positive outcome," owner Tim Costello said in a Facebook post.

At Corktown bar PJ's Lager House, Maiale said he was "on the fence" about Founders since news of the lawsuit first broke last year, and that the leaked deposition "solidified" the bar's decision.

"It's unfortunate that sometimes in a management position, when you don't address things appropriately, they can spiral out of control and they can really hurt the bottom line of the company that you work for," he said.

Dion Fischer, the owner of UFO Factory, said that when the bar reopened last October, he decided to discontinue sales of Founders beer due to the allegations of racism within the company. Like Maiale, he also cited the leak as the incident that "cemented" their decision.

"We believe that businesses have a responsibility to rebuke racism, homophobia, sexism and all forms of prejudice," Fischer said via email. "We strive to in some small way, reflect the history of diversity and magic that is Detroit."

Grand Trunk Pub in downtown Detroit pulled the plug on Founders last month, mainly because Founders agreed to sell a 90% majority stake to Spanish beer company Mahou San Miguel last August, said co-manager Donny McGrath.

"Grand Trunk sells Michigan craft beers, and they're no longer a Michigan brewery," said McGrath, who added that the lawsuit "didn't help."

Most other shops, bars and restaurants in the metro Detroit area still carry Founders beers as of Thursday afternoon. BarFly Ventures — the Grand Rapids-based parent company of HopCat, a popular chain of gastropubs in Michigan and across the Midwest — had no comment on the situation Thursday when reached by the Free Press.

Evans worked as events and promotions manager for Founders' Detroit taproom. He alleges Founders tolerated a "racist internal corporate culture," passed over him for promotions because of his race and that the company fired him in retaliation for complaints to human resources. He also alleges that Founders managers in Grand Rapids electronically named its two printers the "white guy printer" and "black guy printer."

Founders has denied most of these allegations, though it admitted that in two instances, employees used the n-word around Evans and weren't immediately fired (full lawsuit response here).

Eastern Market Brewing Co. remains out on Fall Beer Fest

Eastern Market Brewing Co. said it will still not attend this weekend's Fall Beer Festival in Eastern Market despite Founders pulling out.

The brewery at 2515 Riopelle, just a block from the festival, had said earlier this week it would skip Fall Beer Festival because it didn't believe Founders deserved to be there.

The full post:

We have made the decision to stand by our position that we will not attend the Detroit Fall Beer Festival this weekend, even though Founders will no longer be attending. This decision was made as a team with input from community members that we love and support. What started as a stance against Founders has served as a reminder that the topic of diversity and inclusion is bigger than beer. We need to move the conversation past the negativity surrounding this situation and begin to focus on what we all can do to create positive change in our community and industry. We're excited to begin working with the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion, CitizenDetroit, and other local organizations to keep the momentum going. As always but this weekend, in particular, our taproom will be a communal space for open and honest dialogue. We also acknowledge that we need to change. As a community-focused brewery, we need to stand by our values and work to become a better and more diverse representation of Eastern Market and Detroit. This is a commitment we are making to ourselves and our community.

Spirits of Detroit writer Brian Manzullo covers craft alcohol for the Free Press. Contact him: bmanzullo@freepress.com and on Untappd, bmanzullo and Twitter, @BrianManzullo and @SpiritsofDET.