So I just poured this for my fiancée and I: Delirium's Deleria 2015. BREWED BY WOMEN. Now before I get into this, I don't intend to offend anyone, this is purely out of curiosity. But, does labeling a beer as "brewed by women" somewhat frustrate anyone else? I don't mean this in a "Oh, a girly pink bottle..." sort of way, but simply by highlighting WOMEN. I've seen this a few times recently, Delerium, Schmaltz's She'brew, etc. and I don't get it aside from a marketing point of view. I feel like highlighting that it's brewed by "insert sex/race/genus/species/kingdom here" sort of knocks the beer before you even know anything about it, unintentionally. Do you need to say that a beer is brewed by a gay couple if it is? And is that rainbow striped bottle with the added emphasis that it was brewed by a male-male or female-female couple supposed to excite me? Work, attention to detail, trial and error, study, and good practice/ingredients make good beer, not the sex/orientation or whatever other detail of the brewer. I guess, my point is, sell me the beer, not the sex (or sexual orientation per my hypothetical scenario) of the brewer. Incredible beer has been made by men, women, eunuchs and transgender people alike, I'm sure. The end product is what matters. I am (hopefully very clearly to everyone reading this) belonging to the "it doesn't matter who made it as long as it's good" camp. Where do you stand? Does it influence your purchase at all (in a positive or negative way)? Or does it not matter?
I believe its purely marketing. If they put on the bottle 'made by WOMEN' it appears they are trying to target a specific audience. I would hazard a guess most breweries know that if it's good, it will sell. However they might be trying to tap into a different demographic (in this instance, women ) that may not purchase it normally. Just an idea
Mostly, I care about a beer's taste rather than the race/sex/gender/cause du jour of the brewer. So if a beer Brewed by Orphans tastes like poop, I ain't buying.
Yes, mostly marketing. But an argument could be made that a beer brewed by women will appeal more to women, and thus be bought and consumed by more women. Women are underrepresented in the beer world (meaning simply that, to my knowledge, less than half of all beer is made by them), so highlighting the fact that X beer is brewed by women underscores the fact that (contrary to popular belief) beer isn't made exclusively by a bunch of white guys. I guess I don't have a huge problem with it, but it wouldn't necessarily prompt me to buy it either. But then they're not marketing this one to me.
I wish the brewers wouldn't go that route, though sometimes it can be entertaining, especially the counterparts which often don't exist. Still waiting to see commercials for whitepeoplemeet.com
I believe that beer was part of the International Women's Day so putting "Brewed By Women" they are drawing more light onto the meaning behind the day (gender equality).
