Women in brewing

There was a small piece on this subject recently over at Serious Eats:
http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2012/10/female-craft-brewers-you-should-know.html?ref=search

the Vicaris Tripel is a really nice beer.

 

I read this the other night - http://www.brewingnews.com/northwest/

Pretty decent read. My conclusion is there's nothing stopping women from Brewing except societal norms (in the US anyway) which means change will come.

My wife used to be a part time brewer at a brewpub. She said she thought one of the reasons she got the job was the owner being impressed that a woman would even apply.

 

Good thread. Women in brewing, like women in every other aspect of our society, rarely get recognized as pioneers.

I too am interested in who the big name women in brewing are right now as well. Looking forward to the responses of this thread....

 

There is a growing contingent of women brewing beer in Franconia/Bavaria: http://www.br.de/nachrichten/oberfranken/holladiewaldfee-frauenbier-100.html (in German, but with pics). Apparently many of their beers are top notch, including this one, a "Spring Weizen," which I plan to seek out next time I'm back that way:

 

I'll probably get a lot of heat for stating this, but I really don't care what the sex of the brewer is. This is another take on the recent thread about craft beer being dominated by "white males."

Seems to me our culture needs to get past obsessing over what race, sex, etc someone is. The same people who tell us such things shouldn't matter are always the ones who bring the topic up.

When I drink a good beer, I don't sit there wondering what race or sex or ethnic category or religion or (insert group identity here) brewed it. And if it's a drainpour, I don't say to myself "Huh. This pisswater must have been brewed by an effin' (insert group identity here.)"

If (insert group identity here) want to get into brewing or simply drinking craft beer, no one's stopping them.

 

There are quite a few female brewers working professionally and I believe the number is growing. Not being such a geek that I know all the brewers, male and female by name, I am having trouble recalling them specifically. But in DC I believe there is a woman doing a lot of brewing in collaboration with others and on track to open her own brewery if she hasn't already. Help me out here guys, there was a piece on her in the BA mag not too long ago. Also there is a woman with a pretty successful Belgian brewery who also escapes me at the moment.

Here in NJ there is a thriving woman's homebrewing club that meets at the Coppermine, a great beer bar in North Arlington. And a lot of women who stay away from that kind of scene too, because they are simply brewers, not "chick" brewers, and don't want to pigeonhole themselves like that. My wife is getting her thing together pretty nicely and so far bristles at the idea of joining a woman's homebrewing club.

Also...I believe women's interest in the craft beer world is on the rise, but that is purely anecdotal. I know there a lot of female members here (we could always use more), some of whom are in this thing with both feet, and some of whom I had no idea were women until very recently (which I think is a good thing as it really doesn't matter does it?). We definitely have a handful of female friends who are very open to craft beer and drink a wide variety of styles.

Two more tangents I want to go off on....in my experience many women are turned off by the sheer calories and bloating factors of major beer consumption and tend to gravitate towards lighter cocktails and wine. Again anecdotal but also understandable. I know personally I carry around about 20 pounds more than I did before returning to good beer after a long hiatus and am working on getting that off but it is a legimate downside to being beer-crazed. Unless you're a mega-metabolism kid who runs or cycles 100 miles a week. I'm 40 and weight-train and do cardio but new marriage and intense job pressures have cut down on my exercise a good deal.

Finally I'm just curious about BA members feelings about this: I notice women in general tend to have photos of themselves in their avatars a lot more than men do. Why do you think that is and is that helpful or hurting them in a male-dominated scene? I feel like if you are an attractive female, and there seem to be quite a few around here, men tend to see that more than anything else. Which obviously isn't fair but it is what it is.

Sorry for the long ramble. Interested in everyone's thoughts on these subjects, particularly the female members.

 

If they are brewing when will they have time to clean and cook?

The single best homebrew i have ever had is a tripel brewed by a woman.

 

If you're a white male, then you are of course less likely to think about who brewed the beer you're drinking. White men haven't had to jump the same hurdles as other groups in their attempts to achieve great things, like owning and operating a brewery. So they rarely reflect on the achievement of it all when it happens.

However, if you are black and are drinking a Brooklyn you may find some pride in the fact that Garette Oliver had a hand in making that product because you know first hand the oppression that blacks have faced and do face. Same goes for women. If you are a woman and are drinking a brew made by a woman you may find some pride in knowing that someone similar to you achieved, despite the inherent discrimination that exists against your gender.

In short, the person that says, "Who cares about race/gender? Stop making it such a big deal. I don't care about it, etc" is usually a white male (of course not always). White males frequently don't think about it or care about it because they don't have to. They largely don't know what it's like to be systematically marginalized, so they don't have the same appreciation of achievement as those that have.

To put it another way. Having the money, support, skills and education necessary to open up a brewery is something white men take for granted. Having all of the above mentioned variables when you are a non-dominant group, despite the fact that all of those variables have been systematically denied to non-white male groups over time, is something worth recognizing and celebrating.

Saying something like "who cares?" assumes there's a level playing field and denies the achievement of it all.

But enough about all that, as I fear I am going to get us off on a major side conversation. Cheers to female brewers past, present and future!

 

Martha and Anya from Pretty Things

side note: at least every other issue of BA magazine should have a hot chick from the industry on the cover

 

New Belgium was co-founded by Kim Jordan.

 

Definitely a great way to get more respect for women in brewing. Maybe they can have a centerfold too?

 

I know that Japan is starting to brew some craft beers, so I assume then that there are Asian men in the brewing business then?

 

Virginia/DC has quite a few women brewers (Hardywood Park, Lost Rhino, Apocalypse, Blue Jacket)

 

Look up the "Pink Boots Society" of women brewers and read all about it.

 

I believe De Dolle and Urthel each have women running or co-running the show.

And (in)arguably the best beer bar in Louisiana, the Avenue Pub, is spectacularly curated and run by a woman.

 

Come to think of it, one the most -- if not THE most -- important women/woman in brewing is Sabine Weyermann, of Weyermann maltings, who supplies legions of women brewers and who collaborated with Deb Carey to make new Glarus's Two Women Lager.

 

Your points are valid and I agree with them but chill out a little, but it's only a inquiry and a discussion - not a criticism.

 

If you agree with 5thOhio I encourage you to read my response to him. It may lend a different perspective on the matter.

 

I agree with you also but we're only talking about beer here not about society in general. If that was the case, I would only drink beer brewed by native Americans. By the way, are there any?