The Reflect Project: Women & Beer

Reflect // Project Part 2 of 4: Women & Beer - The reflect project is about thinking back to look ahead. 

1. Black Beer Community

2. Women & Beer 

3. Queer Beer Community 

4. Local Love & Beer 

Preface: 

This article is part 2 of 4 of a miniseries that I’ve wanted to create for a while. The purpose is to share my own perspective and thoughts and to shed light on minorities of the beer world. This article is looking at women in the beer community. 

Reflect: 

As I’ve written before, according to history we can thank women for beer! When beer recipes began being recorded, we really only acknowledged male and female genders (thankfully this has and continues to change!) With that, it was females who were recognized for their brewing talents from the start. 

Nearly 4,000 years ago, “Sumerian women brewed low-alcohol beer for religious ceremonies and as part of the daily food ration. Sumerian brewers enjoyed tremendous respect, in part because they probably also served as priestesses of the revered beer goddess, Ninkasi. Sumerians believed Ninkasi oversaw the brewing process and “worked” as head brewer to the gods, who’d gifted beer to humans to preserve peace and promote well-being. They showed their reverence in the Hymn to Ninkasi, history’s oldest written beer recipe.” Craft Beer & Brewing.

Over the centuries we’ve seen the beer industry turn into a male-dominated industry, but we are seeing a shift to more equal trajectories regarding gender.

Interestingly, hops and their preservative powers were the beginning of the end for women’s dominance in brewing; it is believed to be a woman who first wrote about the scientific properties of hops, said Jeffrey Pilcher, an author, and professor of food studies at the University of Toronto, Scarborough. 

In the 12th century St. Hildegard of Bingen was a brewer and herbalist who described using hops in beer, “and for that, she has been venerated as an unofficial patron saint of beer.”

By the 20th century, beer was an industry dominated by men: brewing it and consuming it. 

According to Teri Fahrendorf, a brewmaster for three decades and founder of the Pink Boots Society, “Beer became known as a man’s beverage because it was made by men. The teamwork that had existed earlier in beer [production] went away, and women had a new image: demure, virginal, married. Suddenly it was maybe not so ladylike to have a beer."

If we look at Prohibition, we often see historical pieces on women supporting this cause and trying to shut down the pubs and saloons, but that’s only one story… In fact, many women enjoyed drinking at the semi-secret speakeasies, and the saloon’s demise made it possible for women to band together to oppose Prohibition. In fact, hundreds of thousands did so in creating the Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform. But that’s really about consuming alcohol, and if we look into the actual creation of beer and booze, more women began looking for employment in the 1900s (think 60s/70s) and breweries were a good option.

Now, it’s hard to discuss females in the beer (alcohol) industry without throwing some shade at the media. Women were perceived as the catalyst for prohibition, so when it was lifted, the media went after women trying to coax them into drinking, clearly unknowing that they were already doing so.

Sure, you look at some of the horrifying marketing campaigns that sexualized, objectified and degraded women and you probably think ‘why the hell would I want to be part of an industry that portrays women like that?’ I’ll tell you why - to change it! No, I’m not saying that women shouldn’t wear bikinis and drink beer, women (and every single human) get to dress how the hell they want and drink what the hell they want! The difference is the conversation behind it. What’s the word here... umm... ah, yes, ~equality~!

I highly recommend checking out the #NoAppleogies initiative, “a space for women in the drink industry to connect, share their experience & support each other. This project was created in response to misogyny in the cider industry which sparked a large discussion regarding how safe our space is.”

Project:

I want to shout out the progress that women have made in the beer industry - as bar/beertenders, cicerones, photographers, writers, brewers, teachers, etc. Women have been making moves towards leveling the beer industry as a whole, and that’s amazing! 

While stats and facts are my favourite things, they tend to be tougher to come by... but I managed to find a few, and I did want to share some cool ones with you! 

• 7.5% of brewers are women (Brewers Association)
• the number of female staff jumps to 37 percent for women in "non-production, non-service" roles, like sales and marketing (Brewers Association)
• 33% of craft beer drinkers in Canada are female, age 18-34; 30% age 35-54; 21% age 55+ (Statista 2018) 
• women will spend about 6.9% more per brewery visit than men

Recommended: How Women are Reinventing the Look of Craft Beer an article from Women of Beer

Things are shifting and in the best way possible. We have so much space to grow, so let’s go. 

Exploring the craft beer community through my Instagram has truly opened up a whole new world and meaning to the word community. There are amazing groups to push this growth, like the Pink Boots Society, and Society of Beer Drinking Ladies, “owned & operated by Erica Campbell and Jaime Dobbs with the help of our awesome coordinators and volunteers! We host North America’s largest All Ladies Beer Festivals as well as bevies, beer dinners, and more in Toronto, Hamilton, and Ottawa.”

Another great one is the Calgary BABES: Barley’s Angels Beer Education Society

And so many more!

Additionally, there are many beer festivals that support female empowerment within the community, such as Beers With(out) Beards in New York and FemAle Brew Fest in South Florida. 

Lastly, there are women like Megan Stone, leading the way in continuing the conversation of diversity in the beer world. Megan is the media coordinator at Societe Brewing Company and she was also awarded the Woman of the Year Award in 2020 from the Craft Beer Marketing Awards for her work in diversity, equity, and inclusion in the beer industry.

Closing:

There’s always more work to do, so let’s lift up our fellow beer lovers, beer experts, beer makers, educators, and everyone who shares our admiration for beer! To reflect is to learn, to project is to create the future we want. 

Listen: Women in Brewing, Episode 5, Beer & Boobs, ‘Today the Women in Brewing discuss the evolution of marketing beer and how it's evolved to encompass the increasingly diverse beer-drinking market. They also get into their solo brewing experiences, lessons learned, and the enjoyment of personal growth’

And, Season 2 Episode 2: #NOAPPLEOGIES of the Four Elements Craft Beer Podcast 

Read: Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women's Work in a Changing World, 1300-1600 

Watch: Educating Women About Beer

BONUS: Women of Beer: A Quick List, includes Carol Stoudt, Brewmaster and Owner, Stoudt’s Brewing Company, and the very “First Lady” of craft beer *swoon*

The beer I’ve paired with this article is Hopping Mad & Galactic Pale Ale, from Granite Brewery, Toronto because I find Mary Beth Keefe a striking and inspiring woman. She is the co-owner and head brewer at Granite Brewery! She is a hop-head herself, so I felt it only appropriate to share some very delicious and hop-heavy beers here.

Cheers,

Just Beer Banter