Category Archives: Female Brewers

Wine, Women, and Basketball – But What About Beer?

The University of Toledo (UT), where I work, has a men’s and a women’s basketball team. I am not a basketball fan, so I really do not follow the fortunes of either one. On average, I probably attend a college basketball game once every five years or so. Back in January one of our doctoral students forwarded me an e-mail she had received promoting upcoming games for both the men’s and women’s teams. I am sure I had received the same e-mail, but upon seeing from the subject line that its content was about basketball, had probably deleted it. In sending me the e-mail, the student drew my attention to two upcoming UT basketball games – one involving the men’s team and one involving the women’s team. The men’s game was promoted as “Men’s Basketball Craft Beer Night”, while the women’s game was promoted as “Women’s Basketball Wine Night”. Fans were invited to come early to the Men’s game and sample some craft beer beforehand; come to the Women’s game and sample some wine beforehand. The student who brought these promotional ads to my attention questioned whether those responsible for them had given much, if any, thought to gender stereotypes. For both ads were clear examples of gender stereotyping – beer for the guys and wine for the gals. When I first saw these ads, I have to admit, they made me cringe.

In defense of the ads, one might argue that the UT Athletics Department were simply recognizing the reality that more craft beer drinkers are male than female, and more wine drinkers are female than male. According to a 2018 Nielsen Harris on Demand survey, 68.5% of craft beer drinkers who drink craft beer “at least several times a year” are male; 31.5% are female. Interestingly, the survey identified two markets where female craft beer drinkers outnumber male craft beer drinkers – Portland, OR and Providence, RI. In contrast, a 2018 study by Sonoma State University found that 60% of wine drinkers are female, and 40% are male. Despite these demographic differences, I will still submit that the the ads were an unnecessary exercise in gender stereotyping. Why not simply advertise the first game as being one where craft beer would be available beforehand, and the second as one where wine would be available beforehand?

Of course, this type of stereotyping is nothing new. A 2012 study by researchers at The University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University found that alcohol-related ads in women’s magazines were primarily focused on champagne and sparkling wine, while alcohol-related ads in men’s magazines focused on beer. Indeed, craft beer and gender stereotyping is a topic I have written about before.

Not only do many women enjoy craft beer, but they also are a number of women who own breweries and/or commercially brew beer. Last month, I attended the annual Nebraska Tourism and Adventure Travel Workshop in Nebraska City, NE. In addition to giving a presentation at the workshop, I was also a member of a panel on “Maximizing Your Exposure with Partnerships”. There were three of us on the panel. I was the only male. The other two panel members were Jessica Kraus, co-owner of Lost Way Brewery in Holdrege, NE and Jessi Hoeft of First Street Brewing Company in Hastings, Nebraska. The panel was moderated by Gabby Ayala, Executive Director of the Nebraska Craft Brewers Guild. Jessica is also Executive Director of the Holdrege Chamber of Commerce. These are smart, intelligent, successful women who know what they are talking about when it comes to beer and the craft brewing industry. For me, it was honor to share the stage with and learn from them.

Sharing the stage with (left to right) Gabby Ayala (Nebraska Brewers Guild), Jessi Hoeft (First Street Brewing), and Jessica Kraus (Lost Way Brewery) at the 2020 Nebraska Agritourism & Adventure Travel Workshop (Photo Credit: Nebraska Tourism Commission)

Unfortunately, and undeservedly, female brewers are often less highly regarded than their male counterparts. A recent study by researchers at Stanford University found that “craft beer described as produced by a woman is evaluated more negatively than the same product described as produced by a man.” According to Sarah A. Soule, one of the researchers on the project, “our research suggests that customers don’t value and are less inclined to buy traditionally male products if they think they’ve been manufactured by women . . . There’s an assumption that your woman-made craft beer . . . won’t be as good.”

It is easy to forget that before men arrived on the scene, brewing beer was primarily a task done by women. Indeed, in both Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt the beer that was brewed was done so almost exclusively by women. It was the same in pre-industrial Europe, where making beer was just one of a number of household tasks performed by women. Such was the case for Katharina von Bora, wife of the 16th century leader of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther. Von Bora brewed all the beer for the Luther household. And her husband loved it, often heaping praise on his wife’s brewing skills. In one of his many letters, Luther wrote, “I keep thinking what good wine and beer I have at home, as well as a beautiful wife.” In discussing the historical role of women as brewers, Allison Schell of the National Women’s History Museum refers to it as a “forgotten pairing“. What an apt description. It became forgotten because, in shifting from an economy based on agriculture to one based on manufacturing, the brewing of beer moved from small-scale home production to larger scale commercial production – and when that happened, men took over the brewing process.

Katharina von Bora brewed the beer for the Luther household
Source: Wikimedia Commons

So when it comes to beer and the brewing industry we (and by that I mean men) need to treat our female peers with respect. Whether they are brewers or consumers we have to understand that their gender does not define them. Rather, they are defined by their love, passion, and knowledge of beer. They are co-equals and partners in this wonderful journey that we, who love are craft beer, are taking.

Further Reading:

Tak, Elsie, Shelley J. Correll, and Sarah A. Soule. 2019. Gender inequality in product markets: When and how status beliefs transfer to products. Social Forces, Volume 98, Number 2, pp. 548-577.

Brewed By The Birds

Polly James (left) and Nerys Hughes (right) as The Liver Birds

 

The two sculptured birds atop Liverpool’s Royal Liver Building

The British can take credit for the creation of some wonderful situation comedies. Growing up in Scotland during the 1970s and 1980s I was a regular viewer of a number of these. Some of my favorites included Only Fools and Horses, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, and Porridge. Recently I was reminded of another – The Liver Birds. The Liver Birds ran for ten seasons on BBC from 1969 and 1979. Set in Liverpool the storyline focused on the lives of two women (Sandra played by Nerys Hughes and Beryl played by Polly James) who shared an apartment. The title for the series was inspired by two sculptured birds that are perched on top of Liverpool’s Royal Liver Building. The building, opened in 1911, was built to house the offices of the Royal Liver Assurance Group. The “bird” reference in the show’s title, however, is also a nod to the British slang word “bird”, which refers to a young woman. The American equivalent would be the word “chick”.

In Melbourne I enjoyed this Sunset Ale by Two Birds Brewing Company

Melbourne’s Hairy Little Sista Bar/Restaurant where I enjoyed a Sunset Ale

The show popped into my head, a few weeks ago, when I was in Melbourne, Australia. This was my fifth visit to Australia, but my first to Melbourne. I first visited Australia in 2006. While not much has changed since my first visit ten years ago one change that I have observed is the growing popularity of craft beer. Like Americans, increasing numbers of Australians, are demanding better quality and more flavorful beer than that which is offered by the large macro-brewers. I sampled quite a number of these Australian craft beers on my eight day trip there. One that I sampled was called Sunset Ale by Two Birds Brewing Company. It was recommended to by a bartender in Hairy Little Sista, a bar/restaurant in Melbourne’s CBD. I was with a colleague and we went into the Sista to get a beer. It was my round so I went up to the bar to see what was on offer. The bartender saw me perusing the selection of beers on tap and before I could make a decision she said “You should try the Sunset Ale by Two Birds Brewery. The brewery is owned by two women, that’s why it’s called Two Birds, and they make some really good beer. It’s brewed here in Melbourne”. This particular bird, the bartender, had a sweet smile – I couldn’t refuse her recommendation. And I was not disappointed. Sunset Ale is a tasty amber ale that comes in at an ABV of 4.6%. In fact I enjoyed it so much that I had another the next day in another bar; this time from a bottle.

The two birds behind Two Birds Brewing are Jayne Lewis and Danielle Allen. They both grew up in the city of Perth, in Western Australia and met there while teenagers. Throughout the course of their friendship they both developed a love and appreciation for  beer. Lewis eventually entered the brewing industry where she gained valuable experience working  for a number of Australian breweries, including as head brewer at Mountain Goat Brewery in Richmond, a Melbourne suburb. Allen, meanwhile, was putting her Marketing and Public Relations degree to work. Her passion was the food and beverage industry and she worked for a number of private sector firms following graduation. These included some time spent as Product Development Manager with the Australian retail giant, Woolworths, where she worked on the company’s private label brand of food products, ‘Select’.

In 2011 Lewis and Allen decided to enter the world of commercial brewing. At that point they were not ready to invest in a bricks-and-mortar brewery; instead they contracted with other  breweries to brew their beers. This allowed them to concentrate on other aspects of the business, including recipe development, establishing a distribution network, getting their brand known in the market, and also raising the financing to build an actual brewery. The latter they did in 2014 when they opened Two Birds Brewery in the Melbourne suburb of Spotswood. Within the Australian context Lewis and Allen are pioneers – they are the country’s first female brewery owners. As part of the process of establishing their brewery the Two Birds made several pilgrimages to the United States, one in 2010 and one in 2013. They did so to immerse themselves in the American craft beer scene, to see what they could learn, and to draw inspiration – the fact that they made not one, but two visits to the United States is  a testimony to the cutting edge nature of the American craft beer industry.

Regular readers of this blog know that I have covered the topic of female Brewers in previous entries. In March 2016 I interviewed Shannon Fink, Head Brewer at the Black Cloister Brewing Company in Toledo, OH. In July 2016 I wrote an entry about female-owned High Heel Brewing of Lakeland, FL. Historically, before beer became an industrialized product, the role of brewer was a predominantly female one.

After I returned from Australia I came across an article about two women, Aida Musulmankulova and Arzu Kurbanova. Musulmankulova and Kurbanova are the owners of Save the Ales, the first craft brewery to be established in the central Asian country of Kyrgyzstan. The brewery is located in Bishkek, the country’s capital city. Not only are the owners (who also happen to be the Brewers) female but they made the decision to hire an all-female staff.

While female brewers are still heavily outnumbered numerically by their male counterparts there is no question that the number of female brewers is on the rise. And here in the United States we have, I believe, reached the point where female brewers are no longer regarded as a curiosity or an oddity. And while there is still a ways to go female breweres are slowly, but surely, becoming mainstream. And that, surely, is a good thing.

A Beer for Women?

Back in May I came across a story in the USA Today. A new brewing company was up and running in Lakeland, FL. Nothing particularly newsworthy about that. Craft breweries are opening up at a rate of more than one a day. In 2015 alone 617 new craft breweries opened Continue reading A Beer for Women?

Rose of Shannon: A Conversation with Shannon Fink

While archaeologists are confident that the brewing of beer occurred in ancient Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) around 3,500 BC there is some evidence that people living in the same region were quite possibly brewing beer as early as 10,000 BC. In these
ancient societies brewing was a task performed by women. In medieval Europe and colonial America much of the beer that was consumed was produced in the home, with Continue reading Rose of Shannon: A Conversation with Shannon Fink