Do women need a beer festival of their own?
Over the weekend, at The Big Picture Theater & Café, tucked between Sugarbush Resort and Mad River Glen in Waitsfield, Vermont, about 150 people lined up to sample beers. The tasting seemed much like any other beer festival, except for a few differences: mason jars holding flowers, bright pink drink tickets, and the majority of women to men.
The crowd at the first Betty’s Beer Fest was a stark contrast from a standard beer festival, where beards are abundant and the line for the men’s room almost always stretches longer than the women’s. But as the craft beer market has grown and spread its reach—the average American lives within 10 miles of a brewery and Vermont leads the nation for most breweries per capita, according to the Brewers Association, the industry trade group—women are carving out their space in the industry as brewers and professionals and consumers at tasting rooms and beer fests.
It’s certainly a big change from the early days of craft beer festivals in the ‘90s, according to panelist Lauren Clark, author of Crafty Bastards: Beer in New England from the Mayflower to Modern Day and a former assistant brewer for Cambridge Brewing Company.
“The face of craft brewing was a guy, whether were you brewing beer or appreciating beer,’’ Clark said at the Betty’s fest. “You would go to festivals and it was probably 80 percent men and some of the women were there just because they were going there with their husbands and boyfriends.’’
Now, she sees it evolving toward a more equal place.
“Going to bars and drinking beer became this male thing for a long time. But now, we’re shifting to a more equal place where it’s no big deal to see a woman having a pint of stout, she said. “It’s no big deal that a woman is running a taproom at a brewery. … It’s part of a larger cultural shift in general.’’
A beer festival for women may seem like a narrow niche, but there are festivals for Belgian beer, sour ales, and even a Bearded Brewfest, held this past March in Portland, Maine. “Why not have a beer festival for women?’’ asked event organizer Megan Schultz.
“… It’s not supposed to alienate men; that’s not what it’s about. But the way to get more women into craft beer is through things like education and exposure,’’ said Schultz, who also founded Vermont beer fests Hop Jam and SIPtemberfest.
The Betty’s festival kicked off Friday night with a screening of The Love of Beer, a documentary directed by Alison Grayson profiling notable women in the Pacific Northwest beer scene. It was followed by a panel discussion, moderated by Carolyn Tesini, EatingWell senior food editor and cofounder of the Maine Beer Mavens, and included women brewers, engineers, brewery managers and beer writers. Discussion ranged from the question of sexism as an issue in the craft beer industry to how two brewers bonded over observing that caustic, which is used to clean out brewing equipment, smells like Barbies.
Women drink beer now more than ever before. Women ages 21-34 are drinking craft beer over the national average and represent 15 percent of the total consumption of craft beer, according to the Brewers Association, which represents America’s small and independent brewers. But still, some women find that stereotypes and assumptions can prevail.
“When I go to bars, I feel like I know a really good deal about beer, but the bartender’s always talking to my boyfriend. If there’s a guy with me, they’re talking to them,’’ said Emily Bens, who was drinking a Fiddlehead Second Fiddle Double IPA with her friend Marissa Mendez.
Bens said she volunteered at the Vermont Brew Festival the past few years, but since she couldn’t make it this year, she wanted to check out a new, smaller festival. That it was women-focused was also a draw, said Mendez.
“I thought it was cool that it was all women brewing because I’ve always been interested in learning how to brew but it seems like—’’
“—a dude activity,’’ Bens replied.
“I’ve never had a girlfriend who’s, like, ‘Do you want to see what I’m brewing?’’’ said Mendez.
That was why Schultz said she saw the need for a women’s beer festival—to highlight the many different jobs women are doing in the beer industry, from brewing to working in the lab to managing a tasting room.
Gretchen Langfeldt got her start as a keg cleaner at Switchback Brewing Company in Burlington, Vermont, 10-and-a-half years ago when she was 22. She worked her way up to filling the kegs, to brewing and, now, she uses her mechanical engineering background as the plant engineer.
“It’s a science-based process and the more girls we get excited about math, science, engineering, the better,’’ says Langfeldt. “I’m teaching my niece what heat exchanges are. She’s 3-years-old, and she points them out now.’’
Other women have carved out spaces by managing breweries and selling the beer. Rachel Cleveland was the second employee at Fiddlehead Brewing Co. in Shelburne, Vermont, where she works as the tasting room manager, event coordinator, merchandise designer and a host of other titles.
“I love the culture and I love talking about beer, so I knew that this was the industry I wanted to get into. I just didn’t know how and I thought I had to be a brewer in order to do that,’’ said Cleveland. “I ended up getting my dream job.’’
Schultz said she wanted to start out small this year and she plans on growing it next year and adding additional educational elements like homebrewing classes, and potentially collaboration beers with local breweries.
“The conversation’s been started and we’re going to have this event again next year,’’ said Schultz. “There’s no question about that.’’
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