WOMEN IN BREWING | BETTERING OUR INDUSTRY
January 6, 2018 By Kelly Costello in Brewing, Events, Taproom on Women in Brewing | Bettering Our Industry
What I’ve Learned
Hi everybody! It’s Kelly, your friendly neighbourhood BetaBrew Manager. I’ve been in this business for a little over a year now. The robotic nest I inhabit has been pretty close to perfect. Warm enough. Safe enough. Just enough worms vomited in my direction for me to really thrive. I’ve learned things from everyone around me -including some of my fellow women in brewing – and been encouraged to seek out facts from other beautiful brains (EMILY TIPTON, I LOVE YOU). I’ve been given access to resources, supplies, equipment, and seemingly bottomless Meatball Heroes (Thank you, Sam and Tony). I’ve been pushed to improve my brewing practice and my character... and my punctuality. Space has been made for me in ways that I never expected.
But that’s within my nest.
Beyond that, sometimes I feel safe and warm and sometimes people even puke worms at me, which is nice. It’s familiar. Often, especially in other breweries/nests, people share their information and experiences. They seem to really recognize that the more everyone knows about beer and how it’s made, the better it gets, which is what we want. Usually, I can ask questions, be it about water profiles or hop utilization methods or a simple “what’s that” or “where can I get more worms/meatballs” and the answer is there, given to me freely.
The Problem I Experience
All that said, I still sometimes get laughed at, talked down to, talked over, and even sexually harassed. I’m white, cys-, hetero-, and physically able. I’m soaring in privilege and I still get the bird-shit end of the stick sometimes. This isn’t a “wah wah, everything sucks” message. This is a plea that if we’re going to put so much energy into bettering our beer, then we should also put energy into bettering our beer environments. Socially, and not just for women in brewing, but everyone. We need to crack through the happy shell we’re incubating in and puke encouragement onto the next wave of worm-lovers. Wait, the metaphor is becoming a metamorphosis... You know what I mean! My brewing does not impede your brewing. So yay! Let’s all make beer and eat worms!
FemmeBot Homebrew Competition
Oh, and in the spirit of bettering our beer environments, I’m organizing FemmeBot Homebrew Takeover, a homebrew competition targeted at women in brewing and fabulous femmes. The rules are simple:
• Who? FemmeBots (female and female-presenting brewers).
• What? Beer must be pre-Prohibition style (from when brewing was truly a woman’s job).
• When? March 1st is deadline for submission: 4 x 351mL bottles (or equivalent) with recipe, ABV, name and brewer’s info. Here is the submission form. March 7th (International Women’s Day weekend), winners announced at FemmeBrew Tap Takeover.
• Where? Drop off at Good Robot. Winners announced at Good Robot.
BetaBrew – Kelly, Maria & Erica brew Holy Mole, a brown ale with mole. Sign up here and help get the word out. Happy brewing.