When it comes to beer, both the industry and the drink have long been tied up with a very masculine image propagated by beer names that can be macho and even loutish, but the brewing world is not only home to men. Female brewers have been historically undervalued and underrepresented, and women in the industry have long been on a mission to gain more visibility.
Female winemakers and sommeliers are not the only professionals in the art of drinking who find themselves having to go to bat for making themselves known. In the brewing world, the work of these professionals unfortunately often gets short shrift or goes completely unnoticed. You might think that there are only a few examples of female brewers drinking a reality that would only be the exception.
Yet women in the beer business need to have the spotlight on them and their work more than ever, and that's true around the world! In the United States, some 15 years ago, a community of female brewers came together to promote their work by forming the Pink Boots Society under the leadership of a young professional working in Oregon, Teri Fahrendorf. Its members have adopted pink boots as a symbol of their actions. The organization supports all women who have made their profession in the world of craft beer. The group organizes meetings to promote professional exchanges, provide members with the necessary means to take part in training and offers scholarships. The Pink Boots Society maintains links with its members through clubs, which it distinguishes as "chapters" that have spread around the world. Groups have been formed in New Zealand, Australia, France, the Netherlands and Spain.
For the past five years, the organization -- known by its acronym PBS -- has taken advantage of International Women's Day scheduled on March 8 to raise funds. The project provides for the brewing of a specific beer on the same day all over the world, according to a predefined set of specifications, including the choice of specific hops. In France, the Brasserie du Pays Flamand, located in Merville in the Nord department, is leading this fight for visibility by participating in this "Annual Pink Boots Collaboration Brew Day." For the occasion, 80 hectoliters of an IPA brewed by 18 professionals from various regions of France have been produced and will be available for sale.
It's not the only initiative in France focused around a 100% female brew. In 2018, Elisabeth Pierre, a famous zythologist who provides training in the various trades of beer, launched a collaborative beer alongside professionals in the hope of highlighting the expertise of women. The author of a French guide to beers from Hachette named the recipe Bierissima, a name also used for her club which consists of a community of female brewers. Last summer, a pack was designed around brews "created, produced and sold by women brewers and entrepreneurs."
Putting women back at the heart of brewing is, in fact, only fair. After all, they are at the origin of beer-making. According to José Falce's book "La bière : une histoire de femmes," the recipe for beer is the result of cereal grains that had been stored outside, exposed to humidity and then ended up in a kind of soup (at the time, women were in charge of cooking, especially bread and cereals). This was 9,000 years ago. Beer later became tied up with men's history when monks took over the brewing in the Middle Ages.
