This blog is about beer and life.
Posts tagged road brewer
Women Brewers Unite
Mar 12th
March is National Women’s History Month here in the United States. It is an annual celebration of women and their roles in history, sponsored by the National Women’s History Project. As with so much else, the realm of beer seems dominated by men. It is primarily men who are marketed to, primarily men who are the brewers and homebrewers, and primarily men who write about beer. But not entirely. The blogosphere is no different. So, to celebrate Women’s History Month, Hop Talk is taking time out to get to know some of these women.
This is a guest article by Teri Fahrendorf.
The Pink Boots Society was founded by me in 2007. I had quit my job after 19 years as a professional brewer in order to depart on a massive 5-month road trip. During this road trip I visited 70 breweries and brewed at 38 of them. I blogged my trip live from the road at www.roadbrewer.com.
During my trip, I met several women brewers. I also met many men brewers who had never encountered a woman brewer before. After enjoying the company of fellow brewer Laura Ulrich at Stone Brewing Company near San Diego, I determined to keep track of the women brewers I met or heard about during my trip. After many requests for my “List of Women” brewers, I christened it the “Pink Boots Society” and posted the list to my website at www.pinkbootssociety.com. The list is updated as often as I get new information, which currently means weekly.
As of March 8th, there are 57 active women brewers listed in the USA section, and that only includes one brewer from any of the large international mega-breweries. The other 56 are all women craft brewers! Once the large breweries start sending me the names and locations of their active women brewers, you can expect the Pink Boots Society to at least double.
There are also 17 former women brewers on the list, and 26 active women brewers from outside the USA. The list at www.pinkbootssociety.com is by no means conclusive, and I continue to seek the names, locations, and breweries of all the currently active and former women brewers that I can find. If your local brewer is a woman and she’s not on the list, please ask her to email me.
The very first Pink Boots Society meeting will be held during the Craft Brewers Conference, in San Diego April 16-19. For more information go to www.beertown.org. The PBS meeting will be an all-estrogen event, as only active and former women brewers will be attending, as well as women beer writers to document the event. Many women brewers have expressed excitement about this historic (herstoric) meeting, and look forward to meeting other women brewers and tasting their beers.
If you are interested in the doings and happenings of the Pink Boot Society, please subscribe to the e-Newsletter at http://visitor.constantcontact.com/optin.jsp?&m=1101801813325&ea=. Just think: a room filled with 30-40 professional women brewers and their beers. It couldn’t get any better than that, unless the meeting was held during March’s Women’s History (Her-story) Month.
Here’s your challenge for March. Study the list at www.pinkbootssociety.com, find a beer brewed by one of the breweries where a woman brewer is employed, chill and crack open with a toast to Ninkasi, the ancient Sumerian Goddess of Beer. Cheers!
Teri Fahrendorf is the Road Brewer (RSS feed / Atom)
Read Hop Talk’s interview of Teri Fahrendorf
Women of the beerosphere: Teri Fahrendorf
Mar 11th
March is National Women’s History Month here in the United States. It is an annual celebration of women and their roles in history, sponsored by the National Women’s History Project. As with so much else, the realm of beer seems dominated by men. It is primarily men who are marketed to, primarily men who are the brewers and homebrewers, and primarily men who write about beer. But not entirely. The blogosphere is no different. So, to celebrate Women’s History Month, Hop Talk is taking time out to get to know some of these women.
Teri Fahrendorf
What is your name?
Teri Fahrendorf
What is your location?
I live in Portland, Oregon.
What is your blog?
www.roadbrewer.com
Do you have a favorite style of beer? What is it?
I enjoy all well made beers and prefer to seek out the rare or unusual beers and styles.
How did you come to write a blog about beer?
I was the Brewmaster at Steelhead Brewing Company for 17 years. When I quit I went on a 5-month road trip where I visited 70 breweries and 3 distilleries, and brewed at 38 breweries. Family and friends wanted email updates, so instead I wrote a blog live from the road. My blog is attracting readers still, even though my trip was from June to October 2007. (Last summer.) [We covered Teri's journey in Beer walkabout. -Ed.]
What prejudices have you had to overcome?
About the blog? Or about being a woman Brewmaster? Or what? Not too many prejudices, but I would love to see brewing as a profession attract and employ an equal number of women brewers as men brewers.
Any other passions?
I am founder of the Pink Boots Society. If you know of any women brewers not on my list at www.pinkbootssociety.com, please send me their contact info or the name and location of their brewery. My passion is to promote women and professional brewing, especially craft or microbrewing.
Any parting thoughts?
All this beer talk is making me crave a beer. See ya…
Teri Fahrendorf is the Road Brewer (RSS feed / Atom)
Beer walkabout
Jun 13th
Walkabout
Walkabout is an Australian pidgin (or perhaps quasi-pidgin) term referring to the belief that Australian Aborigines “go walkabout” at the age of thirteen in the wilderness for six months as a rite of passage. They then trace the path of the ceremonial ancestors of their tribe, following the exact route that those ancestors took, and imitating in a fashion, their heroic deeds. The term is used in the film Crocodile Dundee among others. It is also a main theme in the book Mutant Message Down Under. (source: Wikipedia)
So, a “beer walkabout” would be wandering the country for up to four months, traveling 10,000 miles, and visiting upwards of 70 craft brewers along the way?
Well, that’s what Teri Fahrendorf is doing.
From the Eugene, Oregon Register-Guard:
The former brewmaster at Steelhead Brewing Company, Fahrendorf, 47, is packing up her brewing uniform (including a special pink pair of brewing boots), pointing her 1996 Chevy Astro van in the direction of Bend’s Deschutes Brewery and heading off on a 10,000-mile journey across the country and back. Along the way, she hopes to find brewing knowledge, new friends, old relatives and of course, beer.
Lots and lots of beer.
She plans to chronicle her trip on www.roadbrewer.com. I for one will be following her travels and travails.
“So many people have said, ‘I am so jealous, I am going to be watching the blog and living the trip vicariously (through you),’ ” Fahrendorf says. “This is every brewer’s dream trip to be visiting other brewers and putting on rubber boots.”
No kidding.
What do you think? Should I quit my job, leave my wife and children behind, and tour the country visiting, and working at, craft breweries? I can count on our Hop Talk readers to fund me, right?
Thought so. I guess I’ll live vicariously through Teri as well.
