New Badge: Support the Rad Women of Craft Beer!
Did you know women were the OG brewers!? Dating as far back as 4000 B.C., Sumerian women were found on Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets brewing beer. Take a brief look throughout history and you'll see the crucial role women played in making beer:
- 2000 B.C. – Evidence of Egyptian women making beer. The Egyptian goddess Hathor, the inventress of brewing and mistress of intoxication, is one of the first known goddesses of beer.
- 600-1000 A.D. – It was common in the Wari empire of Peru for women to make chicha, a fermented corn brew.
- 1400 A.D. – By this year women in London made up thirty percent of the brewers' guild. Called Ale Wives or Brewsters, these women owned taverns and brewed beer.
- 1500-1600 A.D. – As witchcraft became a great public concern, women's role in beer was seen as "bewitched," and by the late 1700-1800s the word brewster had all but disappeared and with it women drinking and working with beer.
Fast forward to today and the demographics tell a bit of a different story. Last year, a demographic audit of brewery owners performed by the Brewers Association reported that only 23.7% of brewery owners identify as female.
Still, the numbers are growing. So, when we celebrate International Women's Day on March 8th, it is more important than ever to recognize the achievements of women and femme-identifying folks in craft beer.
For many, that might mean drinking a beer from a women-led brewery. For others it could be purchasing a ticket to Hop Culture's 5th annual women in craft beer festival, Beers With(out) Beards.
In 2018, Hop Culture Managing Editor Grace Weitz conceptualized the first Beers With(out) Beards as part of her graduate school thesis capstone project at NYU. And over the past four years, this celebration of women in beer has grown to attract thousands of attendees and showcase over sixty women-led breweries. Additionally, the fest has featured over thirty-five events highlighting the achievements of women across all aspects of the alcoholic beverage industries.
This year the event returns in-person on Saturday, April 9th, 2022, at Brick South in Portland, ME. At the fest you'll be able to try beer from thirty-five-plus breweries that are either women-owned or owned by femme-identifying people, or that have women or femme-identifiying people in prominent leadership positions. This includes Bissell Brothers, Lamplighter Brewing, Outer Range Brewing, Resident Culture, Superstition Meadery, Twin Elephant Brewing Co., and many more.
Still others might choose to get together during a Pink Boots Society Collaboration Brew Day, an event celebrated across the country at various participating breweries where women get together to brew with a special Pink Boot Society Hop Blend created by Yakima Chief Hops (YCH). Every year YCH donates a portion of sales from this unique hop blend back to the premier women's leadership organization in the craft beer industry to use to fund its scholarships.
For the Untappd community, specifically honoring International Women's Day could mean earning the "International Women's Day" badge inspired by artwork from Hop Culture's BW(O)B artist for the past three years, Kailah Ogawa.
However you choose to celebrate, make sure that this March 8th, 2022, you find a way to support the badass women of craft beer.
To earn the "International Women's Day" badge: Check in any one (1) beer from March 7th, 2022, to March 10th, 2022.
Toast
