women in beer

for the entire province article about women in beer at vancouver craft beer week, click here


Connolly, Dale and Fenn are three of the drivers behind the Women and Beer event on May 12, part of craft beer week. The nine-day festival boasts more than 60 events across Metro Vancouver that feature many of B.C.’s 30-plus microbreweries.
The wider scope of this year’s craft beer week is a response to last year’s sellout events and the growing thirst for craft beer in all its styles — from pale wheat ale to inky-black imperial stout.
The latest figures from the B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch show overall packaged beer sales falling 8.6 per cent year-over-year — but a 40-per-cent spike for microbreweries’ packaged product.

Not to be outdone, a team of women brewers, including Connolly, has created its own collaborative brew for VCBW, a cherrywood-smoked Belgian-style beer.
Over a round of craft ale in the Alibi Room bar in Gastown, Connolly, Dale and Fenn agree that the female presence in brewing will only get stronger.
“There’s definitely a place for women in the brewing industry, in the creative process and having women involved with running a company,” says Fenn, who founded Howe Sound with her brother David in 1996.
“Creating beer with local farm products and local fruits and local herbs, marrying the whole idea of farm to market to product,” she adds.
Connolly says women are better able to identify threshold levels of unique flavours.
“That’s why large generic brands of beer which are very low in flavour don’t really appeal to women,” adds Connolly, who says female craft-beer drinkers generally begin with fruitier styles before acquiring a taste for more bitter brews.
Dale, through her Pink Pints beer-education program, has opened many female eyes to beer.
“It’s getting them to realize what beer is all about, actually tasting beer,” Dale says.
Women in Beer offers a focus for women who care about the quality of food and drink to see how delicious beer can be.
As well as female representatives from the brewing world, there will be a five-course meal with pairings from B.C. breweries with a strong female influence — and a chance to try that Smokin’ Cherry Bomb collaborative beer.

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