Lady Homebrewers

As you can tell from some of the previous posts, we are homebrewers. To me, the fascination with this process does not necessarily stem from my desire to drink beer. Instead, it is the challenge of cooking and creating something new.

Yeast is an endlessly fascinating creature, as is natural fermentation. Brewing beer is just another aspect of canning, pickling, and preserving food. These processes makes something normally wasted, inedible, or at the end of its shelf life, last for a much longer period of time. At the end of the season you can preserve fruits and vegetables from the garden to last through the winter.

This process then, is what I find to be really appealing. And, since my boyfriend likes drinking beer, I like brewing it!

So recently, we went to a local home brewers meetup group. It was in the back room of a bar. We walked into the dimly lit room, and there was a long table set up with a few tubs of ice, and quite a few rocks glasses. We were some of the first folks to arrive.

It didn't take long for me to figure out that home brewing is apparently dominated by men. Everyone was incredibly welcoming and very excited to hear that the two of us brewed together. But, I still struggled with the fact that I felt out of place. It didn't help that the space was also shared by a military reunion of some local veterans.

Two other ladies arrived a little bit later, one of whom I found to be quite helpful. She started brewing less than a year ago and had already won some awards! But, in a room full of 20 brewers, to only have 3 women seemed a pretty terrible ratio.

I guess the question becomes then, are there no women in it because women don't like brewing? Or is it more because getting into brewing is pretty scary - without someone to mentor you the whole process is pretty overwhelming. And when the vast majority of those brewers are guys who started brewing together in college, or do it during the football game, it seems very much a perpetuation of the old boys club.

So ladies wanting to get into brewing - some advice!

Just do it - it's rewarding, delicious, and a lot of fun.

Don't be intimidated. I heard so many times at the home brew club. "Man, I wish my girlfriend would come!", "I wish that my wife would brew with me!", "How'd you get your girlfriend here, man?" Clearly you are wanted and desired in the community, so don't let the fact that there will be a lot of guys there be a turn off.

I would also suggest, even if you aren't super into beer, (maybe you drink wine or cider, those things are cool too!), if friends invite you to brew, do it! It's a lot of fun, and if nothing else, doing it once is a new experience. And if you absolutely hate beer, and don't want anything to do with it, making wine and cider is almost the exact same process as brewing beer. It just takes much longer to get to the end product.

I find myself to be very particular about the beer that I drink these days. Even of the home brew that we make I only have a bottle of it every now and then. The reason I keep brewing is the challenge to create something new, but also the opportunity to share delicious things with friends. We frequently keep very little beer for ourselves - it's a process of creating and connecting with friends over that creation.

So, get yourself out there, find some brew friends, and get started!