Fill Those Boots

May 29, 2014, by Crafty Pint

Fill Those Boots

A pair of beer-lovin' ladies are ending the week $5,500 better off than they started it. On the morning of the second day of last week’s Australian Craft Brewers Conference, Jayne Lewis of Two Birds Brewing announced the winners of the first Pink Boots Society Australia grants. Thanks to a venture run in conjunction with the Craft Beer Industry Association, Young Henrys brewer Agnes Gajic (above left) and Tanya Harrowell of True South (above right) have been awarded grants in order to further their beer education.

The Pink Boots Society was created in the US to empower women beer professionals to advance their careers in the beer industry through education. The Australian branch of the Pink Boots Society has over the last few years released limited run beers with the purpose of raising funds to allow women in the beer industry to access educational opportunities. And it is as result of this fundraising that they are able to offer the grants – one for a female brewer and one for a female working in a non-brewing role in the industry.

Agnes and Tanya were selected by a panel made up of the Pink Boots Australia committee featuring Jayne as well as Kirrily “Beer Diva” Waldhorn, Tiffany “BeerGirlBites” Waldron, Karen “Red Hill” Golding and Sam “Young Henrys” Fí¼ss. They were chosen from six brewer entries and 13 from the wider beer world – with all submissions removed of any identifying information to ensure the winners were chosen “blind”.

“Tanya was an absolute standout,” says Jayne. “It was a unanimous decision. Her submission was just incredibly well written and well thought out. It was exactly the kind of thing we want to encourage; everyone went, ‘That’s hands down the best application.’

“We also liked where things were with Agi and what she wants to do. We thought the grant was something that can really help her transition across into beer.

“She wants to set up a small brewery in a public space in cahoots with someone else who applied on the other side of the grants.”

The plan is for these grants to become a regular offering from the Pink Boots Society. Tanya plans to use hers to help fund a PhD study at Federation Uni into “Understanding the role of Women in the Beer Industry” with the intention that "research such as this could act as a starting point to help to ‘define and dramatically dictate people’s behaviours within companies and communities’ towards a more positive image, of and for, women within our Australian Beer industry.”

As for Agi, the plan is to set up “Beer Creative” – A Haven for Learning and Creating – with a friend who is a designer and home brewer. Their hope is that this small public brewery where people can come and learn how to brew on a full commercial setup "will improve the position of women in the beer industry as we will create an environment and a culture where women feel comfortable learning about brewing and will have access to equipment.”

Jayne says: “We had no definite idea what we were looking for. There was no specific requirement on how the grant had to be spent, the applicants just had to use them to increase their knowledge and to make a positive contribution in general. We will now be working with the winning applicants to make sure things happen the way we want them to and that the money ends up where it should. We want to make sure we get a really good outcome with this first set of grants.”

To become a member of the Pink Boots Society, you can sign up here.

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