We’ve had the Women of Beer, so how about the Beer of Women? To date, 2011 has been the year of women in beer, or at least the year they finally started to gain some of the recognition they deserve. The Australian wing of all-female beer appreciation society Barley's Angels kicked off with events in Sydney and Melbourne, the Thornbury Theatre hosted the Victorian Women of Beer live event during the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival and plans are afoot for an all female brewing company.
The second half of the year looks set to be just as busy with the announcement of the first ever “Women of Beer Brew Day". Bringing together the talents of True South’s Sam Füss, Red Hill’s Karen Golding, Two Birds' Jayne Lewis, Matilda Bay’s Aine O'Hora, Hargreaves Hill’s Beth Williams and the Beer Diva, Kirrily Waldhorn, it will take place at True South Black Rock on July 23.
The plan is to brew 1000 litres of a 9% spicy Belgian style tripel that will then be sold for charity. The Crafty Pint was lucky enough to join the Women of Beer when they held a benchmark tasting of Belgian tripels. When asked why they chose this particular style, their answer was simple: “Because it's a decadent, elegant treat”.
True South head brewer Sam came up with the idea to do the collaborative brew, the first anywhere in the world under the Barley's Angels banner, and says it was a natural extension from the Thornbury Theatre event.
"We found that we had a lot of the same ideas about craft brewing and what we do," she says. "It's under the Barley's Angels banner so it give us an opportunity to get some of those girls [in the society] into a brewery."
The plan is to co-opt any willing female spectators to help with processes such as hops additions.
"It's a chance to break down the walls and give people a chance to come along and hang out with us six girls and ask the questions they never get the chance to ask," she says.
It won't be a ladies only affair though, as everybody is welcome to watch proceedings and enjoy a traditional Argentinian BBQ lunch upstairs on Mawson’s Landing. Bookings are essential for the lunch, which costs $55 for the BBQ and a beer. Head here for more info. If you just want to pop your head in for the brew, there’s no charge.
To enable as much of the proceedings as possible to go to charity, True South donated the brewing facilities and Grain & Grape, Bintani and Cryer Malt donated the brewing consumables.
