I recently attended a delicious event that focused on Women and Beer with beer from the Strong Rope Brewery (Brooklyn, NY). The program was presented by Hop Culture Magazine and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and Moderated by Grace Weitz.
Historically, women brewed beer for their families and sold what was not consumed to neighbors. When the US was first colonized, women were the primary brewers and made beer from corn, oats, wheat, and honey.
Men took over the responsibility for brewing beer during the Industrial Revolution, when beer stopped being a domestic product and became a money generating business.
Frequency and Age
A Nielsen Harris on Demand study found that craft drinkers are 31.5 percent female and 68.5 percent male, and consume a beer several times a year. Another research study determined that beer is the first choice of women aged 18-34. The numbers of women making and drinking beer has escalated and will continue to expand as soon as marketing executives stop targeting female beer enthusiasts as “unique buyers” and communicate with them about taste, reasonable/value price and with alcohol levels.
New York is slowly developing craft breweries with 72 currently registered; however, California (1st place) identifies 268 and Colorado comes in second place with 130.
Good for You
Research of over 238,000 women determined that moderate alcohol consumption could decrease the risk of rheumatoid arthritis by 22 percent. Women who drank beer moderately had a 31 percent decreased risk when compared to those who did not drink beer.
Beer can also increase blood vessel function by more than 50 percent, and it contains antioxidants (like wine) plus flavonoid compounds that are potentially heart healthy.
Women. Beer. Expertise
Role of Women in Beer History panel included:
· Theresa McCulla. Historian directing the American Brewing History Initiative at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
· Tara Nurin. Historian. Pink Boots Society and contributor to Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine.
· Carol Stoudt. First female brew master in the USA since prohibition. Founder, Stoudts Brewing Co. Lancaster, PA.
· Tonya Hopkins. Food historian, wine specialists and entrepreneur. Works with Harlem Hops with research on African beer making traditions.
· Diana Pittet. Professor. NYU Department of Food Studies and Nutrition, “History, Culture & Politics of Drinking.”
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