Story by Julia Rafferty
Photos by Ellie Crowther-Dias
CHAPEL HILL N.C.– The craft beer industry has a man problem; There are only so many bearded, flannel-wearing white guys who want to buy more beer.
Gone are the glory days when the yearly double-digit growth of the craft beer industry was expected. Today, sales are facing a plateau. The overall U.S. beer volume sales were only up 1% in 2021, minor growth in comparison to the 2010s craft brewery boom.
The way to reverse the trend? More women making the beer.
“In order for craft breweries to be successful they’re going to have to focus more on their taprooms and the environment that they’re creating,” said Amanda Scherle, brewer at Dingo Dog Brewing Company in Carrboro. “They’ve got to reach out to demographics that I don’t think they’ve been intentionally excluding, but they’ve definitely not been including.”
In 2021, Brewers Association (BA) research revealed that today women-owned breweries comprise a minuscule 2% of the total. That’s only 160 female-owned breweries out of 8,000. Men alone own more than half of breweries, leaving less than half co-owned by mixed gender teams.
The lack of diversity in craft beer has a big impact on product and marketing and sales in the taproom and in stores, the female brewers say. To expand the customer base, more women are needed in the craft brew business. But it hasn’t always been easy to get started.
Briana Brake, owner of Spaceway Brewing based in Durham, found it hard to find a job when she was trying to break into the business.
“I applied to several breweries around and nobody would respond to me, I would go in and talk to these guys and they’d say, ‘Oh, that’s cool that you want to brew, that’s cute,’ type of thing.” said Brake. “So I said, I’ll step out and do it on my own, then they’ll see.”
Brake said diversifying the industry is not only the right move to make craft beer more welcoming to all brewers- but it’s good for business in general.
“There weren’t breweries that I felt were relatable to people who looked like me, so my friends didn’t always want to go,” said Brake. “I think the more numbers of Black and brown brewers we see, the more craft beer drinkers’ numbers are going to increase.”
There is progress. Anita Riley, head brewer at Raleigh Brewing Company, has been brewing professionally since 2016 and witnessed major industry demographic changes throughout her career.
“I started in 2014 at brew school with just two women out of 24 students, I remember going to conferences and having the bathroom completely to myself” said Riley. “And then just a few years later, I’m having to stand in line for the women’s room at the same conference, and just being happy to not be so alone on that island.”
So, here in North Carolina craft beer is changing and that’s thanks to women in the industry working hard to make the beer space more inclusive. Leah Wong Ashburn, President and CEO of Highland Brewing in Asheville, is one of the many women across the industry working for a widespread investment in diversity.
“There is potential for the craft beer industry to do a better job of reaching out to women and to people of color,” said Ashburn. “If you have good representation, that brewery becomes a more comfortable place to visit and to seek employment, because they see people that look like them.”
Female reclamation of beer
Even though today’s marketing of beer often features women in bikinis drenching themselves in beer on beaches, or men yelling at football games with cans in hand — women actually made beer first.
Beer played a crucial role in early civilization’s diet, religion, and daily life. One of the early records of women and beer is The Hymn to Ninkasi, the Sumerian goddess of brewing, which is dated back to ancient Mesopotamia in 1800 B.C. Women exclusively brewed beer in Medieval and Renaissance times, one of the first jobs women could do outside of the home.
But as soon as beer became profitable, it was suddenly a man’s job.
One-third of BA members split ownership fifty-fifty between a woman and a man, and, with the vast majority of those partnerships being wife and husband. That’s the case with Katy and Chris Creech who own the Glass Jug Beer Labtogether.
The Creechs started home brewing when they were dating back in college. What was once just experimenting in a garage, became an award-winning beer lab with multiple locations.
“One of our friends just said it’s something he wanted to do eventually in his life and we were like, why not tomorrow? We don’t have plans,” said Katy. “After school, a lot of our friends ended up moving away from the Triangle, but we stayed, and we made a lot of new friends through homebrewing.”
A hobby became a career, and in turn, a reclamation of history, as Katy became one of the few female brewery owners in North Carolina.
“We knew having a friendly woman behind the bar would make our space more approachable for more people than having another bearded white guy,” said Katy. “And it’s not that we don’t love bearded white guys, we do. We love them. We just want more people than just them to feel comfortable in our space.”
But Katy isn’t alone in this female reclamation. Michelle Miniutti, co-owner of Bombshell Beer Company in Holly Springs, has been reclaiming women’s ownership of beer since 2012.
“Years ago when we were starting to want to open the brewery, we could really only find like five other breweries in the country that were 100% female owned,” said Miniutti. “We wanted to be a part of changing that, and we were the very first 100% female owned North Carolina brewery.”
When Michelle Miniutti, Jackie Hudspeth and Ellen Joyner came together in 2012 to open Bombshell, they knew they wanted a brewery that was welcoming to all beer drinkers, novices, and experts alike. Their space is approachable and causal, a place where people can enjoy times with friends and learn about beer.
Today Bombshell beer is sold all across state, not just on tap, but in stores like Harris Teeter and Food Lion.
“Do you even drink beer?”
Creech, Brake, Ashburn, and Miniutti have all defeated the odds as owners of their own companies. But while ownership is a major pillar for the inclusion of women in the industry, it’s not the whole picture.
“It’s a top down thing where you have your owners and managers who have to be committed to creating a space that is safe and welcoming to everyone that works there,” said Scherle. “It’s about changing your hiring practices and the type of experience you require so you can bring in folks who are outside of the industry.”
Scherle said her experience as a brewer working in the actual taproom proves there is a desperate need for an overhaul of problematic industry practices and customer expectations.
“I’ve definitely experienced both with myself and my fellow female co-workers at various places, pay discrepancies and assumptions about knowledge, managers talking down to women,” said Scherle. “Those experiences are there and they’re real, and I think it’s changing, but it’s taking time.”
What happens behind the scenes in workplaces is an obstacle to getting more women and people of color to brew, but what is happening out in the taproom with customers is a whole other problem.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a guest walk through the door and ask, so do you even drink beer?” said Katy Creech.
This assumption happens a lot to female brewers. Scherle says while she has had very few instances of blatant sexism with her co-workers, the assumptions of customers are often what’s most disappointing.
“There were many occasions when a customer would ask about something or assume that the guy behind the bar was the brewer, even if I was sitting there and the beer the person was drinking was one that I made.” said Scherle. “People still expect the brewery to be the guy with a beard or the guy with the tattoos, and not the small woman sitting in the corner of the bar.”
Brewery owners need to actively work to make their workplaces safe for women, Scherle said.
“I think it’s really easy to be like, ‘okay, well, I hired a person of color for this position’ or ‘I hired a woman for that position,’ and so therefore, we’re done,” said Scherle. “But are you actually listening to these people? And are they comfortable here? And have you talked to them about what their needs are in this space?”
Riley is a member of the Pink Boots Society, an organization committed to assisting and inspiring women to become beer professionals. She said the events for this organization have diversified in past years.
“There’s been a lot of women of color coming onto the scene with ownership and in the production space, and that’s been really cool to watch that happen,” said Riley.
Miniutti adds, “We have room for opportunity in the industry to embrace everybody. Do I have to look like a brewer to be a really good brewer, I would hope to hell not.”
