Female brewers develop new beer for Women’s Day collaboration

By Mark Ribble

An International Women’s Day collaboration between several female brewers, distillers and winemakers will bring a new beer to The Grover Brewing Company in Kingsville.

Called the Women’s Day Beer Collab, The Grove’s brewer Tammy Joho hosted the event at The Grove on Friday, March 10.

“We did this last year with just three of us, so this year we opened it up to winemakers and distillers as well,” said Joho. “It’s exciting to see so many women in this industry.”

The ladies present all agreed that females in the industry have grown in numbers over the past few years and are quite common now in a field that was once exclusively males.

The event, held in support of the Pink Boots Society of Canada, began at 9:30 am with the milling of the malt and continued throughout the day until the beer got into the fermenter.

The Pink Boots Society’s mission statement says it all: The Pink Boots Society aims to assist, inspire and encourage

women and non-binary individuals in the fermented/alcoholic beverage industry to advance their careers through education.

Members of the Pink Boots Society of Canada are considered movers and shakers in the industry.

For every bag of hops purchased, the company makes a donation to the society and the same occurs once the beer is canned and poured on draught.

The name of the beer will be ‘Maizanic’, which was chosen to honour Saint Hildegard of Bin- gen, a German Benedictine nun, who was the first person to advocate for hops in beer.

The beer will be a German style lager, which will take a few weeks to come to fruition.

“We’re looking at sometime in May,” said Joho about when the beer will be available.

For those in attendance, the opportunity to collaborate with other female brewers, distillers and winemakers was a chance to share ideas and see how each other work through the process.

Tanya Mitchell, who is the owner and winemaker at Sprucewood Shores Estate Winery near Amherstburg, says the chance for winemakers to incorporate some of the beer-making process into their product is exciting and she’s happy to see the female numbers growing across the industry.

“There are definitely more women brewers than before,” she said. “It’s good to see.”

Aislin Henrickson, who is the head distiller at Cottage Springs Distillery in Muskoka, made the drive to Kingsville and says that 10-15 years ago, there were very few female distillers.

The group included Joho, Mitchell and Henrickson along with brewer Ellie Gurdebeke from Bearded Dog Brewing Company in Harrow, brewer Alex Mullaly

from Northwinds Brewery in Collingwood/Blue Mountains and brewer Vanessa Pillon from Kingsville Brewery. A representative from Colio Estate Winery was unable to attend.

Despite the snow in the air, the mash tun at The Grove Brewing company in Kingsville, served as the perfect setting for these six industry leaders to gather for a photo on Friday, March 10. From left to right are Tanya Mitchell (Sprucewood Shores Estate Winery), Aislin Henrickson (Cottage Springs Distillery), Tammy Joho (The Grove Brewing Company), Alex Mullaly (Northwinds Brewery), Vanessa Pillon (Kingsville Brewery) and Ellie Gurdebeke (Bearded Dog Brewing Company. SUN photo

Malt is loaded into the mill by Ellie Gurdebeke of Bearded Dog Brewing Company while Vanessa Pillon of Kingsville Brewery, left, talks to Tammy Joho of The Grove Brewing Company. SUN photo