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Sep
24
Kris McDowell
Beer, Bratwurst & Beyond Tour Scholarship Recipients Announced
Scholarship Recipients
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The Pink Boots Society, in partnership with Treasures of Europe Tours, is excited to announce and introduce the six ladies that have been selected by the PBS Scholarship Selection Committee (SSC) to receive a travel scholarship for the second annual cultural immersion tour to Germany October 14-22, 2016.

Hailing from across the United States and Canada, these six women represent some of the varied positions Pink Boots Society members hold in the brewing industry – lab/quality control, hospitality manager, brewer/wort production, events manager, certified sightseeing guide for beer tours and freelance writer/photographer focused on beer, food and travel. Stephanie Arsenault, Astrid Cook, Jen Jordan, Monica Mondragon, Amy Newell-Large and Caroline Wallace will be joining delegates from the tour’s sponsors – Oskar Blues Brewery, Boston Beer/Brewing the Dream and BSG Craft – and other Pink Boots members for this insider’s tour of southern Germany.

stephanie-arsenault-2

Stephanie Arsenault is a freelance writer, photographer and social media specialist whose background includes working for Big Rock Brewery in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, background in journalism and participation in International Women’s Collaboration Brew Day, something she describes as “a fantastic experience.” While not a brewer herself Stephanie says, “My time working in the beer industry has reaffirmed my passion of the brew, for those who create it, and for the beer itself. I love to capture the moments within the industry, those candid snapshot of the people, their process, and the product.”

astrid-cook

A freelance writer like Stephanie, Astrid Cook is also a certified sightseeing guide for Urban Adventures in New York where she gives public and private beer tours. She looks forward to the experience the scholarship will provide her regarding craft beer and emerging trends in Europe, gaining a greater “depth of understanding in both historical and contemporary German brewing history” that she will share with the hundreds of people she educates each year. Astrid is a fan of the great German beer styles, saying they “should be explored and celebrated for their nuanced brews that do not necessarily have the bandwidth of super hoppy IPAs.”

jen-jordan

Jen Jordan is among the portion of the Society’s membership that holds a hands-on position brewing beer; she is responsible for wort production in Anchor Brewing Company’s 120BBL traditional copper brewhouse. She’s also active with the San Francisco Homebrewers Guild, brewing her own beer for over 10 years where she focuses on traditional German brewing styles and techniques. Regarding the tour she’s particularly, “thrilled by the prospect of visiting a Hallertau family farm. The concept of visiting a woman who directs brewing in an abbey blows my mind.”

monica-mondragon

Monica Mondragon came into the craft beer fold in 2011 when she took over a local beer appreciation group and became involved with Feel Good Festivals who put on Albuquerque’s first craft beer festival. That directly led to her current position as a laboratory/QC manager and assistant barrel manager at Santa Fe Brewing Co. where she oversees all production procedures to ensure quality. She’s looking forward to learning “about new/old techniques in lagering to improve our processes…and increase my knowledge on the history of beer and modern techniques used in the Bavarian region” on the tour. As a chapter leader for New Mexico’s Pink Boots Society she plans to encourage other member to apply for scholarships by demonstrating the accessibility of the scholarship application and process through her experience.

amy-newell-large

Starting her craft beer journey by homebrewing while in graduate school pursuing her M.A. in contemplative religious studies, Amy Newell-Large has “deep respect, appreciation and interest in the work that Sister Doris does,” who she’ll get to meet during the tour. As a brewer at Moab Brewery Amy says that “her work was an inspiration to me. I may have been in some ways on my own, but in the brewing tradition living through women like Sister Doris, I felt a connection and community.” Currently a hospitality manager at Avery Brewing Company she works to develop their guests’ experience, engaging them in a shared beer experience, regardless of gender or social status or religious norms.

caroline-wallace

Caroline Wallace is an events manager for the Texas Craft Brewers Guild, beer writer/photographer and co-leader of the Central Texas chapter of the Pink Boots Society who says she is “blessed with a variety of wide-reaching platforms to share my beer knowledge and experiences with industry members and amateur beer aficionados alike.” With a deep reverence for the traditional brewing methods that will be explored on this tour she is looking forward to learning more “about these traditions, these tastes and these breweries’ modern day evolutions” in order to “help to guide, inform and relate to the existing breweries and numerous breweries-in-planning I encounter throughout my daily work.”

In addition to attending the tour, each scholarship recipient will receive a pair of pink steel-toe rubber boots upon fulfilling the Pay It Forward requirement associated with the scholarship.

The nine-day, eight-night Beer, Bratwurst & Beyond tour takes place during the 500th year since the Reinheitsgebot (Bavarian Beer Purity Law of 1516) was enacted and will visit multiple sites including, brewpubs, family-owned breweries, historic abbeys, hops fields, larger breweries and even a traditional Kirchweih folk festival. Participants on the tour will have the opportunity to engage with a variety of professionals and perspectives over a stein of beer or two at their establishments. Among them: the Director of the Association of Independent Breweries, representatives from the Weihenstephan school, hop growers, pioneering women brewers such as Sister Doris, brewmasters at the abbey breweries and new-school craft brewers.

The Pink Boots Society would like to thank the additional sponsors that helped to make this tour possible – Barth Haas Germany, Craft Beer Importers Canada, Lagunitas Brewing Company and Sierra Nevada.



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