The Pink Boots Society is proud to announce that Taylor Paige King of Pitt Street Brewing Company in North Carolina is the recipient of the Siebel World Brewing Academy Concise Course in Brewing Technology Online scholarship.

Taylor was chosen by the PBS Scholarship Selection Committee (SSC), five very experienced women beer professionals who hold positions as brewers, educators and writers, to receive this scholarship based on her well-written essay, glowing recommendations and heavy involvement with the Pink Boots Society as a volunteer. “Her dreams of starting and running a brewery, in a county that only has one, would be greatly helped by the education this course can provide.”

Taylor currently works as a bartender and brewing intern and says, “I was born and raised in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains and while there is a lot of white lightning in those hills, there’s not a plethora of beer. After the 2016 Gatlinburg wildfires a lot of local businesses were destroyed or damaged. This would be a perfect opportunity for me to give back to my community by building a craft brewery. Gatlinburg is an ever-growing tourist industry that would benefit from a local brewery.” Besides gaining experience from her work at Pitt Street, she has started homebrewing, using locally foraged ingredients such yarrow and spruce tips, and is attending Nash Community College, pursuing a degree in Brewing, Distillation and Fermentation. She feels that the technical knowledge this scholarship will provide will help to round out her knowledge and grow her career.

Taylor is also an active member of the Pink Boots Society where she contributes her talents to monthly newsletters and e-blasts. She says, “I have been met with so much love and support from my PBS family and I cannot wait to give back.” After completing this course she plans to write an article to fulfill her Pay It Forward requirement, attend Biere de Femme to represent Nash Community College’s programs (like the one she is enrolled in) and work toward establishing an Eastern North Carolina chapter of the Pink Boots Society.

The Concise Course in Brewing Technology is an intensive, online three-month course that utilizes a mix of textual instructions, streaming video presentations narrated by some of the best instructors in brewing, and synchronous chat sessions between students and faculty. Students will gain the knowledge and confidence to work effectively in the world of commercial brewing in this course that covers topics ranging from business of beer, alcohol and health, CIP programs and Quality Assurance/Quality Control.

The Pink Boots Society is proud to announce that Cassidy VanWarmerdam of Payette Brewing Company is the recipient of the 2019 Bi-Annual Pink Boots Conference scholarship.

Chosen by the PBS Scholarship Selection Committee (SSC), five very experienced women beer professionals who hold positions as brewers, educators and writers, they chose Cassidy to receive this scholarship as she “expressly conveyed the value of the conference in terms of learning new things and different approaches to methods and concepts from what she is regularly exposed to.”

Cassidy has been employed by Payette Brewing Company since 2016, originally being hired as a beertender but through her hard work and willingness to learn has progressed to hold the position of Lead Quality Control. She says, “Being relatively new to the industry, I’ve found that my greatest weakness so far is my lack of resources for knowledge from other people in the brewing business.” By attending the conference she anticipates gaining knowledge that will make her a more valuable employee.

The 2019 Bi-Annual Pink Boots Conference embodies the organization’s mission to assist, inspire and encourage women beer industry professionals to advance their careers through education by instilling attendees with hard takeaways and valuable knowledge along with invaluable networking with women working in all facets of the global beer industry. The conference will kick off with an inspiring and substantive industry keynote from the Brewers Association’s Julia Herz, followed by additional panels and presentations that will touch on: Beer Quality, Sensory, Raw Ingredients, Hot Side/Cold Side Processes, Diversity in the Beer Industry, Personal Goal Setting/Leadership, Advanced Social Media, Tasting Room Experience, Strengthening PBS Chapters, HR and more.

In addition to attending the course, Cassidy will receive a Pink Boots embroidered shirt when she fulfills the Pay It Forward requirement associated with the scholarship.

The Pink Boots Society is proud to announce that Meg Evans of Rock Bottom Brewery in Pittsburgh, PA is the recipient of the Portland State University Online Business of Craft Brewing Certificate scholarship.

Chosen by the PBS Scholarship Selection Committee (SSC), five very experienced women beer professionals who hold positions as brewers, educators and writers, they selected Meg due to her well-written essay in which she communicated the areas she is currently lacking knowledge in, how the coursework will fill those gaps and what that knowledge will mean to her as she works toward her future goals.

Meg has spent the last eight years working her way up from cellarman at Southern Tier to her current position as head brewer at Rock Bottom, gaining experience in a wide variety of brewery operations. However she says, “One thing – and it’s a big thing – that I haven’t been exposed to, is the business aspect of our industry.” Being in the early stages of opening her own brewery she knows that in order to be successful she will need to add a thorough understanding of accounting, HR and more that this course will provide. Her and her partner intend to open a neighborhood brewery, saying that among other things, “Owning a brewery will only open greater opportunities for me to be a better asset for other women in my community.”

The Online Business of Craft Brewing Certificate focuses on the commerce skills needed to create a viable basic startup business plan to make a brewery efficient and profitable. Students will be introduced to the various players and processes that go into producing and selling craft beverages, from growing grains and hops, to malting, brewing, distribution and retail environments. The courses in this four-course certificate cover different strategies, the associated costs of creating a craft beer and business models, culminating in an investor-ready business plan to present to potential backers, the craft beverage startup community and other potential business partners.

In addition to attending the course, Meg will receive a pair of pink steel-toe rubber boots when she fulfills the Pay It Forward requirement associated with the scholarship.

The Pink Boots Society is proud to announce that Johanna Foege of Perennial Artisan Ales is the recipient of the 2018 White Labs Yeast Essentials 2.0 scholarship.

Chosen by the PBS Scholarship Selection Committee (SSC), five very experienced women beer professionals who hold positions as brewers, educators and writers, they chose Johanna to receive this scholarship feeling that “her background in science would allow her to soak up the knowledge from the course, filling in the few gaps left in her QC and Yeast Management training to solidify her status as expert and practiced professional.”

Johanna is the Total Quality Manager at Perennial Artisan Ales, where in the course of a year she has single-handedly designed, implemented and is running their quality control program – a valuable achievement for her. She says, “As a smaller brewery, we don’t have a ton of resources available for training and development, so I’ve largely had to seek my own experiences and teach myself how to create and run a successful quality control program. This course aligns perfectly with my next addition to our program, which will include setting up and operating an internal yeast propagation and management program this fall.”

The White Labs Yeast Essentials 2.0 is a two-day workshop at the White Labs Asheville facility that will cover details on setting up a lab and quality control programs along with general lab techniques to improve brewing operations. It will explore fermentation control points, how to maintain optimal yeast performance and develop desired flavor compounds, off-flavor detection, sensory of different yeast strains and troubleshooting problem fermentations.

In addition to attending the course, Johanna will receive a pair of pink steel-toe rubber boots when she fulfills the Pay It Forward requirement associated with the scholarship.

Written by Ashley Nulph, tasting room server at The Rare Barrel and recipient of the 2018 Oregon State University Origins of Beer Flavors and Styles scholarship.

Beer is made with water, hops, malt, and yeast. It’s likely that you know what kinds of beer you like to drink but do you know how to communicate that to someone else? Perhaps you are at an event or visiting a friendly local brewery and taste a beer. Someone asks what you think of it. There are no off flavors or anything discernibly wrong with the beer. You want to come back with a witty and helpful response; you want to show your knowledge of beer but don’t taste anything that stands out to you. “It’s good,” of course, isn’t specific at all.  You have some of the vocabulary but not the developed palate to give more useful or detailed information that, in this case, would show you really know your stuff.

We can all look, smell, and taste any sample of beer we’re given but how do we delve deeper into its flavor profile? It is important to remind ourselves that sensory evaluation is a learned skill and a great way to learn is by tasting. What should you do if you want to give yourself a bit or training without anyone else being involved or pace yourself through the training of your palate?

One thing you can do quite easily without having to purchase any special equipment or products is to have several side by side beer comparisons. All these tastings require are off-the-shelf and readily available prepackaged domestic and international beers. Having them side by side in the privacy of your own home allows you to take time to evaluate specific flavors or isolate particular traits to hone in on them (such as bitterness) and also to take notes in your comparisons. You can do this with similar beers to really get a grasp on the expectations for a specific style or beers with one major difference to attempt to isolate it. Examples of this are beers of the same style with similar ABV and different IBUs, beers of the same style with similar IBUs and different ABV (this can be done with a DIPA versus IPA in many cases), beers of the same style one with adjuncts and one without, etc.

Here are 3 examples of tastings or pairings. For tasting or comparisons where the beers are the same style with similar specifications, they are expected to be similar and representative of a style. For these you may choose to buy one or both with the goal to pick a beer(s) representative of the style and take notes on what you taste. Getting a beer(s) that is basic without unusual hops or adjuncts is important. Getting a beer that is readily available and not specific to one season can also be helpful especially if you want to replicate this or have a friend do it and compare notes, but is not required at all.

For pairings where you want a comparison, you can also look at the specs on a beer and find two that are similar in all aspects but one. By isolating for one factor (ABV, malt, IBUs, hops, etc), you give yourself a chance to focus on that and better understand the differences.

ABV and IBU. This information should be reported for most breweries on their own websitess along with style, description, malt bill, hops used, availability and other information. While these things can change batch by batch, if you cannot find this information on the brewery page or need a quick reference, Rate Beer is a good site where you can get basic information about a beer such as its ABV and IBU. It may also give you information on where to buy a beer if you want to purchase one of the beers listed below and you do not find it at a local store. The beers below are readily available at grocery stores in California and the Pacific Northwest. In the case you wanted to do one of these comparisons and could not find the listed beers, you could use Rate Beer or brewery websites to look up the specifics on the bottled beer that is available and pick a beer with similar make-up to conduct the same taste comparisons with a replacement beer.

What is IBU? IBU stands for international bitterness unit and is the scale that measures the hop-derived acid isohumulone that gives beer its bitter flavor. IBUs are not something most people can identify easily but it is important to understand what this contributes to beer. One’s understanding of IBUs can differ by style and malt bill. One of the best ways I’ve found to understand IBU ratings is to taste otherwise similar beers (same style, color, similar ABV) with more than as high of a point distinction in IBUs as possible.

There are arguments that IBUs don’t give us an awful lot of information about a beer in this climate but since it is one of the only pieces of information given beyond ABV, style, and a brief description on many websites, menus or labels; it is important to try to understand how your own palate interprets isohumulone for your own understanding of the IBU rating on a beer.

Sensory experiments number one and two: focus on bitterness and style

Tasting number 1: Style understanding and bitterness in dark beers (Imperial Stout):

Bitterness is often something that people associate with IPAs and hoppy beers and not with darks which is why I think this is a fun sampling to do first. In these cases, the malt character effectively hides a large amount of the bitter bite one would expect from such high IBUs. An imperial stout with 75 IBUs, therefore, will taste much less bitter than an IPA with the same. The human palate can only distinguish up to about 110 IBUs so the beers we are sampling will be in this range. IBUs vary from batch to batch and even for the tastings below, are reportedly differently on the brewery websites, Rate Beer, and other tasting sites. Every attempt has been made to use the current numbers from the brewery when available. In cases of great difference, it is important to taste the beer with lower IBUs first as your palate can become accustomed to it. In this case, if drinking both, it will not matter.

In both of these cases, the beer will have a roasty depth and similar dark color. Both are California brewed and have wide commercial distribution. The brewing date on these beers shouldn’t matter too much for our purposes. If both are available to you, I urge you to buy both. If not, one or one and a similar beer from your region will suffice.

Beer A: North Coast Old Rasputin Imperial Stout (9.0% ABV, 75 IBUs) 

Beer B: Lagunitas Imperial Stout  (9.9% ABV, 72 IBUs)

Make notes about your impressions of the Imperial Stout style. What do you taste in the beer(s)? Which adjectives or descriptors would you use? Do you find there to be a bitterness on your palate? If you struggle with tasting bitterness, do not worry. There is an opportunity to do another bitterness test using IPAs which will be more noticeable to most. Also, if you taste one of these beers several months or a year from now having worked on your sensory evaluation skills, you will likely fare better in identifying the bitterness.

Tasting number 2: Bitterness in hop forward beer (India Pale Ales)

In either of these cases, the beer will have a hop forward flavor and mid-golden color. Both are Pacific Northwest brewed and have wide commercial distribution. The brewing date on these beers should be as close to today as possible and ideally not more than a month old if bottles are date stamped. If both are available to you, I urge you to buy both. If not, one or one and a similar beer from your region will suffice.

Note: In my opinion, both of these beers should be considered Double India Pale Ales (DIPA) or Imperial India Pale Ales (IIPA) based on their ABV despite the labeling of Space Dust simply as IPA.

Beer A: Elysian Space Dust IPA (8.2% ABV, 73 IBUs)

Beer B: Ninkasi Tricerahops DIPA (8% ABV, 84 IBUs)

Like above, take notes. Ask yourself what you taste in the beer(s), and which adjectives or descriptors would you use. Do you find there to be a bitterness on your palate? Is it much more pronounced for you than above?

If you happen to chose to do style tastings 1 and 2 in the same night, you can also taste them against each other. The variation in bitterness perceived by the tongue between one of the Imperial Stouts and one of the Imperial IPAs can actually be great despite the fact that the greatest IBU variation between these 4 beers is no more than 12 IBUs (a difference you are very unlikely to be able to taste).

Tasting number 3: Focus on style and aromas in Hefeweizen wheat beer

In both of these cases, the beer will have a slight sweet, non-hoppy flavor and light-golden color. Compared to the other samples, you will not likely be able to discern any bitterness at all. One beer is Pacific Northwest brewed and the other is brewed in Germany but both have wide commercial distribution. The brewing date on these beers does not matter as much as for an IPA and does not warrant concern. If both beers are not available to you, purchase the one beer that is available to you and complete this as a style tasting like numbers 1 and 2 above.

Beer A: Widmer Hefeweizen (4.9% ABV, 26 IBUs)

Beer B: Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbeir (5.4% ABV, 14 IBUs)

Smell these beers before you taste them. What scents do you detect? Phenol off flavor (POF) is a banana or clove aroma. It is called an off flavor because it is generally not desired in the final beer product. However, in a German style wheat beer, this flavor is considered acceptable and even desired by some. These two hefeweizens are both classic examples of the style while one has the POF and the other does not. This is by design and each brewery either has or does not have the aroma as a deliberate decision about what the style means to them. Can you identify which beer has the banana and clove aromas and which does not? What do you taste in the beers? Which adjectives or descriptors would you use? Other than this, would you make any other distinction between the two?

Taking it one step further: hop sensory

What about hops?  You cannot taste them. You can smash and rub cones or pellets and smell them but that will only get you so far.

One method to getting more familiar with hops is to seek out SMASH (single malt single hop) beers. These beers have become much more popular lately with some breweries even doing SMASH series that focus on different malts. SMASH beers offer the opportunity to hone in on the manifestation of individual strains of hops in the final beer.

You can ask at your local brewery if they have any SMASH beers or know of anyone local who does. You can also consult the list here https://www.ratebeer.com/tag/smash/ or talk to a friend who brews about completing one of the recipes from the Homebrewers Association.

Hopefully you can find some good examples that give you an idea more about specific hop strains!

The Pink Boots Society is proud to announce that Jessie Smith is the recipient of North Dakota State University Institute of Barley and Malt Sciences Barley and Malting Quality: A Field to Brewhouse Perspective scholarship, a partnership with the Northern Crops Institute. Jessie is a lab technician at Texas’ oldest craft brewery, Saint Arnold Brewing Company, in Houston.

The PBS Scholarship Selection Committee (SSC) is made up of five very experienced women beer professionals who hold positions as brewers, educators and writers. The committee chose Jessie to receive this scholarship as she was able to convey “a logical plan to implement knowledge that would be gained from the course including sensory and quality analysis in her role as a lab technician.”

Jessie holds a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and has worked for Saint Arnold Brewing Company since 2016. She handles quality testing that includes IBU/SRM, forced diacetyl testing, microbiological plating and PCR, manages their weekly sensory panel and has begun to experiment with small scale yeast propagation with the hopes of a larger scale expansion in the future. She says, “I’m always trying to learn through courses like these in order to bring back some new information to our lab and our brewers. Malt analysis has been a topic our lab has been interested in expanding on for quite some time. The problem has always been where to start. A course like this would provide me with the tools to offer us with a number of potential starting points for analysis.”

Barley and Malting Quality: A Field to Brewhouse Perspective is a four-day onsite course that will take place in Fargo, ND at the NDSU Northern Crops Institute. This course is intended to provide an intensive overview of the many factors impacting barley and malt quality from the field to the brewhouse. Lectures, discussion sessions and participatory laboratory demonstrations will provide participants with the knowledge to understand malt processing and to effectively interpret barley and malt analyses. This is an excellent opportunity to learn from a group of internationally recognized experts assembled from industry, academics and government.

In addition to attending the course, Jessie will receive a pair of pink steel-toe rubber boots when she fulfills the Pay It Forward requirement associated with the scholarship.

The Pink Boots Society is excited to announce and introduce the twelve ladies that have been selected by the PBS Scholarship Selection Committee (SSC) to receive a travel scholarship for the Beer, Brats and Beyond Cultural Exchange to Germany October 19 – 29, 2018.

Hailing from the United States, Canada, Peru and Mexico, these twelve women run the gamut from new to the industry to those have considerable experience, some of which have opened their own breweries. Natalie Baldwin, Cassandra Barlow, Blair Elias, Grace Howard, Sara Lefevre, Betty Lopez, Katarina Martinez, Diana McKenzie, Becky Peppelman, Ellen Sherrill, Michelle Tham and Nicki Werner will be embarking on an eleven-day, co-ed insider’s tour of the Bavarian brewing industry that aims to foster relationships between North American and Bavarian breweries with sessions, tastings and tours with women brewers.

Natalie Baldwin, Research & Development Brewer at Breakside Brewery in Portland, OR., may have only three years’ experience in the brewing industry but her accomplishments in that time and her goals for the future stretch well beyond her years. She says, “I find my interest primarily lies with traditional European beers, with a predominant focus on German lagers and Breakside’s R&D program is currently focused on lager brewing. I’m honored to be in this position—but I also understand that my skill set can only be so thorough without being immersed in where it all began.” Taking part in the tour will help further her education in a way that will benefit both her and Breakside.

Cassandra Barlow comes to the group from the tap room/front of the house perspective, working for Resident Culture Brewing Company in Charlotte, NC. She was introduced to the Pink Boots Society while working as a part-time bartender and was initially intimidated about the prospect of being surrounded by much more experienced members of the industry. Her fears about having anything to offer were quickly dispelled upon attending the Society’s 10th Anniversary Conference. There she was particularly inspired by a presentation on tap room management, saying, “A light bulb went off; I realized that I had created my own loyal customers at the brewery I worked at and was a big part of our success.” Encouraged by this new found confidence she plans to take the knowledge gained on this trip to show other women, regardless of their current role, how important they are to the craft beer industry.

Hailing from an event planning/fundraising/civic education background Blair Elias works as a meeting planner for the National Barley Growers Association. An area of particular interest to her on this trip is the hyper-local Zoigl beer of Bavaria as it parallels the local marketing employed by many U.S. craft brewers. She says, “I am interested to see how Bavarian Zoigl brewers have sustained the “local” trend for so long. This knowledge would be invaluable to me as I continue my work as an advocate for the early stages of the U.S. beer supply chain.” Blair hopes to come back from the trip with a deeper understanding of the opportunities here at home by having been able to explore how German breweries have overcome similar struggles.

Grace Howard initially applied her environmental engineering degree to the areas of soil, groundwater, air and landfill management but says, “I fell in love with craft beer after my very first brewery tour and began homebrewing shortly after.” These days she is able to combine her background with that love in her current position as a laboratory assistant with Bone Up Brewing in Everett, MA and in the future hopes to develop products and technologies that and be used to make brewing easier, safer and more efficient. To that end she has been actively working to increase her knowledge and is looking forward to the tour providing an opportunity to “expedite my learning and provide an amazing chance to learn these things up close and in person.”  

Sara Lefevre is the co-founder of Barranco Beer Company in Lima, Peru and the communications and marketing manager. That’s quite a change from six years ago when she was working as a language teacher in Miami, FL planning and instructing international students. A self-described “craft beer lover, geek, and aficionado,” Sara is also a BJCP judge who has applied her multilingual skills to translating exams and score sheets. Taking part in the tour not only melds with her love of travel but will also provide her the opportunity to try classic styles from their region of origin and further develop her palate. She says, “The tastings, tours, and all of the experience I receive would also be applied directly and immediately to training the staff where I work and shared with my local PBS chapter.”

Betty Lopez understands first hand the challenges of breaking into the brewing industry but it has been worth the effort. “Brewing changed my life,” she says, “it gave a sense of purpose I wasn’t sure I’d find, it helped me find my place in the world professionally speaking and it made me grow as a human being.” Her break came when she found someone willing to give her a chance to learn on the job and she has since worked her way up from assistant brewer to brewer and has been the head brewer at Tres Fuegos Cerveceria for the past year. Experiencing traditional Bavarian beers in person on the tour will help her in the short term as Tres Fuegos looks to add a lager to their lineup and perhaps in the years to come through if she is able to achieve her goal of working at a German brewery.

Former software engineer Katarina Martinez left the corporate world a year ago and opened her own brewery – Lineup Brewing – which has the distinction of being the only solely female owned and operated brewery in New York City. Their German Pilsner, originally named Bieryonce, received a great deal of press, and ultimately a cease and desist letter, so these days the beer goes by the name “Katarina.” With the intention to make more German style beers in the future she says, “I feel that this trip to Germany will do wonders for expanding my knowledge base, improving my palate, and hopefully making new strong female friends in the industry that support one another.” Katarina was also given Wine Enthusiast’s 2018 “40 Under 40” award.

Diana McKenzie co-founded Callister Brewing in Vancouver, BC five years ago and it is the first co-working, collaborative brewery of its kind in Canada. As Director she handles many of the administrative aspects of the brewery and earlier this year expanded her brewing role, taking over management of their cask program. Their three cask engines generally pour Scottish and English beers but Diana hopes to incorporate some of the styles she will be exposed to on the tour. She says, “By learning about different techniques or styles and trends in other parts of the world, as a brewer and brewery owner, I can bring those lessons and innovations into our beers and brewing techniques at home.”

One of the most seasoned professionals on the tour, Becky Peppelman says that from the time she started cleaning kegs and working on the bottling line, “The more I learned on the particulars of craft beer, the greater my drive became to be a part of it. It was, and remains, a true passion and hunger for knowledge.” In recent years she has been drawn to historical styles of beer and has been able to use her role as Head Brewer at Snow Hop Brewery to produce styles, like the popular Grodziskie she made last year, that are not widely available in the U.S. This tour will add to her already accumulated knowledge and allow her to continue share more of the “exceptional characteristics” of beers of times past with her brewery’s craft beer audience.

A professional brewer for two and a half years, Ellen Sherrill’s experiences professionally and as a homebrewer have primarily involved ales. One of the aspects of this tour she is looking forward to is increasing her knowledge of lagers, “to observe and learn in person, as well as hear more about how modern techniques and tools are used to bypass traditional methods while still making the same tradition-honoring types of beers.” She brews on both the 30bbl and 7bbl systems at Track 7 Brewery in Sacramento, CA, leads the sensory panel that creates tasting notes for the marketing of their beers and is a BJCP judge. She looks forward to returning from the trip a more well-rounded brewer and a better beer judge. (Photo credit: Nikkita Miller)

Michelle Tham is employed by the largest of breweries in this group, Labatt Breweries, where she is the Head of Education. The Ontario, Canada native says, “Stories are my strength. Storytelling is where my breadth of knowledge and dynamic enthusiasm are brought to life, enabling my impact as an educator of beer and an ambassador for brands. Lucky for me, the roots of beer and brewing are found in stories – stories of history, tradition, geography and discovery. My effort to develop my career has been to seek stories and connections with people who brew and appreciate beer, and seeing the places that allow me to paint the picture for others to better understand the complexities and joy of beer.” She’s looking forward to being able to add a more robust understanding of German beer to her work as an educator as a result of going on the tour.

Nicki Werner, brewer at the mid-sized Left Hand Brewing Company in Longmont, CO, is excited to embark on her first trip abroad, especially in the company of the Pink Boots community. The former college professor says, “My teaching experiences left me frustrated and confined to old institutions that were bogged down in bureaucracies and incapable of adapting to a changing world with changing needs. What I found in brewing was an opportunity to build new types of institutions, and a lifestyle that was self-sustaining, both for the business and for myself on a personal level.” While her work environment is competitive it encourages her to strive for growth opportunities and she has found a great deal of support as a member of the Pink Boots Society.

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 eleven-day Beer, Brats and Beyond Cultural Exchange, a collaboration with Treasures of Europe Tours, will make stops at small and independent breweries located in towns such as Munich, Franken, Spalt and Niederbayern. It will highlight many women owned and/or operated breweries (Sister Doris, Meinel sisters), communal brewing traditions, new school craft producers and a few abbey breweries. The tasting sessions, tours and cultural events aim to deepen and enhance the participants’ knowledge of brewing traditions and technologies as well as dispel old stereotypes. In addition to the breweries, stops will be made at German hop farms in the heart of Hallertau where participants learn about the traditions of Noble hops.

The Pink Boots Society is proud to announce that Ann Sandbrook of Virginia Tech Enology Analytical Services Laboratory is the recipient of the Cicerone BeerSavvy® scholarship.

Chosen by the PBS Scholarship Selection Committee (SSC), five very experienced women beer professionals who hold positions as brewers, educators and writers, they selected Ann to receive this scholarship because “she is in a unique position to take information learned in the course, apply it outside of a brewery, but still impact a great number of brewers. Her current role, passion, and compelling recommendation all contributed to her being selected.”

Ann started her career in the brewing industry in 2011 and currently works as an Analysis Lab Specialist at Virginia Tech Enology Analytical Services Laboratory, which was originally started to serve the needs of a growing wine industry in Virginia. Hops analysis was added at the request of the Hops Growers and Virginia Commonwealth Extension and they provide both pre-harvest and harvest sampling analysis. In her role Ann performs analytical tests on wine, beer and spirits to help identify problems and quality issues in products, and help to educate companies regarding processes, and issues that may arise.

Currently focusing on analytical and quality determinations of beer, Ann’s long term goal, which ties in with her pursuit of a Master’s Degree focused on sensory differences during fermentation, is to develop a sensory program at the Laboratory. “Completing this course will help me in my mission of outreach within the brewing industry and further my ability to connect with this industry and with local brewers. By learning more of the full brewing processing, packaging and serving mechanisms covered in the Cicerone program, I will be able to participate more with our area’s industry,” she says. Ann also looks forward to being able host more workshops and to offer more education opportunities in order to better the quality of the brewing industry.

The Cicerone BeerSavvy® Course is comprehensive self-paced online beer training course designed to enhance knowledge of brewing techniques, beer styles, understanding flavors and off-flavors, food pairings and the language to clearly discuss beer. The course is beneficial for many people who work in the beer industry including those who are educating others about beer.

In addition to attending the course, Ann will receive a pair of pink steel-toe rubber boots when she fulfills the Pay It Forward requirement associated with the scholarship.

The Pink Boots Society is proud to announce that Mallorie King of Temescal Brewing is the recipient of the 2018 Barth-Haas Hops Academy scholarship.

Chosen by the PBS Scholarship Selection Committee (SSC), five very experienced women beer professionals who hold positions as brewers, educators and writers, they felt Mallorie  “had the best preliminary experience with hops as well as the educational background to understand the technical components of the course.” In addition, it would be an invaluable experience to help her achieve her long term goals.

Mallorie comes from a food system background and worked with the Food Craft Institute to plan and facilitate educational programs which included their five-week Business of Beer course. She also spent nine months in Slovenia designing research projects to assess the international craft brewing and hop-growing communities through the lens of Slovene markets.

Since returning to the United States she has taken a cellar/brewery operations position with Temescal Brewing where her time is split between managing the cold side of the brewery and overseeing the tasks that take the beer from mash tun to distribution. Mallorie is facing new hop-related challenges and says, “As a first-time cellar person who is also responsible for brewery operations, it’s integral that I understand hops on a process level. My agricultural knowledge of hops is helpful, but it’s necessary that I understand what happens once they hit the kettle.” She is looking forward to the material in this course providing the missing link to round out her hop knowledge and further fueling her long term goal of starting a consulting business to assist smaller breweries in developing a hop sourcing strategy that balances contracts and spot hop purchases.

Barth-Haas Hops Academy is a two-day onsite course in Yakima, WA during hops harvest season consisting of presentations by hop and brewing experts and top researchers and growers that will cover topics including new trends in hop breeding, hop chemistry, hop quality and brewing techniques as well as new hop varieties, products, usage and analytical and sensory evaluation techniques to gauge hop and beer quality. The course also includes tours of the Haas hop farm and production facility where attendees will experience the hop fields and witness all components of hop production from whole hops to CO2 extract, as well as a guided tour of Haas Innovations Research Brewery.

In addition to attending the course, Mallorie will receive a pair of pink steel-toe rubber boots when she fulfills the Pay It Forward requirement associated with the scholarship.

The Pink Boots Society is excited to announce and introduce the three ladies that have been selected by the PBS Scholarship Selection Committee (SSC) to receive a scholarship to the 2018 YCH HOPS Hop and Brew School ®. Hailing from Florida, Texas and Kansas, these three women are in various stages of their brewing careers.

Morgan Banning represents the early career brewer of the group, a homebrewer who is in the process of working through the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg Brewing Arts program. After a few years of homebrewing she made the decision to set aside her Master’s degree in early childhood education saying, “I moved away from education with the dream of professional brewing for two reasons, I love brewing and I love that the nature of brewing is constantly evolving.”

Making her way through the Brewing Arts program has included completing an internship with Green Bench Brewery where they wasted no time immersing her in the daily work. Morgan says, “I was given a tour of the facility and immediately set to work. Each day at the brewery brought new challenges and with it new discoveries.” She has also completed the hops-focused component of the program but feels this is an area where she has a weaker understanding and is looking forward to instruction from global award winning brewers this course will provide.

Also hailing from the education world is Libby Brennan, who the PBS SSC noted, “demonstrates an evolving role in the beer industry and would use this course to build upon her own knowledge and spread it to others.”

Two years ago Libby took her first job in the industry, working at St. Elmo Brewing Company as a manager and event planner and has since gone on to brew two beers there. She is looking forward to the knowledge she will gain personally from being physically immersed in “a mecca of hop production” to help her complete her Cicerone certification and also sharing that knowledge. “As a manager with a staff who has a literal thirst for beer knowledge, I would be able to integrate the lessons of the course into our monthly trainings,” she says.

Briana Burrows, assistant brewer at The Big Rip Brewing Company, represents the most experienced brewing professional of these women. She started there as a once-a-week bartender in November of 2016 in what she says, “was the first step in changing my life forever, and for the better.”

A year later the assistant brewer quit unexpectedly and Briana took the initiative to further her career, expressing interest in helping out on the brew house floor. The owners decided to start training her and after being a part-time trainee for a month she officially became the assistant brewer. Knowing there is much to learn as she continues her career, she is looking forward to the hops and brewing knowledge this course will provide which she says, “will, in turn, help me present new ideas to the brewery. Learning more about beer and brewing on a regular basis is very important to me as a brewer and I believe taking this course will show the owners of the brewery that I’m serious about brewing, recipe formation, and also willing to help push our brewery into the future.”

YCH HOPS Hop and Brew School ® is a two-day onsite course in Yakima, WA that will cover topics including new trends in hop breeding, hop chemistry and brewing techniques. Guest speakers include award-winning brewers from across the United States speaking on hop usage, recipe formulation and brewing methods. Local hop farmers will also be in attendance to address the numerous growing aspects of hops from yields and aroma characteristics to new, up and coming proprietary varieties. The course includes a ranch tour, where attendees will experience the hop fields and witness hop picking, drying and baling, as well as a guided tour of YCH headquarters, where they will observe the receiving and warehousing of the hops.

Gasseling Ranches, a fourth generation hip farm in Wapato, WA is sponsoring one of the scholarship and has been operating for over 100 years. They produce many varieties for YCH including Mosaic, Simcoe, and Citra, and are fully committed to being a sustainably operated farm with the Green ChiefⓇ certification.

In addition to attending the course, each of the ladies will receive a pair of pink steel-toe rubber boots when she fulfills the Pay It Forward requirement associated with the scholarship.