PSU Business of Craft Brewing Scholarship Recipient Announced

The Pink Boots Society is proud to announce that Kim Collins of Golden, Colo. 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 chose Kim to receive this scholarship as they feel “she has the brewing experience and a clear plan for her brewery, but lacks the business knowledge that will propel her to success—therefore, this course will benefit her greatly.”

Kim’s professional brewing career has spanned four years at five Colorado breweries including brewing on the 3bbl system at Barrels & Bottles, the 1bbl pilot system at Boulder Beer and most recently on the 20bbl system at Wynkoop Brewing Company. She had been homebrewing for eight years previously and made the jump to being a professional “to learn to everything there is to know about brewing and to someday open my own brewpub.” She’s in the process of making that dream a reality, purchasing a 21-acre piece of land in Michigan that will be home to a 10bbl brewery, restaurant and yurt camping for what she describes as “casual winery and summer camp combined.” While confident in her brewing skills, Kim has not owned a business before and is looking forward to the breadth of knowledge the courses in this certificate will provide.

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 business 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 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 start-up community and other potential business partners.

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

Cicerone BeerSavvy® Scholarship Recipient Announced

The Pink Boots Society is proud to announce that Libby Murphy, Editorial Assistant at Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine, 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 chose Libby to receive this scholarship as they feel “it will definitely help her credibility in her writing and help her with the depth of content.” They found it “exciting that her primary career is not the usual brewery/tap room—she wants to have the most education possible to assist her in her current career and is driven to make herself valuable when communicating with the beer industry.”

As Editorial Assistant Libby writes articles about the craft beer scene and home brewing, edits articles written by others and performs fact checks. She says that “getting a job writing and editing for a well-respected beer publication has been a dream come true.” However even with experience as a homebrewer for over 15 years she often feels intimidated by what she doesn’t know. “I quickly came to realize that I need far more formal education to bring my beer knowledge skills up to par with those I’m working with, interviewing, and socializing with on a professional level” she acknowledges. The course will both bolster her knowledge and help her feel more confident in her palate as she achieves a greater understanding of the many nuances of beer.

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, Libby 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, 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 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.”

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 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 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.

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 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.

OSU Origins of Beer Flavor and Styles Scholarship Recipient Announced

The Pink Boots Society is proud to announce that Alethea Smartt is the recipient of the Oregon State University Origins of Beer Flavors and Styles 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 Alethea to receive this scholarship due to her position, “as a writer and business owner heavily enmeshed in the brewing industry,” feeling that “she would benefit the most from this course,” improving, “her writing which will have far reaching effects” and increasing her, “understanding of basic style and flavor profiles that would lend well to her work.”

Alethea is a small business consultant in Portland, Ore. currently working with a beer industry client to improve their website, add eCommerce, identify sales and marketing opportunities, and increase product awareness by attending festivals and other events. She is also a writer for online and print publications who has, “been drinking beer for practically my entire life” but says, “I tend to shy away from opportunities to judge or to discuss beer in more technical terms.” In order to increase her proficiency in identifying specific flavors and aromas and the overall process of making beer she has plans to start homebrewing and recently decided to become Cicerone certified. Regarding the course she says, “I felt like the timing was more than coincidence as this course would be invaluable in preparing me for the Cicerone exam.”

The Oregon State University Professional and Continuing Education Origins of Beer Flavors and Styles course is a two-day onsite course that will examine the origins of beer flavor from raw materials and brewing techniques, how beer flavor and aroma are developed within brewing, raw ingredients and then ultimately transformed by yeast during fermentation through multiple beer tastings and discussions. Attendees will also learn the sensory methodology and aroma standards used by professionals in the brewing industry to analyze beer quality and to identify beer flavor defects and their causes during the brewing process.

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

Food Craft Institute Business of Beer Scholarship Recipient Announced

The Pink Boots Society is proud to announce that Amber Watts is the recipient of the Food Craft Institute Business of Beer 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 Amber to receive this scholarship because while she has “a fantastic amount of experience…and a great amount of drive,” “she’ll need as much knowledge and networking with industry people as possible” as she embarks on opening her own brewery.

Amber has been involved with Jester King Brewery for the last six years, starting out volunteering at brewery and off-site events while teaching at Texas Christian University. When she made the decision to leave academia her volunteering evolved into a full-time position. Since then she’s worn many hats at the brewery, saying, “I’m one of our tasting room managers—helping run an outdoor tasting room that more closely resembles a festival every weekend, with over 2,000 patrons sprawling over our multi-acre site. In addition, I’m also our state and federal compliance liaison, our art director, our event planner, our beer buyer, the person in charge of many front office and HR duties, and a tour guide and company representative.”

Currently in the process of relocating from Austin, TX to Washington state, Amber and her partner plan to open their own destination farmhouse brewery/tasting room with an ambitious goal of selling their first beers by the end of 2017. While she’ll be able to draw on her experience at Jester King she says that the Business of Beer course “would be invaluable to our project going forward.”

Food Craft Institute’s Business of Beer is five-week long Intensive Master Course directed to women who plan to open a brewery within the next two years, are currently setting up a new brewery or want to dive deeper into the business of brewing. It is designed to provide the skills, knowledge and support to start a successful craft beer business, taught by leading brewpub owners and the Bay Area’s top microbreweries and includes such subjects such as sourcing equipment and ingredients, what to expect with respect to permits, licenses and fees, and financing and marketing strategies.

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

Barth-Haas Yakima Hops Academy Scholarship Recipient Announced

The Pink Boots Society is proud to announce that Heather Holland of Maine is the recipient of the Barth-Haas Yakima Hop 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 chose Heather to receive this scholarship because as a hop farmer they feel the academy would help “to further her business and increase the hop concentration in her community.” In addition, “Her passion for agriculture and enthusiasm for the craft make her the ideal candidate.”

Heather attended an agricultural high school, holds a degree in horticulture and with her husband currently runs a small company that manufactures brewing equipment. They also own a working farm whose hop yard will undergo its first phase of planting next spring. Of the farm she says, “Our focus will be to utilize as many farm grown ingredients as well as educating our customers that beer is an agricultural product.”

Living on the east coast, where hop farms operate on a much smaller scale, Heather is excited about experiencing the hop harvest from one of the leading hop suppliers. In reviewing the the agenda for the two-day academy she found it to be “packed full of information and tours that do not compare to what I can attend here.” The opportunities for learning in the classroom as well as the field experience she feels will be invaluable to her career.

Barth-Haas Yakima Hops Academy is a two-day onsite course in Yakima, WA consisting of presentations by hop and brewing experts that will cover topics including new trends in hop breeding, hop chemistry, hop quality and brewing techniques. Guest speakers include top researchers and growers from around the world speaking on 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, Heather will receive a pair of pink steel-toe rubber boots when she fulfills the Pay It Forward requirement associated with the scholarship.

YCH HOPS Hop and Brew School ® Scholarship Recipient Announced

The Pink Boots Society is proud to announce that Andrea Ludlam of Massachusetts is the recipient of the YCH HOPS Hop and Brew School ® 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 Andrea to receive this scholarship as they feel that she “has a very specific goal in mind, combining passions to create her future and a future that will benefit the industry.”

Andrea, unlike many Pink Boots members, occupies a position within the beer industry that exists outside of a brewery. Her role as a beer, wine and liquor buyer for distributor Sheehan Family Companies, her first in the industry but one that draws on her background as a buyer in other industries, has given direction to her broad dream of starting her own business. That business? A hop farm which will support local breweries by growing exceptional quality hops.

As an avid gardener, home brewer and beer connoisseur the idea to start a company that would combine all of those skills first came about when she was studying to become a Certified Cicerone. Andrea says, “I found that while the course was grueling I loved learning in-depth about the history of beer and all the different varieties. Most interesting to me were the ingredients, the hops and grains, and the unique way they shape flavors in beer. I learned through the course that Massachusetts is located in the hop belt, a geographical location that is perfect for growing hops, yet the northeast is lacking in a supply of locally grown hops. There is a true need for more local farms growing grain and hops to support the ever growing number of regional breweries and I want to provide them.”

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 also 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.

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

Oregon State University Beer Quality & Analysis Scholarship Recipient Announced

The Pink Boots Society is proud to announce that Abigail Temoshchuk of Port City Brewing in Virginia is the recipient of the Oregon State University Beer Quality & Analysis Series 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 Abigail to receive this scholarship as they feel “this scholarship will help enhance her microbiology education,” supplementing her science background. With minimal professional QA/QC experience “she could benefit immensely from this scholarship and subsequent training.”

Like many, Abigail started by homebrewing. From the first brew day with her boyfriend she, “felt this emotion that simultaneously satisfied both my creativity and my type-A nature. It was a feeling I had only experienced one time before – in the laboratory.”

At the time she was in a self-described “cushy” government job utilizing her Masters degree in Biohazardous Threat Agents & Emerging Infectious Diseases. Once hooked on homebrewing, she scaled up her batches and began self-education of her palate. Delving deeper into craft beer she got a part-time server position with Port City Brewing. When she had the opportunity to go full time as a brewer there she quit her government job and since then has applied her scientific background to “create, manage, and run the lab program as a one-man-show.” Acknowledging the steep learning curve, she’s looking forward to the education this scholarship can provide to get their lab program running efficiently.

OSU’s Beer Quality and Analysis Series teaches the fundamentals of basic beer analysis and microbiological techniques and their roles in the brewing process based on the official ASBC Methods of Analysis used in QA/QC labs worldwide, providing attendees the knowledge and tools to analyze and evaluate beer to influence quality control in a production brewing setting.

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

UC Davis Intensive Brewing Science Scholarship Recipient Announced

The Pink Boots Society is proud to announce that Colleen Rakowski of Free Will Brewing Company in Pennsylvania is the recipient of the University of California, Davis Extension Intensive Brewing Science for Practical Brewing 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 Colleen to receive this scholarship due to her “love yet understanding of the work and commitment” of brewing and her willingness to “work her way up from the ground floor.”

At the beginning of 2015 Colleen began her journey into craft beer working for Free Will in an office capacity, assisting them with social media and marketing as well as bartending in the taproom. When summer came around and they were short staffed in the cellar she stepped in to take a position there. Her supervisor was impressed that Colleen, “picked up CIP and sanitation processes faster than any other person I’d ever trained, and far quicker than I learned them myself when I was first starting as a brewer. Within a week she was dry hopping, fining, and otherwise treating finished beers, and a week or two after that she was running transfers and filtrations solo.” As 2016 began she was promoted to lead cellerperson where her short term her goal is to run the cellar efficiently. Eventually she would like to start brewing and developing brew recipes but she knows,“there is so much more knowledge to gain and this scholarship will help me immensely” in getting to that point.

University of California, Davis Extension Intensive Brewing Science for Practical Brewing course is a five day on-site course that offers an intensive introduction to the sciences of brewing, engineering and brewing practice. Attendees will learn the technological and biochemical aspects of the entire brewing process from world renowned instructors Drs. Charles Bamforth and Michael Lewis. Topics of the interactive lecture sessions cover all aspects of brewing from raw materials to fermentation to quality control and sensory evaluation.

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

Siebel Concise Course in Brewing Technology Scholarship Recipient Announced

The Pink Boots Society is proud to announce that Troy Bedik of Saint Louis Brewery (Schlafly beer) is the recipient of the Siebel World Brewing Academy Concise Course in Brewing Technology 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 Troy to receive this scholarship because “she has the drive and motivation to to truly marry the art and science of brewing.”

Troy took a “leap of faith” when she left New York and the career in technical theater she had desired while earning her B.A. in Drama and moved St. Louis to delve into the beer world. To gain knowledge she worked at two top craft beer bars in the area and began homebrewing. In addition to picking up a few BJCP medals for her beers, a local brewery made a full batch of her recipe for Witty Femme, a lavender-lemon witbier, a milestone that propelled her to quit her day job and take a position on the packaging line at Schlafly in March 2015.

Quickly moving from the packaging line to kegging to working in the small batch and one-off area, Troy has “been thrown knee-deep into the world of brewing.” She has been able to draw on her homebrewing background but the “massiveness of the industry” is part of what has made her “very motivated to learn the necessary science behind the brewing process.” Ultimately Troy would like to become a brewmaster, using her creative mind and the technical skills she intends to acquire, in part through this course.

The Concise Course in Brewing Technology is an intensive 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.

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