Germany immersion trip
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Sep
5
Kris McDowell
Beer, Brats and Beyond Tour Scholarship Recipients Announced
Scholarship Recipients
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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.

Sep
7
Kris McDowell
Beer, Brats and Beyond Tour Scholarship Recipients Announced
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The Pink Boots Society is excited to announce and introduce the seven 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 13-22, 2017.

Hailing from the United States, Canada, Peru and Australia, these seven women run the gamut from new to the industry to those having worked their way up and have opened their own breweries. Megan Garrity, Lauren Lerch, Annabel Meagher, Katie Smith, Bridgette Turner, Kate Streblenko and Tracy Vornbrock will be joining other Pink Boots members for this nine-day 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.

Megan Garrity, the first of the three international members on the trip, is the owner/brewer of Greenga Brewing in Lima, Peru. There she handles not only recipe development, brewing and packaging but also does sales, distribution and social media for the brewery. Her location limits her resources, including access to Noble hop varieties like she’ll get to experience on the tour. She says, “Being able to not only visit the farm but also learn more about the traditions and characteristics will help me broaden the styles of beer I’m brewing.” Always looking to improve her knowledge and skills, she’s eager expand her network and to learn from the brewers she’ll meet on the tour, including seeing how the the open fermentation process that Sigi Friedmann utilizes in real life instead of just reading about it.

A brewer’s assistant at Red Rock Brewing in Utah, Lauren Lerch began as a beer store attendant in what she describes as a “casual job” and has worked her way up. During that time she says “I have become the first female Certified Cicerone® in Utah, a Certified Judge though the Beer Judge Certification Program and have judged at the North American Beer Awards.” In addition to brewing duties, she uses her certifications to educate the serving staff, creates beer descriptions for their menus, writes for Red Rock’s bi-weekly blog and assembles beer pairings. Currently enrolled at the University of Utah and pursuing a bachelor’s degree she would like to study brewing abroad and she says, “going on this immersion tour would prove invaluable when making a major life decision like studying abroad.”

Annabel Meagher, an international member hailing from Australia, is the co-owner and brewer of Himmel Hund in Melbourne. The brewery specializes in making German-style beers and the name is a partial homage to the high school exchange trip she took to Bavaria where she had her first taste of wheat beer, falling quite in love with it. About this trip she says, “I will no doubt learn so much about the Reinheitsgebot method of brewing and the best way to use my favourite ingredient (wheat). I have attempted to grow German style hops on a farm outside of Melbourne without great success so far and visiting the hop farms in Germany would no doubt give me some wonderful ideas on how to grow my own back home.”

Starting her craft brewing career with Twin Leaf Brewery as an assistant brewer/bartender, North Carolina-based Katie Smith has moved up into the role of brewer with Highland Brewing Company. She says, “Ever since starting my career, the brewery has always captivated me,” however, “With the fluctuating hours of my full time position at Highland Brewing it has been very difficult for me to be enrolled in a degree-seeking program where I could continue to grow and learn. This short immersion tour would be the perfect opportunity for me to learn so much in a brief period of time.” An active member of the Asheville, NC Pink Boots chapter she is looking forward to sharing her experience with other members once she returns.

The sole member of the group who works on the lab side of brewing operations at Jack’s Abby, Kate Streblenko has brought her degree in biochemistry and past experience as a lab tech for UMass Medical School to the world of craft beer. As the Quality Manager at this German-style, lager only brewery, she says “it’s my responsibility to ensure that these beers aren’t just tasty, but that they are true to style and feature many of the same characteristics as a true German lager.” In brewing some of their traditional styles they use decoction, a process that is not common among Massachusetts breweries. For Kate, “this makes troubleshooting issues and comparing notes with other brewers difficult” so during this trip she is looking forward to gaining an “understanding the traditional methods that helped shape these styles that can really help me have a better understanding of our own brewing techniques and results.”

A craft beer bar in Virginia was where Bridgette Turner started down her craft brewing path. Six years and hundreds of beers later she knew she wanted to become a more knowledgeable bartender. She says, “After some soul searching, I made the decision to attend brew school at Brewlab Ltd in Sunderland, England.” The 12-week course taught her traditional brewing processes and lab skills, gave her the opportunity to write and brew her own recipes and volunteer at eight British breweries. Bridgette returned to a cellar person position she had arranged in advance, eventually moving on and up to a brewer position, before taking her current position as the lead brewer with Solace Brewing Company. She’s thrilled with her new role but says, “Yet again, I always find myself thirsting for more. More knowledge, more beer, and more travel. The scholarship opportunity in Germany provides all those things.”

The third international member, Canadian Tracy Vornbrock entered into the brewing industry just a year ago. She embarked on a Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management program and is currently at Tool Shed Brewery full time as a summer student where she has been trained in brewing, cellaring, packaging and quality control. She says, “Besides having a passion for beer, what drew me to a career as a brewer was to be part of an industry that continually challenges the conventions of what has been done in the past. The Alberta beer industry is experiencing a massive boom in part due to the relaxation of production limits and an end to archaic liquor laws.” Once finished with school she hopes to open a 3bbl nano-brewery, applying her brewing experience as well as her experience on this trip to “be a loud voice and lead the Alberta beer scene in a new direction, one where beer and brewing come first, not one of flashy advertisements and sexist marketing.”

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, Beer, Bratwurst and Beyond tour 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.

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.