Grizzly Growler

On the heels of the Betty’s for Beer post, I received a tip from Mike Mahns about On Tap, a television series hosted by brewmaster Jennifer Talley. The show looks great, and highlights all of the things I’m about on this blog, such as: pairing beer and food, microbrew education, and what’s happening in the wide, wide world of craft brewing.

I guess the interesting thing for me, after interviewing a couple of gals over at Big Sky Brewing Co. about the Betty’s for Beer Club, is that the next major viable market for the beer industry is women.

I’m sure some smart marketing execs figured that out long ago, which is why we have such things as malted beverages and Mike’s Hard Lemonade. But with efforts like Betty’s for Beer and On Tap, and the growing number of female brewers, this won’t be just another effort to cater to already decided tastes. There is a concerted effort to educate people toward more varieties of beer, which is good for the diversity of styles in this country.

For most of her life, my wife has been opposed to beer. Mostly for the taste, though some of it can be attributed to memories of a beer-guzzling sometimes father. In the  last several years, and especially since we moved away from our beloved Willamette Valley wineries, she has developed a small taste for beer. We’ve been through the Belgian beers together, as they’re candied spiciness lends itself to new beer palates. We’ve been through the hefeweizens, and the colored beers, the browns, the ambers and the blonds. But we haven’t crossed into the high-gravity hop monsters that I adore. When we fill the Party Pig at the Kettlehouse, we do so with Eddy Out Pale Ale or the Lake Missoula Amber. She won’t quite go for the Double Haul IPA.

But she’s growing in her appreciation for good beer that can be sipped and paired with food like fine wine. And when she buys beer for us, she does so knowing what she likes. I’m sure we’ll get to the big beers that I’m fond of, though it might take a little more time.

Can you imagine the explosion that will take place in the craft beer market when more women find out that we like beer for more than the fact it makes us burp, is not as expensive as wine and makes us feel like manly men?

I’m excited. I think growth is a good thing if it continues to produce more styles and experimentation. Besides that, women are only coming into something that always was theirs.

They were the first brewers and purveyors of beer. It was from their capable hands that the church took the art and craft of brewing and turned it into profit.

To all my favorite female brewers, beer goddesses and keepers of the brewing legacy,

Prost!

GG