It’s women’s month in South Africa, and I couldn’t let it pass without some sort of comment on one of the questions I get asked most often – what’s it like being a woman in the beer industry?
Available at http://www.beershirts.co.za/
For the most part, I’m very happy to say that it’s awesome. Most of the people in the SA beer world are wonderful people to work with, there is great camaraderie between the women in the industry (a treat since women can be highly competitive with each other) and as long as you can take a good deal of ribbing, it’s a lot of fun. It’s kind of like being everyone’s little sister (or increasingly for me, older sister) – you are most definitely going to get the piss taken out of you a lot, but you also feel looked after. Take the Clarens Beer Fest a few years back. One of the brewers, unhappy with a photo featured in African Brew, proceeded to shout and swear at me. I found the incident laughable, but others did not, and word got around the festival. Soon everyone was jumping to my defence and I have to admit, while I’m not a girl that’s too bothered about having doors opened for me and that sort of thing, it was kind of nice to know the other brewers had my back.
But it is still a bit of a boys’ club, the whole beer thing, and there are a few sure-fire ways that you – as a brewer or consumer – can seriously piss off a female beer drinker. As a side note, this post is not meant to be a how-to guide… 😉
1. Marketing your beers to men
Whether you’re showing adverts with men using beer as an escape from their wives, calling your beer things like Panty Dropper, using slogans such as “it goes down easy” (which isn’t even grammatically correct goddamit) or emblazoning your labels/advertisements with scantily clad big-titted broads, you are going to alienate your female drinkers. Think of it this way – would you want to buy a beer that had a giant dick on the label? Probably not, so why would I want to buy a beer that is so clearly ignoring me as a potential audience. Yes, I know that sex sells, but I often hear people talking about how fewer women than men drink beer. If you want women to drink your product, you have to make sure they know that you want them to drink your product. Calling it “Crazy Bitch”, “Double D”, “Pearl Necklace” or – dear god – “Chunky Gal” is a guaranteed way to keep your tap room vagina-free.
Beer named after shoes. I’m good, thanks.
2. Marketing your beers to women
Earlier this year, High Heel Brewing launched in Florida. I never wrote anything about it because, while I was planning a post, I read this spectacular response from Kaleigh Dunn and simply couldn’t have said it any better. High Heel’s beers were “designed specifically with female craft beer enthusiasts in mind and are a celebration to all women in brewing”. This is of course obvious to anyone who sees the beers. One is a perry-beer hybrid that is “fresh, fruity, floral” and comes in a pretty green and pink bottle. Oh, and it’s named after a shoe. Their 8.4% IPA features columbus, mosaic and simcoe, and normally I would be keen to try it. But I simply could not bring myself to drink a beer that is so shamelessly marketed to women. I think I’d rather be drinking a pint of Pearl Necklace. Plus it really doesn’t match any of my shoes so I would obviously look ridiculous. Come on, seriously. You don’t need to market your beer to women. You don’t need feminine fonts or pink labels or pink beer for that matter. We don’t want our “own beer“, thank you. Beer is beer and beer drinkers are beer drinkers, regardless of genitalia.
Do not ask this woman if she knows anything about fermentation. You will embarrass yourself. (Megan Gemmell from Clockwork Brewhouse)
3. Assuming the woman serving your beer doesn’t know anything about it
It’s not just brewers that are guilty of beer-based sexism. I know several lady brewers who, while serving their beers at festivals, have been asked things like “do you even drink beer”, “do you know anything about this beer?” or “where is the brewer?” Last year at CTFoB one Cape-based brewer walked up to a new brewery’s stand and when asked if he’d like to taste the range said something along the lines of “I don’t want to talk to the pretty face, I want to talk to someone who knows about the beer”. If you’re reading this, chauvinist brewer, think yourself lucky the girl in question has a calmer temperament than most. Many would have quickly got you acquainted with the bucket of slops and spillage under the taps. There is an increasing number of female brewers in South Africa, as well as girls working on the sales floor – don’t assume that because there’s a girl pouring your pint, she’s just been hired to provide eye candy to the customers…
4. Hiring hotties to serve your beer without teaching them about it
That being said, there is a growing trend of brewers hiring promo girls to work at beer festivals. I get it – craft beer attracts a lot of often youngish guys. And with a growing number of competitors at each fest, you need an extra lure to get people to your stand. I don’t have a problem with people hiring hotties for the day (though I wouldn’t mind a few ripped dudes sprinkled around while we’re at it) but if you’re going to bring in staff for the day, please teach them something about your beer. Many people go to beer festivals for the beer, not just the piss-up, so make sure all your staff are well informed.
Girls just wanna have…a good pint of beer
5. Thinking that you know what women want to drink
A few weeks ago a prominent South African beer tweeter published two successive posts on Twitter. One, a pic of Cluver Jack cider “for the ladies”, a second of andUnion’s Beast of the Deep “for the men”. Man how this pissed me off. It’s a fairly common misconception I think, that women want to drink something light and fruity, while men want something big and heavy and full of manly ABV points. My pint of choice, as many of you will know, is an American style IPA. Upwards of 6% please and bitter as all hell. My dad on the other hand rather likes cider. Does that make me a “dudechick” and my dad less of a man? No, of course it doesn’t – what a load of old bollocks. Don’t assume that the beer I’ve chosen “might be too bitter”, don’t try and sell your female patrons a witbier because “it’s more delicate”. And don’t label ciders or fruity beers as “chick beers” because you’ll alienate not only your female drinkers but also the men who are partial to a Cluver Jack cider or a Liefman’s Fruitesse.
At the end of the day, we want everyone to drink more beer, regardless of their gender, age (assuming they’re over 18), race, level of beer knowledge, height, weight or US election preference. Stop singling women out as drinkers that need special attention and they will flock to your tap rooms, restaurants and festivals to drink whatever it is they enjoy drinking.
Speaking of which, on Women’s Day, head over to Beerhouse on Long to sample a black IPA that I brewed with homebrew queen Lynnae Endersby from BeerLab. With hops chosen for their tangerine notes, we’ve called it Orange is the New Black IPA. It’s dark, big on booze and bitter – all the things that (some) ladies love in a beer. Meanwhile in Jo’burg, a team of brewsters headed up by Apiwe Nxusani-Mawela have created a one-off amber ale using African Queen and Vic Secret hops. The very limited edition beer will be on tap at Beerhouse Fourways on August 9th. For more on Beerhouse’s Women’s Day campaign, follow #shelovesbeer on Twitter.
Great article Lucy! Love it when people ask for a “ladies” (size) draft in the the taproom. So um…guess that means I like men’s drafts??
Ooh, I forgot about that. It’s because our delicate arms can’t lift 500ml of liquid… 😉
Great article Lucy.
I’m attempting to make a beer my wife likes, might have got it right with s very pale lager, 3% alc, low carbonation.
Will bring you a sample if she does not finish them all before the14th
You already know my opinion on this from my rant on your last article on this topic, but just to further prove my point, the last beer I brewed for my girlfriend was a session IPA that she wanted to be “dry as a bone”.
Meanwhile, I’m busy trying to figure out which styles would be the best utilization of the Orange Blossom and Elderflower in my cupboard. Not to mention the pretty-in-pink Hibiscus Saison I brewed.
(No offensive puns were used in the naming of these beers)
I will get around to tasting the saison this week. My pink dress was in the wash and it clashed with my red one… 😉
Don’t stress, i just wanted to make sure you got some before the guys at Drifter drank it all 😛
Make sure you serve it in a nice girly glass!
Hi Lucy,
I do apologize profusely for any offense that my tweets in point five may have caused. They were definitely not intended to be sexist in any form.
I am well aware of your affinity for a good IPA and I do know many woman that have a preference for some of the bolder beers.
My tweet was meant to be tongue in cheek, unfortunately it does not seem to have come across like that. I did deliberately group ladies in the cider picture, not because of any sexist motive, nor to provoke, but because it is the first time I have actually managed to get my hands on in at my local bottle store and I was really impressed with the cider itself and I thought the people I tagged would be interested in it. The second tweet I grouped guys in and unfortunately it happened to be a Bock.
In all my beer tweets I tag a mostly even number of women and men. Some of them local and some of them international. This is a good way of sharing with the international community what we have going on here in SA. In the majority of tweets I am tagged in or mentioned by the international contingent – there are no women tagged.
Again, my sincere apologies for any offense that I may have caused.
Cheers
Craig
Thanks Craig. I guess tongue-in-cheek is tough to portray in a tweet sometimes! But hey, at least now you’re (in)famous…
I couldn’t agree more with number 4. I absolutely hate the idea of using eye candy to sell a product. As a male, I find it condescending. The marketers assume that I consult with my penis before making any purchase.. I’m obviously referring to the intentional use of promo girls to attract customers. If the knowledgeable girl behind the taps happens to be attractive, judging her beer knowledge based on how she looks is equally offensive.
Number 5 is also spot on. As you’ve said, compartmentalising beers into gender categories is offensive to a drinker like you with profound knowledge and discerning tastes. The other effect is that those who are new to the world of beer will feel discouraged from trying certain styles. They, men and women alike, will just assume that a style is not for them. Many people are pleasantly surprised when introduced to a style that doesn’t fit in with their gender stereotype. I’ve particularly found this when introducing female friends to IPAs. Many of them find themselves thoroughly enjoying it. Of course, some find the bitterness overwhelming, but I know enough men who feel the same way.
While we’re on the topic of marketing, I think its worth discussing packaging in the SA beer industry in general. While I think we have some breathtakingly elegant packaging designs in the industry (CBC, Aegir Project, Woodstock, and Drifter to name a few), I feel like the majority of the beer labels on the market look quite amateurish. (I won’t name and shame). While this doesn’t always correlate to the quality of the beer itself, I feel that it hurts the product and the beer industry in general. I know that the primary concern is the product inside the bottle, but I really appreciate it when a brewery takes their packaging seriously. I don’t know, perhaps this warrants its own article?
Thanks for the great comment Kevin. You make some excellent (and very entertaining) points.
I agree with you that some brewers need to up their game in the packaging department – we have a piece on that in the debut edition of On Tap, coming out in September…
I’m looking forward to reading it. Glad I’m not the only one concerned about it.
Comment on no 4; I was at a beer fest last year and there were some pretty, young girls selling Strawberry Lips and tried to get us to buy a shooter. Firstly, there was no way this group of beer swigging guys were going to drink that and when I mentioned that she was marketing to the wrong demographic, she said “….yes, the graphics on our poster are not that great”….she wasn’t the brightest! The point being, no matter how good the eye candy, if the product is not what I am looking for it wont make a difference.
Agree with Kaleigh Dunn and she loves Rugby.
Loves rugby? Not sure I get that reference…
Nothing serious, I just like her comments, she is in Craft Beer and enjoys Rugby.
Thnx again for your insights Lucy. Spot on with all the points made. I have entertained close to 8000 people at our brewery over the last 30 months or so many of whom were women of all ages ranging from 18 to 80. Many of the women accompany their men and some say quite openly, they don’t drink beer. Of course I get them to sample our variants and can gladly say have succeeded to “turn them around” in many instances. Feedback at these tasting sessions is crucial and very enlightening as well. The taste preferences of women vs men are often different but in no way an indication of strong for da boyz and piss for de gals…indeed many ladies have found our Hammer of Thor (Old Ale at 8.3%) very tasty and an 80 year-old dear ordered two crates!!! (Her husband has disappeared since LOL).
Lucy: I Agree, Agree, Agree. I get so pissed off when I order a beer and I get these strange looks from the barmen or waiter. I usually say I am a Brit, I like beer and their expression changes – but heaven knows why. Nowadays I can usually only manage a half which keeps the stereotype of women only drink small glasses. but its a liquid quantity problem not a desire to quaff sadly. What bothers me is how we do get more women in SA drinking beer. Most of the people we work with are wine media and most of the women say in horror, Beer! never touch the stuff. ! But at a recent brewery opening in Franschhoek many were converted. Well, they said they were…
So nice to meet fellow wine lovers on a beer blog! (Hope you & John are doing well) Lucy, love the article. I am dumbfounded by some men; their reactions & faces, when I order a beer. Granted I don’t default to the high ABV’s but doesn’t mean I don’t drink them (now and then). Thanks for giving us “feminine” ? beer gluggers a solid voice!
Thanks Ilze. May you enjoy some great beer (or wine!) this Women’s Day!
Is “IPA” officially a word now? If so, you can have a Black IPA. If not, you cannot make a Black Pale Ale. You may have devised an unclassified style, but it isn’t a Black Pale Ale.
Not a word, but IPA is a style…and so is Black IPA. And white stout for that matter… 😀