International Women’s Day at Double-Barrelled Brewery
On Friday March 8th at Double-Barrelled Brewery in Tilehurst, was an incredible event to celebrate women in beer. The event was carefully curated to demonstrate the various ways women are currently involved in the beer industry and included sessions that shared insightful information about the brewing process, as well as a collaborative brew day itself, tour of the brewery and special guest speakers.
Double-Barelled brought people together from all across the beer industry and the day was inclusive and packed with women in beer from across Reading and the surrounding areas and many women who didn’t work in the industry but love it and who wanted to know more. The event allowed attendees the opportunity to hear different perspectives from women working within the beer industry and learn lots of new skills and further the understanding of the brewing process.
The event included a tour of the brewery which was hosted by Luci Clayton-Jones, the co-foudner of Double-Barrelled Brewery. Luci took everybody through the brewing process as the event kicked off at 8am. Luci walked the group through the past five years of beer making at this brewery and how their flagship beers came into being, namely Parka, the super popular pale ale and Ding, the thirst quenching lager. Both of these beers can be found across pubs in Reading.
Luci shared valuable knowledge including the impact of local water on the beers that an area will produce with some insightful examples from across the country and how different beer styles tended to be found in particular areas. We were also taken through a talk on hops, yeast and malt.
There was off flavour training delivered by Ruth Mitchell, formerly of Elusive Brew. Ruth is a certified cicerone and Beer Sommelier. This was a fantastic and involved the circulation of several different beer examples amongst the group for people to smell, try and experience.
When asked later in the day what she had been most proud of with her time at Elusive Brew she shared that: “For me something that has been really rewarding was brewing a Brave Noise beer. It was our first beer of 2023 at Elusive and I felt really strongly about it. I wanted to make a statement about the state of the beer industry and I had wanted to do that for a while but I wanted to do this in a positive way. The Brave Noise project it great because it’s not only talking about everything that is bad within the beer industry but instead it’s positive and also celebrates what’s brilliant in the beer industry.The Brave Noise Project is great and I recommend that everybody looks into the work that they do because it’s so important.”
At the end of the off flavour training, we had the opportunity to try the Double-Barrelled IWD beer which is a Passionfruit Martini Sour. You may just still be able to nab a can at the taproom. The beer brewed on IWD itself is the Raspberry Ripple Sour and that is now available on the Double-Barrelled webshop and in the taproom too.
There was an interview panel that featured a brilliant line up of women in beer. The panel featured: Lotte Peplow from the Brewers Association who works as the US and Craft beer Ambassador for Europe, Kelly Sidgwick from Good Chemistry Brewing in Bristol, Linda Birch from Twickenham’s Brewery Market craft beer shop and bar. The were joined by Ruth Mitchell from Elusive Brew (who has just shared with a few people that she was soon off to do something a little different) and Kirsty Moulsley, Double-Barrelled’s very own Sales and Operations Manager. Leading the questions on the panel was the excellent Tori Powell, co-host of A Women’s Brew Podcast and she did a fantastic job asking curious and interesting questions of her panel.
Kelly Sidgwick of Good Chemistry shared that “I don’t have a brewing background, I hadn’t even been into beer that long when my partner Bob and I founded Good Chemistry. He started home brewing and loved doing something that had a tangible output. I had a business background and had my own business that I was winding down. What’s so special about a day like today is that we are all women that are working in a very male-dominated industry and so not only do you deal with people expecting you not to know things about the industry, but you are also a minority within that industry. Days like this are so important and allow women to make contacts and speak with women who are doing similar things – it is so positive and life-affirming. It makes it feel less isolating and running a business in this industry can actually feel quite lonely so it’s all about finding your tribe and identifying people who believe in what you do and feel the same way about things that you do.”
Zoë Andrews
Published in Mine’s A Pint, issue 63
Mine's A Pint - Reading & Mid-Berks CAMRA 