Meet the Brewer: Geneseo Brewing
In the grand scope of beer and human history, brewing was a task (and later an industry) dominated by women. While the United States craft beer industry of today is largely performed by males, there has definitely been a growth in gender diversity. We see many women finding roles not only in the tap room and manager positions, but also in actual beer brewing roles right here in the Quad Cities. I talked to my good friend Rachel Leiby about her experience as the only woman Head Brewer in the Quad Cities.
What was your gateway beer that really sparked your passion for craft beer and what was that fireworks moment like when you first discovered it?
“The gateway beer that really sparked my passion was New Holland Dragon’s Milk. This was back when the beer was sold in $19 four packs of 12 oz bottles and was a much higher ABV at the time compared to now. My stepdad had me try his and I was blown away! I couldn’t believe beer could taste like that. It was oaky, smoky, heavy on chocolate and vanilla. I fell in love with it instantly and that started my slippery slope into the craft beer world.”
You’re not the first female head brewer or the only female brewer in the Quad Cities, but you’re currently the only female head brewer in the Quad Cities. Why is it important to you that a woman hold that role?
“Industrialization took the role away from women and for the longest time it was a boys club. I think it’s very important to have women in brewery leadership roles. We have a different perspective from men on business approach, taste, and what sells to people like us. Women still make up a minority of craft beer enthusiasts, but the number is growing exponentially each year. Having female craft beer enthusiasts see other women actually making the beer, or in ownership/management, and even sales roles is inspiring and gives them reason to celebrate it more.”
You’re a member of the “Pink Boots Society”. You’ve hosted the area's Pink Boots Brew Day and have started taking the steps of creating a local Pink Boots chapter for the Quad Cities. Tell me more about why you’re so involved in that organization.
“The Pink Boots Society’s mission is to ‘assist, inspire, and encourage women fermented/alcoholic beverage industry professionals to advance their careers through education.’ I believe in that statement, and am a pretty loud voice for myself and others that tend to stay quieter. The Quad Cities regional brew crew is fantastic, and has been so encouraging throughout my time as a brewer, but it is not like that everywhere. I’m working on a local chapter because there are enough women in the area that are working in the industry locally to support it, plus it’ll help to draw interest from other women and gives them the opportunity and education to try it out themselves. The two closest chapters are 2.5-3 hours away east and west of us, it’s not always feasible to make it to those meetings. There are larger cities surrounding the Quad Cities that can support this chapter as well - think Iowa City, Peoria, Galesburg - all of these places have breweries and Chicago or Des Moines is just not that close in comparison to this area.”
It seems like you always have a beer on tap that is connected to, or a collaboration of some sort, with a local small business or charity organization. Why is that something that Geneseo Brewing continues to do?
“Geneseo is so community-centric! I have named multiple beers out of sheer appreciation of seeing how this community comes together for their own. We will continue to host and brew for local charities and businesses to help maintain that sense of communal strength.”
You’ve collaborated with a lot of other breweries in the Quad Cities. What is a local brewery you haven’t brewed with yet that you would like to and what would you want to brew?
“I have a collaboration coming up this weekend with Adam Ross at Twin Span. This has been in talks for months and we finally have openings in our schedules that line up. I’m looking forward to that milkshake IPA! I have yet to be able to brew with Wake or Radicle Effect and I would love to work with both of them! With Wake, I’d love to do some sort of spin on Kristal Casket - that’s one of my favorite beers they’ve put out. With REB, I think I’d want to do some sort of fruit and herbal sour - along the lines of Mango in the Minty Mountain - but something unique!”
You’ve brewed a lot of your own unique beer and hard seltzer here at GBC; what are some of your favorite recipes?
“Hazy IPAs and pale ales have been my favorites to brew so far. The pale ale has been perfected by Sierra Nevada, so just making sure I can keep mine up to snuff with theirs is important to me. The hazies are a work in progress yet. There are so many on the market, and many of them are great. I keep tweaking mine to make it how I like it, and hopefully others find that to be great as well. I do the same thing with my seltzers, I didn’t drink them for the longest time because the big beverage options were either static water that smelled like fruit, or so syrupy sweet that I couldn’t finish one. I was urged to give them a shot, but I was going to do it how I like it, and that’s gone over really well.”
When you’re trying a style you haven’t brewed before or you’re putting together something completely unique, what are your inspirations and influences coming from?
“My inspiration comes from everything, I can hear people talking and something can spark an idea. If I’m eating something truly delicious and feel like I can translate that into a beer, that becomes an inspiration. Drinking other beers, and wanting to riff off that. Sometimes the name comes first and I’ll build the beer from that. When I’m trying to build out a recipe for a beer I haven’t made before, I do a lot of research. I look at the brewing sites and I have multiple books I reference often, and I don’t have a problem reaching out to other brewers for some insight either. Usually it becomes a combination of what I’ve seen from those sources, plus what I can taste from well executed examples of that style.”
You’re an alumni of the Saint Louis University Brewing Science and Operations Program, how important has education been to you when compared to hands-on learning on the fly?
“Learning on the fly is really how I learn best, but having the formal education helped to fill in knowledge gaps, and help with better practices that I hadn’t learned or wasn’t implementing. Having taken the program while everything was shut down, I feel like I missed out on the hands-on aspect, but I will be getting a hold of the educators to get in on future trips for those experiences. A lot of what I learned will help with future growth opportunities.”
What is your advice for other female craft beer enthusiasts that may have an interest in getting into the industry?
“Ladies, if you’re interested, show it! Talk to everyone you can, be persistent, find your local Pink Boots representatives, find your local home brew clubs, and even find some enthusiast groups on social media! I am also an admin for the Illinois and Iowa state groups of Craft Beer Girls - Beer & Body. The main group has well over 25,000 women, and there are 2,000 women between the state groups I help admin for. There are people out there that will help, you just have to talk to them! I love chatting with other women, and helping to give guidance where I can, so please feel free to reach out to me!”
About the Author:
Charlie Cole is a professional brewer and multimedia beer promoter. He is a graduate of St. Louis University in Brewing Science and Operations as well as University of Vermont and San Diego State University in Business of Craft Beer. He has been a previous brewer at three Quad Cities breweries and co-hosts the What’s Tappening weekly local beer segment on 97X FM.