QC Women in Beer

Geneseo Brewing Company’s brewery was taken over by women brewers and beer enthusiasts for the annual “Pink Boots Collaboration Brew Day” which takes place on International Women's Day in March each year. By the end of the day these women had created an extremely unique IPA. 

The brewing industry is currently very outnumbered by men but that hasn’t always been the case. For 7,000 years humans have been drinking beer and the earliest brewers were women. The use of hops in beer are even credited to Hildegard von Bingen, a German nun who wrote about using them in her recipe in the 12th century. Brewing was primarily performed by women up until the 1500s. It wasn’t until some women began taking the “household duty” of brewing into the marketplace that things began to change. At that time a smear campaign was put in place to push women out so that men could capitalize off of the industry. What kind of smear campaign? Well they were viewed as witches, of course. 

Finish reading this blog by Glenn Cole here at visitquadcities.com

About the Author:
Glenn Cole is a professional brewer and multimedia beer promoter. He is a graduate of St. Louis University in Brewing Science and Operations, a previous brewer at three different Quad Cities breweries, and hosts the What’s Tappening podcast and weekly local beer segment on 97X FM. Follow him on Instagram @BrewedByGC