Ale Street News Online

For the past five years, I’ve been writing about beer and the beer world as a critical consumer who happens to be female. Often, I have written specifically about women’s take on the beer world, and the beer world’s take on them.

I thought it made sense to revisit that theme here one last time. Luckily, Lew Bryson made it easy for me. One of the highlights of writing for Ale Street has been crossing paths with Lew, whose no-nonsense style and learned passion for malt beverages makes him not only a good writer but a good beer-drinking companion.

Not long ago, he sought a few quotes from me for an article about women and craft beer that he happened to be working on, and we had a conversation that went something like this.

(Lew) Why is craft beer so male-dominated: brewers, retailers, consumers? Do women not get craft beer, do they get the impression that they shouldn’t get craft beer? What’s up?

(Ms. Mug) This is something I’ve thought about a lot, and actually, it’s not that much of a mystery. Women haven’t flocked to craft beer for reasons of history, sociology and taste.

History: Beer in general has been a male-dominated area for centuries, ever since brewing went from a home-based activity performed mostly by women (way back in the middle ages) to a large-scale industry run by men. Also, drinking as a pleasurable pursuit has traditionally been more socially acceptable for men than for women. Need evidence? Look at magazines. Men’s magazines have articles recommending and celebrating beer, wine and spirits. Women’s magazines seldom feature alcohol except in certain contexts, like health studies.

Sociology: Like a Star Trek convention, the craft beer world is still in many ways a really geeky, insider-y place that appeals more to men than women. Most women who encounter a group of guys talking about original gravity, the Lovibond scale and IBUs are going to tune out, if not run away.

You have to consider advertising, too. In the mass media, beer is overwhelmingly marketed to men, therefore — duh — beer in general is seen as a man’s product. The biggest breweries are afraid to advertise in ways that might appeal to women, out of fear they might alienate their core (male) customer. The whole "Women are from Venus, men are from Mars" thing is stupidly alive and well when it comes to beer advertising.

Then there’s the "beer is fattening" perception. Because a lot of women are concerned about their weight, they’re more likely to drink light beer — which most decidedly does not fall into the craft beer category — or wine or cocktails. What many of them don’t realize is that the average sour apple-tini has more calories than a craft-brewed stout.

Taste: That’s complicated. We’ll get to that in a minute.

(Lew) What do you find to be some of the more effective ways to introduce women to beer? Is it education, setting, choice of beer? What works?

(Ms. Mug) All of the above, although setting may be the most crucial. Women care about esthetics and atmosphere, and, like men, they often follow the lead of members of their own sex. So, if a woman walks into a cool-looking bar where not just the men, but the women, are drinking beers of different styles and colors, served in distinctive glassware, they’re going to be more apt to give craft beer a try rather than fall back on a Cosmo. And the thing is, they’ll realize, "Hey, I like the taste of this stuff!" That’s when you start in with education.

When it comes to choice of beer, in my experience, Belgian white ale is an effective introductory style for "non-beer-drinking" women. They take a shine to it instantly, often exclaiming, "Wow, this doesn’t even taste like beer." What they really mean is, "This doesn’t taste like Michelob Ultra." I think women gravitate to this style (at first, anyway) because they like its fruity, spicy flavors, because it’s often served in attractive glasses, and because it’s fairly light in color; unfortunately, darker beers scare many women because they are perceived as more caloric than lighter beers.

(Lew) Why the hell do you like craft beer? I know you like good cocktails, too…are you just a freakin’ booze hound? Heh...

(Ms. Mug) Uh, do you mean "someone who likes booze in many forms?" Then, yes, that would be me. I like good, flavorful drink, no matter what the species. I have written in the past about how drinkers tend to put themselves into camps. "I’m a wine drinker." "I’m a beer drinker." "I’m a scotch drinker." A lot of this stems from cultural associations with certain alcoholic beverages — you know, the notion that the "lower" classes drink beer, and the "upper" classes drink wine and gin and tonics.

Those stereotypes are still alive and well, but they’re not as rigid as they once were. Our drink options are much more vast than they were just a few decades ago (thanks, craft brewers!), and people — myself included — have become more omnivorous in what they drink, just as they have in what they eat.

(Lew) Do women really like fruity, chocolately beers better, or is that a sexist perception?

(Ms. Mug) It’s not entirely sexist. Women do seem to have different tastes when it comes to food and drink in general. Yes, women are the ones who go ga-ga over desserts and therefore do seem to have a preference for "fruity, chocolatey" beverages. However, I disagree with those who think these preferences are hard-wired into our physiology. (They’re certainly not hard-wired into mine; I hardly ever eat sweets. My sister, on the other hand, loves ’em.)

Womens’ preference for "sugar and spice and everything nice" seems to diminish as we get older and our palates become more sophisticated. I mean, who is drinking all the fruit- and vanilla-flavored martinis? Mostly people in their twenties, who haven’t developed a taste yet for spirits.

Whenever the question you asked comes up, I always point to the fact that there are at least as many women as there are men who love fine food and wine. These women get as, if not more, excited about stinky cheese, raw oysters, and pinot noir as they do about crème brulée. They debunk the Chicks Crave Cake theory.

I know a lot of these women, and it’s really gratifying to me when they discover craft beer and start treating it like any other product worthy of an adventurous appetite. When I hear them talking about the flavors in craft beer with as much enthusiasm and authority as they talk about the flavors in a classic gin cocktail or a plate of lamb osso bucco, I think, ‘Where have you been all my life?’