Women Brewers Lead the Way in Portland
Courtesy SheBrew
On Sunday, one of Portland’s signature events returns for the eighth year: SheBrew, a beer fest and homebrew competition that celebrates women brewers. It has grown and evolved, and the 2023 edition comes after an eventful two years\. In that time we had not just the pandemic, but a reckoning about sexism and harassment that has so often acted as a barrier to women. It will be great to see the other side of that coin this Sunday.
It’s a remarkable lineup of over 40 beers and ciders, all made by women. If you go to the list and start counting, you’ll find a total of 48 names—which actually undersells the total number, because some are listed as a brewery teams rather than individually. The list of women brewers, forty-four by my count, now includes more than a handful of head brewers. In the decade since the event launched, finding women in the brewhouse has gone from a rarity to commonplace. I’m excited to attend, because while I know a number of the names, there’s a bunch more I need to meet.
While SheBrew is a celebration, it’s also an example. The women of Portland have forged a place in the industry in a way that should be an example to other cities. Consider:
Oregonian Teri Fahrendorf, one of the first women to break into the industry without owning a brewery, had the insight to start Pink Boots Society, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting women working in beer.
Portland has an unusually high percentage of female beer drinkers, something evident to anyone who has visited.
And SheBrew is not just the first all-female showcase for professional brewers, but one of the first (and still few) national homebrew competitions for women.
All these factors have helped women enter the industry. More importantly, Portland and Oregon have become a place where women have become leaders—from longtime Bend Brewing/10 Barrel head brewer Tonya Cornett to Whitney Burnside, who just opened her own brewery, and Natalie Baldwin, who scored one of the best jobs in the city when she became head brewer at Wayfinder, replacing Kevin Davey. (This is just a sample: many other women own, lead brewing ops, or do both as well.)
Beer is culture, and until recently, a very masculine one. The changes happening in Portland represent one of the biggest shifts in beer since the pioneers started founding breweries back in the ‘80s. The smoky bars full of men are gone, and pubs and breweries are now more diverse than they have ever been. Although SheBrew celebrates women, it’s a fundraiser for the Human Rights Campaign and the Portland Brew Crew, and organizers cast a broad net: “SheBrew is an all genders, all ages, fundraising event to show support for female-identified members of our community all while supporting LGBTQ people.”
It’s an opportunity to meet the women making your beer, so don’t miss it! I hope to see you there.