Last night, I got the opportunity to attend a free screening for The Love of Beer, at Coalition Brewing. (Great brewery – check out their The Loving Cup Maple Porter!) The Love of Beer is a documentary celebrating women in the Pacific Northwest beer industry. It was definitely an eye-opening movie. Did you know ancient Egyptians forbid men from brewing beer? It was considered women’s work. This shows such a dramatic culture shift to present times, with an industry completely dominated by men.
I love how close to home this documentary was, featuring local breweries, brewers, and events. Definitely made me fall over in love with Portland again. The most powerful aspect of the documentary was the stories the women told and how much they had to education themselves and fight for recognition within the biz. Something I could truly appreciate.
Alison Grayson, the genius behind this movie says, “I was blown away by how instantly warm and welcoming this community was – it was unlike anything I had ever seen. The craft beer community quickly became my second family, and I started incorporating my background in video production by making short videos for my friend’s beer blogs, festivals, etc. I started going to more events and met more and more people in the community and in the industry. I began to notice a huge disconnect between the vast amount of women beer consumers and the sparse amount of women who worked in the beer industry.”
Check out the trailer:
The message behind the movie was all about education women on good craft beer. Figuring out what you love to drink and where it came from. So my question to my readers is:
What do you like to drink? Do you know where that beer came from?
Total side comment, I think I feel in love with the movie’s logo. The heart shaped hop. Future tattoo? I think so…
I mostly enjoy craft beers in a variety of styles from the US. I always look to see where it came from, but I’m not always sure who the brewer behind it is (I only know a handful of brewmasters by name). Kinda interesting that I even know that consider I have no idea where most of my food comes from and who grew or prepared it. I’m sure there are some awesome people involved in making beer!
Oh my gosh- @DenverEric recommended your blog and I totally see why! I’m a beer lover myself and was thinking of starting a blog to document all the random brews I try (I don’t brew myself but might in the future) and he said “You have to check this out,” another woman who loves beer as much as I do! I love the blog and will be a continuous reader!
Plus, I now need to see this movie!
I know! I’m so glad Eric put us in touch. Have you tried Untappd? It’s an app where you can keep track of the beers you tried with notes and such. My friend from college developed it. Also, if you ever want to do guest blog posts here you are more then welcome. I don’t have as much free time as I once did.
The interesting thing to point out here, is that the 1516 Reinheitsgebot had llitte to do with the beer and all to do with business.Brewers found cheaper ingredients (i.e. adjuncts such as maize, rice etc) and the government wanted to make sure that the malt producers stayed in business so they introduced the reinheitsgebot.Initially it didn’t even specify yeast, indicating further about the true agenda at hand.We see the same kind of market protective controlling mechanics today within the EU as well as the US domestic market, for all sorts of products.Regarding Belgium and their approach to beer, after having been occupied over eighty times (and many times by the Germans), would you care about such a law?