5 Pointers “To Do” for Women’s Beer Groups
Apr 3, 2012 Assumptions & Myth Busting, Beer, Education & Training, Events, Marketing, Women and Beer
1. Use the words “Women” or “Females”. These are words with respect and equality. Any other titles or labels are not progress oriented.
2. Assume everyone wants to enjoy and explore flavors. One of the most common questions WEB gets asked is “What kinds of beer to women like?” Response: Ones with Flavor. Everyone likes different flavors and starting with the flavor conversation is how you’ll make progress.
3. Do your homework. Before you hold an event or host a group, ask some qualified women (meaning – women who drink beer) what kinds of flavors they like – and don’t limit it to beer flavors. Make it wide open to include any and all kinds of flavors.
4. Make sure the atmosphere is comfortable temperature wise (including the bathroom), seating wise, and per table height. Make sure the bar isn’t elbows-on-the-kids-table height. Turn the music down, but not off, and make sure it’s appropriate. Distracting music will only detract from any education you and the consumer are trying to accomplish.
5. Enjoy. Listen, learn, ask questions, provide responses with no judgement. Thank the women who participate and invite them back.
Yes, simple’s good. And effective.
Tags: atmosphere, flavor, homework, noise, respectful titles, tips for women's beer groups
Beer & Cheese, Beer & Cheese, Beer & Cheese!
Mar 19, 2012 Beer & Food, Education & Training, Events
At the recent 8th Annual Oregon Cheese Festival, we had the pleasure to conduct the inaugural Beer & Cheese pairing session. Our friends at the Rogue Creamery (event hosts) were gracious, had everything together and the events was sold out - SRO even! Proof positive that festivals and events should offer fun educational sessions for the guests and attendees.
A BIG THANK YOU to Tom, Tasha, David, Carey, Anna, Francis, and the whole crew of Rogue Creamery for putting on such a well run and well received festival. Seriously – it’s one of our favorites because it goes sooooo smoothly. And it’s very well attended because of that – the guests have a great time, which also makes it a good investment for us as well.
Sue & Larry, great helpers, prep the cheese
The audience in the cozy room were engaged, polite and had some terrific questions about beer specifically. A bonus for me as the leader of the session was that friend and colleague Matt Van Wyk, brewer of Oakshire Brewing, was also in attendance.
I’m one of those people who always welcomes anyone in the room – most especially the folks who are directly tied to the going-ons. Matt supplied 2 of the 4 beers I chose to pair for the session. He was gracious, fun and chimed in & answered questions with thoroughness and tact. I know the guests enjoyed having a brewer in the mix as well, particularly one that could speak to the beers in front of us.
The other brewer was in fact at the festival, as their brewery booth, enlightening more folks about beer – Larry Chase, Standing Stone.
Matt Van Wyk and other guests at the tasting
Since we rarely hand out paper programs that people have to then schlep around or toss or recycle, we always post menus on our site following an event. As promised, here’s the tasty line up we used to edutain and converse about.
- Standing Stone Amber Ale with Pholia Farms Takelma cheese
- Standing Stone I Love Oregon Ale with Willamette Valley Cheese Company Havarti - the creaminess really stood out with the beer.
- Oakshire Brewing Watershed IPA with Rogue’s Flora Nelle, natural-rinded bleu cheese
- Oakshire Brewing Overcast Espresso Stout with Rogue’s Pistol Point cheese, with paprika and chipotle
The line up was a great cross-section of beers and foods to pair. The best ingredient of the tasting: The People. We’re already excited to get back to it next year.
As requested, we’ll cover why beer and cheese do in fact pair so nicely later this week. Thanks to Australian guest Mashka for asking. Stay tuned!
Tags: 2012 Oregon Cheese Festival, beer and cheese pairing, Oakshire Brewing, Pholia Farms, Pistol Point, Rogue Creamery, Standing Stone Brewing Company, Willamette Valley Cheese Company
Responses From Yesterday: Fun & Games
Mar 15, 2012 Beer, Brain Stew, Education & Training, Events, Women and Beer
As promised, here are the responses to yesterdays post:
What are three ingredients in beer?
Malt, hops, yeast; hops, yeast, water; hops, water, barley, yeast
What are three styles of beer?
Pilsner, lager, IPA, stout, porter; pilsner, stout, sour; IPA, pilsner, ale
What are three steps in the brewing process?
Fermentation, heating, filtering, aging; mash, age, pouring; mixing, fermenting, casking, bottling, labeling
What 3 creative ingredients could you add to beer?
Chocolate, raspberries, coffee, bourbon, tangerine; ginger, chocolate, spicy-cayenne; ginger, cloves, chocolate, coffee, nutmeg
Name three breweries
Olympia, Standing Stone, Widmer Brothers, Ninkasi, Coors, Pabst, Guinness; Ninkasi, Rogue Dead Guy, Standing Stone; Full Sail, New Belgium, Walkabout, Standing Stone, Deschutes, Blue Moon
List three places you like to drink beer?
Beside the pool, on my deck, ‘outside’ camping, a bar, with pizza; beach, house/yard, anywhere; at home, camping, WEB functions, in the tub
List three beers you enjoy.
Fat Tire Ale, Noble Stout, Great White; Lost Coast White Shark, Rodenbach/sour beer, I Love Oregon [Standing Stone]; Guinness, Mud shark, Pin Up Porter, Sessions Blue, Mississippi, Shock Top, Apricot Pyramid, Black Butte Porter, Widmer Heffe
Name three different beer packages.
Keg, 6 pack, quart bottle, tap, 4 pack, cans; bottle, tap, glass; growler, case, kegs, 6 pack, individual bottles, tap, beer bong, pony keg
List three places in your area where you buy beer.
[Ashland] Co-op, Albertson’s, Shop N Kart, Market Of Choice; Jackson [Creek] Pizza, Shop N Kart, Albertson’s, Standing Stone [Brewing Company], ball games; Beerworks, Albertson’s, Standing Stone, Southern Oregon Brewing, Safeway, Winco, Country Village
Name three celebrities you’d like to have a beer with.
Ellen DeGeneres, Diane Sawyer, Steve Martin, Jack Nicholson; Amy Goodman, Patrick Stewart, Stephen Fry, Angelina Jolie, Snoop Dogg, Robert Ballard; Michelle Obama, Colin Ferrell, Clint Eastwood, Drew Barrymore, Craig Ferguson, Sam Elliott, Samuel Jackson, Kate Winslet, Sean Connery
It’s All Fun & Games
Mar 14, 2012 Beer, Education & Training, Events, Something To Think About
Making a game of something educational is one of the most effective ways to induce and increase learning.
Case in pint:
At the WEB monthly meet-up in Febrewary, I decided to add a game element to the already lively and fun format we exercise. I made up a simple series of questions that the guests would respond to.
The guests were asked to simply from small teams of 2 – 4, which they easily did since they’re already kind of grouped together. The questions were mostly open-ended and responses were all over the map! Notice I used the word ‘responses’ instead of answers. To really encourage fearless learning, ask for responses – not answers (the sky isn’t always blue).
Add some fun and games
The input you’ll get from responses (vs. answers) will be much more creative, conversation laden and fun! Consider it your own spontaneous research. If you do, then you can learn things like: what do my customers know about my beer? What can we be sharing with them to increase their knowledge, which will make them a ‘better’ customer? What kinds of ideas can I get from them for our beers, like creative ingredients?
Here are the questions I asked:
- What are three ingredients in beer?
- What are three styles of beer?
- What are three steps in the brewing process?
- What 3 creative ingredients could you add to beer?
- Name three breweries
- List three places you like to drink beer.
- List three beers you enjoy.
- Name three different beer packages.
- List three places in your area where you buy beer.
- Name three celebrities you’d like to have a beer with.
WOW! Talk about totally fun and fascinating input. Because I knew allowing each group to give all their responses would be time prohibitive in our setting, I simply went around the room at the end of our meet-up and asked each group for their responses to one question, then moved on to the next question for the next group until we covered them all.
It’s also a great way to encourage the people in the groups to talk about beer in new ways. The relationships that happen at the tables gets deeper, more fun and more lasting – because they’ve all just talked about facets of beer that they haven’t before.
Like Fun & Games, one of my favorite albums extols, engage in a robust and playful way with beer enthusiasts. I’ll share responses tomorrow.
Tags: enhanced learning, fun and games, responses vs. answers
Explore First, Judge Later
Mar 7, 2012 Assumptions & Myth Busting, Beer & Food, Education & Training, Events
Unlike Martha*, who superficially dumped “dark” beers together (“They’re smokey”) in this clip, Sandi, Leisl and all the guests were into the actually learning about beer at our monthly Swig & Stitch event.
Learn with an open mind, then form an opinion
In between really cool and useful sewing technique lessons, we explored and tasted 3 styles of beers matched with 3 foods. Our fabulous and always generous hosts, 4 Daughters Irish Pub, outdid themselves again.
Here’s the menu we savored:
- Sierra Nevada Torpedo with house made clam chowder
- Coors Light with crispy green beans
- Caldera Toasted Coconut Chocolate Porter with vanilla ice cream.
Coors light? YES!! I lead these edutaining sessions with the intention to teach first and then form opinions. Hence I do not introduce what the specific beers are. We bring them out, examine them (visual, aroma, flavor, mouthfeel) and THEN disclose.
No matter the size of the brewery, they are all crafted beers. We’re suggesting you remain open – since all biggies were once smallies too.
Being a snob and eliminating what you think to be ‘fizzy yellow beer’ is not only bad for the beer community, it cuts you off from potentially enjoyable experiences. And that, my friends, is what beer should be all about: Enjoyment.
p.s. *It’s not progress if the info is wrong or incomplete and I’ve long respected Martha…she needs some beer education
Tags: 4 Daughters Irish Pub, Caldera, Coors, crafted beers, learning about beer, Martha Stewart, Sierra Nevada, Swig & Stitch
Oregon Chocolate Festival: 1st Ever Beer & Chocolate Pairing
Mar 5, 2012 Beer & Food, Celebration Worthy, Education & Training, Events
Women Enjoying Beer presented the first ever Beer & Chocolate pairing session at the 8th Annual Oregon Chocolate Festival held last weekend in Ashland, OR. Our gracious and enthusiastic hosts, lead by the famazing Karolina, made being a presenter and vendor easy and fun.
Thanks to the guests who enjoyed an hour’s worth of lively tasting, conversating and questions. We featured 3 flavorful West coast beers matched with 3 delicious local chocolate makers.
- Standing Stone Brewing Company’s specially made for the festival Chocolate Stout with Dagoba Milk Chocolate (using Zorba’s cocoa nibs)
- Lost Coast Tangerine Wheat with Zorba’s Raw chocolate citrus truffle (sweet orange, coconut milk, palm sugar, cardamom, vanilla, and ginger). The texture on this truffle was particularly spectacular in pairing it with beer.
- Southern Oregon Brewing’s Porter with Lillie Belle Farms‘ Perfect Illusion (raspberry characteristics made with white beans)
Judging by the enthusiasm of the attendees I’d say we had a big success on our taste buds.
Many thanks to the generous supply of beer from the brewers and Lark’s Restaurant in the Hotel as well as the chocolate companies. The Hotel staff and volunteers from SOU were a big help as well.
Tags: Ashland Springs Hotel, Beer & chocolate pairing, Dagoba Chocolate, Lillie Belle Farms, Lost Coast Brewing, Oregon Chocolate Festival, Southern Oregon Brewing, Standing Stone Brewing, Zorba's Raw Chocolate
8th Annual Oregon Chocolate Festival 1st Ever Chocolate & Beer Session
Mar 3, 2012 Beer & Food, Education & Training, Events, Good People
now...where's my beer?
Come visit us this weekend at the Oregon Chocolate Festival in Ashland OR. It’s the tasty brainchild of Karolina at the gracious and hospitable Ashland Springs Hotel.
We get the express pleasure of giving the first ever Beer & Chocolate tasting session. Karolina was super excited about the idea so we’re thrilled to get to enlighten on the wonderful flavor experience of beer and chocolate together. YUM!!
The Festival starts with a special dinner Friday 3/2, runs 11 – 3 both Saturday and Sunday 3/3 & 3/4. We’ll be there the entire time, with the Beer & Chocolate session at 1 pm Sunday. You need to register in advance and the sessions are open to women and men – and tickets are selling nicely.
Cheers to Beer & Chocolate!
Sensory Terms
Mar 2, 2012 Beer, Education & Training, Events, Good People
It's fun and educational to hang with Jamie
Jamie Floyd has good sense. Ninkasi is the Eugene brewery that he co-founded. Jamie invited me to be part of a sensory Game (as he calls it) a few weeks ago. It was great! And I learned a few more things about beer.
Since I love words, here are a few I wanted to encourage everyone to use – Businesses: teach these to consumers, one at a time. Consumers: learn them, seek out brewery folk to help you get to know them well.
- Retro Nasal
- Thresholds
- Shadow Spots
- Gram-Negative
Vocabulary is a very fun and effective way to get more consumers deeper into beer – all beer. Education truly is the core of progress.
Tags: Eugene OR, Jamie Floyd, Ninkasi Brewing, sensory lab
March Is Women’s HerStory Month
Mar 1, 2012 Celebration Worthy, Events, Good People, Women and Beer
Celebrating IWD at Louie's 2011
Find and highlight 31 reasons to celebrate Women’s Herstory Month – it starts today!!
And International Women’s Day is Thursday March 8th. Show women they matter by making a big deal out of it.
- 31 Women and females you know and care about
- 31 Influential female figures in your world
- 31 Attributes women bring to the world
- 31 Female homebrewers
- 31 Female professional brewers
- 31 Female beer professionals
- 31 Women
You can do it. Women are doing it everyday.
p.s. International Men’s Day = November 19th
Tags: celebrate, International Women's Day, March, March 8, Women's Herstory Month
Febrewary WEB Meet Up Menu
Feb 24, 2012 Beer, Beer & Food, Celebration Worthy, Education & Training, Events, Women and Beer
Last night we used our monthly WEB meet up to celebrate our 3rd anniversary, albeit a few months later than actual date. Really though, not a big deal.
Happy Anniversary!
What is a big deal is that after 3 + years of Women Enjoying Beer progress, it’s encouraging to still see new women in the community where I live ‘discover’ WEB and want to be part of it. More importantly they want to come back. And bring friends.
Here’s the menu we featured to celebrate last night:
- Trumer Pils with simple citrus and greens salad
- New Belgium Dig Pale Ale with lightly grilled pear and goat cheese sandwich slivers (extra thanks to Christian Holbrook w/NBB for the bonus insight on this beer)
- Boneyard Femme Fatale with Apple fries and caramel (poor image choice for this label…tasty beer)
- Avery Maharaja with french bread and Hopyard Cheddar cheese from Rogue Creamery
This time I didn’t tell the group what their beers were before partaking, which lent a fun twist to the discovery. Without being about to put any preconceived brand notions on what was in their glass, they were more open-minded (although they’re pretty good about it as it is).
The groups always have Veterans and Rookies. So the combination of seasoned participants mingled with newbies is just as good as sampling new beer for WEB. We consistently hear the same discoveries, aha moments and the same patterns, every time.
Onward into year 4.
