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.

My good and long standing friend KP and I used to joke about having our own radio show someday. This idea stemmed from our conversations when we were together – they were always lots of fun, funny, and usually got other people laughing too. We have easy banter, can talk about lightweight and substantial stuff equally and above all want to have fun with it.

Join us for BeerRadio

Fast forward to now. KP is still a very good friend and I now have a radio show. She’s already agreed to be a guest one day soon.

BeerRadio is the show WEB launched ala our community radio station, KSKSQ.org, in February of 2011. At first I was thinking of recording it 2 times a month. Well, I quickly understood what a great fit it is so we’re live every week now. We run from 5 – 6 pm every Wednesday, usually from my World HQ base location in Southern Oregon and sometimes from the field.

So far:

• 6.29.11 Josh Brewer, Brewmaster Mother Earth Brewing
• 6.22.11 Larry Chase, Brewmaster Standing Stone Brewing Company
• 6.8.11 Nicole Kasten, Portland Beer and Music
• 5.25.11 Julie Wartell, PubQuest
• 5.11.11 Sue Shulters, Home brewer
• 5.4.11 Sarah Huska, Cicerone Certification Program
• 4.27.11 Renee DeLuca, Brewers Daughter
• 4.20.11 Live from Portland OR, Angelo De Ieso, Brewpublic
• 4.13.11 Deverie Hart, HurraBier
• 4.6.11 John Holl, BeerBriefing.com, accomplished writer/journalist, co-author Indiana Breweries
• 3.23.11 Live from San Francisco, including impromptu guests Tom McCormick of the CSBA

If you like what you hear – no matter the station or topic matter – support it monetarily. Send in a donation, underwrite the program, buy an ad or volunteer to help  the station survive and keep affording the community the resource you value.

All of these shows are archived by one of my fabulous radio station colleagues (thanks Wayno!!) and permanently accessible via the Program Archives. You can stream them live from the station website too.

Like I say when we throw a get together, the guests make the party. Thanks to all the fine guests we’ve had and the ones coming up. We’ll keep knocking on doors of beer community members who want to enjoy an hour’s worth of conversation about them, their relationship with beer and different topics that come up. We try to ask questions that are not necessarily already talked about and it’s relaxed and very informational.

Thanks also to Jason and Carson of KSKQ who took a chance on BeerRadio. Cheers gents ~

p.s. Lisa’s Beer O’Clock is a terrific listen too!

Here’s an example of collaboration: Guest tap of a neighboring brewery during American Craft Beer Week (just finished May 16 – 22).

Larry (l) and Scott (r) salute ACBW with collaboration

Larry Chase, Standing Stone, and Scott Saulsbury, Southern Oregon Brewing, enjoy a good beer together. And not just during ACBW.

They are comrades, as are many brewers. This is a snapshot from this past Saturday during ACBW. Larry invited a few guest brewers to join them at SSBC and share their beer for the benefit of the SSBC guests and beer enthusiasts. Corey of Klamath Basin was another brewer Larry engaged.

See, when collaboration happens, then it’s better for the whole community. Collaboration = communication = common goals = fun = success.

Support your local brewery collaborations. Look for them off-sale (in stores) and on-site (on draught). There’s no more creative group of thinkers than American craft brewers.

Here’s another example of collaborating in the beer community.

WEB was recently asked to answer some questions for Standing Stone’s blog. Happy to do it – thanks for asking! Some of you may know I had the pleasure of working extensively with SSBC for 6 months last year.

SSBC What’s WEB about?
WEB Women Enjoying Beer is all about education and the delicious experience of beer. We are specialist in developing beer enthusiasm for women through education and events.

SSBC What led you to start specific meet ups for women beer drinkers?
WEB Let’s be clear – WEB is about ‘enjoying’ – not drinking.The meet ups are part of the who she-bang.  If women drink beer as part of their enjoyment, great! If they simply enjoy it through others, great too! We extol education, social settings and great value. You can be with others or friends who drink beer, and if you don’t or choose not to or cannot, you can still enjoy it with other as they imbibe.
SSBC Why do you limit meet ups to women? Do you even hold events that men can attend?

WEB Limit is an interesting choice of word, considering women have been excluded from the conversation (however unintentional or not) in the USA and UK for hundreds of years. Women Enjoying Beer is designed to foster enjoyment, appreciation and respect by all – specifically women since they’ve not been invited to take part. Research shows that single sex gatherings - of either gender – particularly for educational reasons is a much more effective format for many. It’s safer by removing any mixed company may engender in some people.
We do periodic event wherein men are invited – like our annual Oktoberfest Come As A Woman Event and various partnered events.

SSBC What do you typically do at a meet up?

WEB While we do vary the format sometimes (depending on the location and other considerations) in general: The women enjoy a flight of beers (small pours) with complementary paired foods in a fun setting with other beer enthusiastic women. The event gets rolling and rocking! Noise level seems to indicate enjoyment level and more than once I’ve had to get every one’s attention (again) by standing on a chair and ringing a bell – it’s a great things to see the energy and enthusiasm continue to grow and swell. We’re able to give Goodies at each event and we feature different beers for different seasons (styles, brewery, seasonality, and so forth). It’s an hour and a half+ of full on fun!

SSBC How do you see the meet ups changing women’s approaches to beer? (e.g., knowledge, appreciation, confidence, enjoyment)

WEB WEB has a strong core following, with several women recruiting others to come along, therefore building and spreading the beer evangelism. Like any time you educate people on a topic, they become more and more confident participants and then ambassadors. When you educate, you empower, build confidence which flows over into other areas of life, and keeps the momentum growing. Increased participation of women in beer, particularly craft beer, for sure helps breweries grow and develop more sustainable market share.

SSBC What other events do you hold for women been enthusiasts?

WEB WEB holds WEB events, partners with other interested businesses in events, and speaks at events. Everything from festivals to neighborhood bars to professional audiences to breweries – that’s where we show up when called. One program we offer that gets requested often is HerStory: Women in Brewing. It’s a historical look at how women have forever been involved in brewing. Surprising, fun, and though provoking for all .

SSBC What’s your advice to women to start navigating the world of beer appreciation?

WEB Start! Start sampling, tasting, hanging out in places that are beer rich with friends, at homes, and where ever they are comfortable. Beer is an affordable luxury that is myriad in choices and availability. Be fearless!

Wednesday last found me with about 16 men – enjoying beer and food. It was a special night in the form of a educational and social event for the male staff at Standing Stone Brewing Company.

table set...ready to go

Why men? Why not. WEB is about education and opportunity.

It takes all parties to progress the conversation. Plus on the Home Free Tour last fall, we had held a women’s only tasting and pairing. So it was time.

We had the good fortune to have a few other guests join us – people who are related to SSBC in some way. Coffee supplier, bar manager at another local restaurant, and 3 regular patrons. Good mix.

The first two courses were as follows.

Course 1

Nitro Stout with Stir Crazy Chocolate Cake. We started off with a full flavorful match. The deep roasted malt in the stout is a most excellent pairing with Chocolate. The cake is made from scratch, like their whole menu always is as well as their beers, and it was a really nice consistency. Not too thick or light. Goldilocks would have approved. Juuuust right.

Starting with an unexpected pairing set a great tone.

Course 2

Lager with Fish Tacos. The light crispness of the lager went well with the lighter flavor of the fish, lightly sauteed with other simple fresh ingredients to complement it.

I picked the contrast of the stout to the tacos on purpose. To highlight the differences of the two styles of beer.

Course 3

India Pale Ale with the special Pork Chops. The forward hoppiness of the IPA was a good partner to the pork chops, local and organic. Nice bitterness – or bite as some servers like to describe it – and a medium flavor personality to pair with the chops.

Tomorrow – the other 3 courses….