No, Seriously. 18th Street Brewery’s Response Was Utterly Predictable.

The most recent post on this blog is a guest post regarding 18th Street Brewery’s sexism. As the guest didn’t have a title, I titled it, “Your Sexism is Predictable and Boring, 18th Street Brewery.” And this is my take on the matter: 18th Street Brewery’s sexist response was utterly predictable.

Drew Fox (the founder & head brewer of 18th Street Brewery) has shown us before what he thinks of women. He’ll tell a woman raising concerns about the industry to “back the fuck off” and engage in policing what women and girls wear to try to derail the conversation at hand.

So, no, it comes as absolutely no surprise to me that not only would he not take critique well, he’d go attempt to derail the conversation by focusing on a woman’s behavior rather than his own1.… Continue reading →

Your Sexism is Predictable and Boring, 18th Street Brewery.

My friend Lakeline just watched a brewery she liked take a critique of a sexually objectifying label they have very poorly. She had some words on it, and I offered to share those words here. I have my own thoughts on the topic, but I haven’t been able to put them down yet. For now, know I agree with every word she’s written below. — Natasha

Loving beer has always been pretty easy for me. Even when I was a nerd in high school who wouldn’t do anything more than drive my drunk classmates home from keg parties, I loved the taste and would happily drink a glass when my parents would offer me some with dinner.

Loving craft beer was always pretty easy for me too.… Continue reading →

The Session 105: The Quick and the Lively

The Session, a.k.a. Beer Blogging Friday, is an opportunity once a month for beer bloggers from around the world to get together and write from their own unique perspective on a single topic.

Has “The Sessions” run it’s course & is beer blogging over? Is it wanky?

I mean, let’s not lie. Beer blogging is often wanky. But it’s often not, and it doesn’t have to be.

As a group, we beer bloggers have a tendency to get fairly deep in our navel-gazing. We talk beer reviews, we talk brewing, and we talk rare beers. And there’s not a damn thing wrong with that, until it becomes the only thing we talk about.

But when we step out of our comfort zones of flavor and rarity and “here’s what I made” and into harder topics, it becomes more.… Continue reading →

She wears short skirts. I wear t-shirts.

And I seem to be more welcome because of it.

Welcome to my late entry to The Session. And thanks to that damn catchy Taylor Swift song for the title.

A year or more ago, long before Beer 3Up, I was at some beer event with Karl of Guys Drinking Beer, and he asked me what I thought the ratio was of men to women at the event. The answer, based on looking around was, “pretty even.” But I couldn’t help following up with a comment that though there appeared to be even numbers of (apparent) men and women in the group, almost no one was presenting as particularly feminine.

I think this is common. And I suspect it’s femphobia in the beer community.… Continue reading →

You Poured Me “The Hard Stuff” – The Session 103

The Session, a.k.a. Beer Blogging Friday, is an opportunity once a month for beer bloggers from around the world to get together and write from their own unique perspective on a single topic.

I’ve written for the Session before, but this is my first time hosting. I asked folks to tell me what they believe are issues the beer community finds difficult to discuss, and I must say, it’s fantastic to see what folks have to say. I’ll update this post as more posts come in, and probably do a second round-up next Friday. But, for now, let’s dive into what people have already said.

Interestingly, though I doubt any of these folks know each other, the first five I link to are a fantastic group of posts because one naturally leads to the other.… Continue reading →