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#WomanCrushWednesday: Teri Fahrendorf

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This is the second in a series highlighting women leaders in the beer and brewing industry in the U.S. For past crushes, visit the #WomanCrushWednesday tag at the end of this entry.

Teri Fahrendorf

#WomanCrushWednesday July 1, 2015: Teri Fahrendorf, founder and president of the Pink Boots Society. Photo via GirlTalkHQ.com.

Teri Fahrendorf, a self-described “woman beer professional” in the most general (albeit no less impressive) sense, is often celebrated in the craft brewing community for her many roles, contributions and accomplishments across her more than 25 years in the beer industry to date.

She is an acclaimed brewmaster of 19 years,  the second woman to ever achieve the “brewmaster” title in the U.S.¹, beginning at Golden Gate Brewing Co. in Golden Gate, Calif. in 1989 and concluding at Steelhead Brewing Co. in Eugene, Ore. in 2007 (at the latter, she served as corporate brewmaster of the company’s five locations for 17 years).

She was the first woman to be named class president at the Siebel Institute of Brewing Technology in Chicago, Ill., where she graduated in 1988.

She is a published author, contributing to such publications as New Brewer, Brewing Techniques, Zymurgy and American Brewer.

She is the “Road Brewer,” an absurdly ambitious and adventurous woman who spent five months camping across the States in a trailer, which she named Big Buddy, to visit and brew at various breweries (you can follow her experiences as she blogged along the way at roadbrewer.com).

In the course of her 25 year career, Fahrendorf has earned professional accolades and craft brewing achievements spanning three Gold Medals at the Great American Beer Festival (two in 1991 for her Station Square Imperial Stout and Raging Rhino Red, also known as Steelhead Amber, and one in 1999 for an Anniversary Ale); several annual seats as a Beer Judge at five international festivals; 18 speaking engagements as a speaker and education leader at events and conferences around the globe; and board titles as director, advisor or affiliate at five local and national brewing organizations.

Perhaps most significantly, Fahrendorf is known throughout the industry as founder and president of the Pink Boots Society, an international nonprofit association and trade organization created for the education and advancement of women beer professionals. The Society, which she founded somewhat serendipitously at the conclusion of her cross-country “road brewing” trip in 2007, now boasts 2,080 members and counting, chapters in 25 locations across the country, and hosts national as well as regional meetings in the U.S., U.K., Argentina, Australia and Europe.

According to Fahrendorf, seeds for the Pink Boots Society were planted throughout the five month road trip on which she visited 71 breweries across the country, brewing at 38 of them, and imparting her knowledge and expertise to newer female brewers along the way. As she recognized their skills, their want for education and the unanimous curiosity among them regarding other women in the industry (her own 19-year experience being quite exceptional), Fahrendorf saw the need for a way to inform women brewers about the others like them that were making brew-booted strides in the industry.

Inspired by the Red Hat Society and the squeaky rubber shoes on her own two feet, she created a list of the 60 women brewers she’d met along the way and coined it the “Pink Boots Society,” making it available, along with other resources, on her personal brewing and beer career website in 2007. Thus, an industry organization was born.

Eight years later, the Pink Boots Society continues to foster the female brewing community by “empowering women beer professionals to advance their careers in the beer industry through education,” by way of meetings, scholarships, volunteer opportunities and events that have gradually expanded, along with the Society’s membership itself, since its founding in 2007.²

At present, Fahrendorf is the specialty malt account manager at Great Western Malting in Vancouver, Wash., where she continues as “the West Coast’s unofficial craft beer ‘Goodwill Ambassador,'” as well as a speaker, beer judge and writer. Most importantly, she continues to inspire women like me, industry-wide and out, to march proud in our brewing boots as future leaders of the craft brewing movement in the U.S.

For a full history of Teri Fahrendorf’s brewing industry experience and accomplishments, visit terifahrendorf.com.

¹The first female brewmaster in the U.S. was Carol Stoudt, who acquired the role, at the eponymous Stoudts Brewing Company, in 1987.

²Although the Pink Boots Society originally began as a trade group exclusively for female brewers, it has since expanded to include any “woman who earns at least part of [her] income from beer.”

#WomanCrushWednesday: Mellie Pullman

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Now in a millennial world, it’s not so surprising that women are joining the beer community in troves, stepping onto the scene as sales representatives, marketing coordinators, reporters (ahem) and imbibers, and—although they are still few—brewers and brewmasters.

But before there were us gals who started appreciating good beer post-2000 (although we still may feel uniquely, utterly female in a scene that continues to be dominated by beer guts and beards), there were women like Mellie Pullman, who I’d like to spotlight for my first #WomanCrushWednesday (#WCW) post here on Beer Affair.

I do not mean this in the literal or romantic sense, as I’ve never met Pullman personally, I mean it simply in the sense that my “love affair with beer” (where the name Beer Affair came from) is due in part to women who flew their freak flags high before it was popular, or even possible, for gals like me to be a part of the beer community.

cbb-replantingtheseeds

“Replanting the Seeds of Brewing,” Craft Beer & Brewing, May 15, 2015.

After re-reading a feature written by Tara Nurin in Craft Beer & Brewing last month, “Replanting the Seeds of Brewing,” I was reminded of all of the women I have yet to meet, the history I have yet to learn, and the amazing strides women have made in this still-young industry since it began its second wind in the 1980s.

As a young woman swept up into the romance of the craft beer world just five or so years ago, I have to acknowledge the true pioneers before me, and commend these ladies for stepping up to the plate when it was even harder to be a female in a male dominated business like beer. (Or, as Nurin phrases it, for each woman who had to “finesse her way out of enough brewer-as-bearded-German-guy stereotypes.”)

In the days before national women’s industry groups like the Pink Boots Society (and in my case, local groups like the Beerded Ladies), these gals were among the first to explore the beer business, truly planting the “seeds” that sprouted roles for women in the brewing industry today. Among the “firsts” these femmes accomplished, Pullman is particularly #WCW-worthy for the following:

1. She was first female brewmaster in contemporary U.S. history;

2. She helped bring Utah its first brewery, Wasatch Brewery, in 1986; and

3. She lobbied to modernize the alcohol laws in Utah which were, even up until the late 80s, quite restrictive.

Beginning with Pullman and moving through the significance several more, Nurin’s article attributes beer props to Beth Hartwell, who co-founded Hart Brewing in Kalama, Wash. (now Pyramid Breweries) in 1984; Rosemarie Certo, who co-founded Dock Street Brewing in Philadelphia in 1985; Carol Stoudt, who became the nation’s first female sole proprietor-brewer in 1987; Barbara Groom and Wendy Pound, the first female ownership team in the industry, who opened Lost Coast Brewing in Eureka, Calif. in 1990; and Teri Fahrendorf, currently specialty malt account manager at Great Western Malting in Vancouver, Wash., who entered the industry at 1988 as a brewing intern and now has 19 years’ experience as a brewmaster and brewery supervisor at various locations.

Although you can take the woman out of the brewing industry (according to Nurin, Pullman left her post at Wasatch just three years after co-founding it), you can’t take the brewing industry out of the woman—Pullman is now serving as an associate professor at Portland State University, where she teaches several courses in the Business of Craft Brewing Certificate program.

Brewing from Scratch: Ex Novo Brings Fresh Ingredients, Fresh Perspectives to Portland

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ex novo brewing co

Ex Novo Brewing Company. Photo via Facebook.

Every brewery has its own style. There are the science buffs, who rely on organized spreadsheets, strict ingredient measurements and counting yeast cells in a petri dish to make sure attenuation is just right. Then there are the artistic types, who rely more on “feeling” and inspiration to create new brews on the fly. Then there are craft brewing’s political moderates, who prefer the level of organization necessary to keep a tight ship running smoothly, and are also ready to change course if a recipe route isn’t leading to the right place.

At Ex Novo Brewing Company in Portland, Ore., Jason Barbee is somewhere in the middle. Part scientist, part creator and part innovator, Barbee is the loveable mastermind behind Ex Novo’s new brews, which run the gamut from traditional Northwest amber to a saison packed with jackfruit. One thing that’s certain is, he’s here to mix things up.

Ex Novo Brewing Company opened in July 2014 under the direction of Joel Gregory, a young, even-tempered engineer-turned-brewer who gives the striking (albeit unlikely) impression that he opened this business overnight. The industrial space is sleek while welcoming: over the bar, a versatile beer list hangs over a row of just-cleaned taps; an equally adaptable food menu on the bar displays upscale-made-affordable small plates and sandwiches; and, neatly placed without sterilely uniform, high rectangular and low circular tables fill the majority of the front space, with booths against the wall, and kitchen hidden behind and a well-maintained brewery in back.

“This is my first brewery job, the one that I started,” says Gregory, who previously worked as an engineer in the electrical and renewable energy fields but felt his profession lacked creativity. “I like [engineering], but I never really felt I had any creative outlet and I wasn’t very good at it. I was always more business minded and creativity minded.”

The brewery’s name, “Ex Novo,” is a Latin phrase translating loosely to “from scratch”—an appropriate epithet for a business conceived of and set afloat with little guidance—and virtually no brewing experience.

If it’s a creative business he wanted, that’s certainly been accomplished—on top of his unbiased, nascent perspective on professional brewing, Gregory is planting a flag in wholly unchartered territory. Ex Novo is not only built “from scratch,” but is “the first and only nonprofit brewery in the country,” he tells us. After taking salaries and brewing expenses out of business revenues, his profits go to a selection of community-serving organizations that need money more than he needs a bigger house or new car.

Ex Novo founder Joel Gregory

Joel Gregory, Ex Novo Brewing Company founder and president.

As a homebrewer of five years with an itch for new ventures and an interest in nonprofit work, Gregory eventually came to the conclusion that opening his own nonprofit brewery would be the best and only way to combine his passions for beer and giving back. “A lot of [nonprofit] programs don’t need people, they need money,” he says. “This business model works—or can work if you do it right. I want to help that way.”

According to Gregory, the way to “do it right” is “being consistent and solid, and building something that people trust.” That’s hard to measure after just eight months, but being trustworthy is built into his business model; Ex Novo currently holds a commitment to four regional and international nonprofit organizations at $25,000 each, and has chosen a head brewer who has over six years’ experience at one of Portland’s craft beer mainstays, Deschutes Brewery.

The brewery currently runs as a three-man show with Gregory at the top as founder and general manager, Barbee as head brewer and Tommy as assistant brewer. In Gregory’s words, the brewery specializes in “lean, drinkable beers” that “occasionally get weird”—a description that may be hard to understand until you’ve tried them.

“We try to have something that anyone can walk in [and enjoy], whether they’re the farthest spectrum of beer geek or total novice,” says Gregory. He and Barbee agree that Ex Novo should, at least for now, incorporate a mix of styles agreeable to Portland’s many discerning palates. “We want to do those things and do them really well,” Gregory says.

Currently, that translates to brews like Damon Stoutamire, a balanced stout with dark chocolate, roast and slight coffee ntotes; How the Helles Are Ya’, a crisp, light lager with full body and German beechwood smoked malt; the self-explanatory Hoppy Pils; and Red Red Wheat, an amber wheat ale brewed with specialty malts and hops yielding sweet caramel and finishing off with a hint citrus. In case you think you’re getting the picture, there’s also the game-changing Jacked-Up Farmhouse, a fruity sour beer brewed with eight gallons of jackfruit, the origins of which beg an entire story of its own. In other words, we’d say the new breweries beers surpass “drinkable” and lean more toward novel, fresh and inventive.

Ex Novo head brewer, Jason Barbee

Ex Novo Brewing Company head brewer, Jason Barbee, caught in the act of tap cleaning.

Barbee, like many brewers, takes a seasonal approach to recipes and tap lists, requiring he always be thinking ahead. “We tend to brew seasonally and brew to what we want to drink,” Barbee says. “Right now, given that it is still not great outside in Portland”—he gestures to the floor-to-ceiling windows, whose view likely mirrors the concrete gray floors we stand on as the city’s daily dose of gloom rolls in—“we’ve got a peated Scotch ale, [which is] a bigger, boozier malt-forward beer, a traditional Northwest amber, in which you get a little more of that malt character and a lot more body coming through with a lot of hop, and we just transferred an imperial IPA yesterday. We try to think, ‘what will we want to be drinking four to six weeks from now?’”

At the time of our visit, on March 20, the first day of spring, Ex Novo has a few fermenting beers on deck that evidence its—and Barbee’s—versatility when it comes to an inaugural spring lineup. There’s a Maibock in one fermenter, readying itself for a lagering period that will precede its release in about six weeks; there’s a not-yet-released two hop double IPA that’s now, as I write this, on draft as Dynamic Duo IIPA, and in another metal fortress is a soon-to-be Belgian wheat with lime and juniper, meant to emulate a gin and tonic. The best seller, Barbee says, is the Eliot IPA, a creation he admits is not yet perfected. It’s also the one he brews the most, exemplifying why Ex Novo is the right fit for him.

“I have a lot more freedom here,” he says. “We’re so new that everything is still in development, which is fun. Even in our core brands, the recipes are so much in development; I have yet to brew Eliot the exact same way. I’m still trying to iron out the recipe to be exactly what we want.” Though he bears no hard feelings toward his past job, his position here at a brewery not yet a year old, and an innovative one from its very foundation, noticeably contrasts the six and a half year tenure as a Deschutes brewer. “[Each] new beer makes it exciting and fun to brew. There’s no set in stone recipe or magnate, and I don’t think that’ll ever happen.”

Though we didn’t know it at the time, Barbee sums up precisely what makes Portlandia a brewtopia, stating the sentiment of many Portland brewers:

“[Portland has] a really interesting beer scene because we really have the best of the best in terms of all the raw materials. Hops are all grown very locally, within driving distance…Wyeast is, in my opinion, the best yeast lab and they’re an hour from here. We have really good water. Great Western Malting and Country Malt Group are 10 miles from here. We have very good access to very high quality ingredients and lots of them.

“Plus, because we have such a loyal beer crowd, we get to be on the cutting edge of everything and people are accepting of that. We can brew whatever weird thing we can come up with and somebody will like it. As long as you’re making quality beer, you can pretty much brew anything you want and people will accept it.”

Though his family lives in North Carolina, Barbee has had no temptations to leave the Portland craft beer scene. “[The North Carolina beer scene] is really cool and growing a lot, but it’s a decade behind the scene here,” he says. Well played, but we sense another beercation in our future.

Roscoe NY Beer Company Brings ‘Trout Town’ to NYC

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Shannon (l) and Josh Hughes of Roscoe Beer Co.

Shannon Feeney, director of marketing (l) and Josh Hughes, brewmaster of Roscoe Beer Co. with Beer Affair’s Cat Wolinski, New York, N.Y. Feb. 22, 2015.

NEW YORK—The Roscoe NY Beer Company, known chiefly for its Trout Town brand of craft beers in Roscoe, N.Y., has announced it will expand distribution throughout the states of New York and Connecticut, including the five boroughs of New York City. The recent expansion will occur through Grapes & Greens and Ippolito Distributing. The beers are currently available through Dana Distributers, Dutchess Beer Distributers, Northern Eagle Beverage Company and Dichello Distributers.

Previously distributed only in the Roscoe, N.Y. area, the three Trout Town handcrafted beers—Trout Town Brown Ale, Trout Town Rainbow Red Ale and flagship Trout Town American Amber Ale—will now be available in 22 different counties across New York and Connecticut.

Roscoe brewmaster, Josh Hughes, told Beer Affair the expansion represents his and the brewery’s desire to increase awareness of the Roscoe, a small fishing town located 120 miles north of New York City.

“In addition to introducing our product, we want to bring people to Roscoe and strengthen the community,” Hughes told Beer Affair. “We feel we’ve added to the value of this unique destination.”

According to Hughes, Trout Town, both town and beer, has a mass appeal—and, in the case of the beer, is brewed for every palate. “You don’t have to be a craft beer lover to enjoy it,” he said. “We incorporate an easy drinking quality to our product.”

Hughes, who claims to be an avid fisherman in “Trout Town, USA” (though, admittedly not an ice fisherman) is looking forward to the next season, during which, he said, he will fish every day. Until then, it’s back to the brewhouse, where he’ll be applying his chemistry expertise to concocting the next Trout Town. (Before joining Roscoe, Hughes worked at a medical facility in Cooperstown, N.Y.)

“Brewing beer is a true art form and with the combination of my skills and guidance from everyone else on the team at the Roscoe NY Beer Co., we have created three great craft beers that can be enjoyed by everyone,” he said. “Now with our expanded distribution, we are able to share our hard work and passion with more beer drinkers across New York and Connecticut.”

Along with celebrating their expanded distribution, Roscoe Beer Co. will be unveiling a new tasting room and holding a grand opening this Spring. The new tasting room will feature a fish tank (full of trout, Beer Affair confirmed), floor-to-ceiling trees and a 16-foot glass window, all designed to promote the natural components of the area and the beer itself, which is brewed using only natural ingredients, according to the company.

As of April 2015, Trout Town beers will be available in: Fairfield, Litchfield, Middlesex and New Haven Counties of Connecticut; and Bronx, Brooklyn, Chenagno, Columbia, Delaware, Dutchess, Greene, Manhattan, Nassau, Orange, Ostego, Queens, Rockland, Staten Island, Suffolk, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester Counties of New York.

For more information, contact Lauren Verini at lauren@adinny.com or 212-693-2150 x311.