Women in Beer
It was Friday March 13th 2020, sitting in a small clinic office my mind befuddled with confusion, disbelief and my chest burning with the tears slowly welling in my eyes. Breast cancer. One in eight women will be given a breast cancer diagnosis. I would undergo six surgeries over four years. I won’t delve into the impacts of COVID on such a diagnosis as COVID was an upheaving force on the lives of peoples and industries the world over.
My name is Venus, I’m a first generation BIPOC Latina and craft beer bar owner. My story in beer begins in 2004 when a renowned homebrewer came into my office and asked if I liked beer. He left me a couple bottles of his alder smoked porter and told me if I brought the bottles back clean he’d bring me something new. The next week I simply said, “teach me”. Over that first decade I switched careers and started working in gastropubs & brew pubs while volunteering on brew decks learning from professional brewers the ins and outs of the industry. In my downtime I also home-brewed, whipping up recipes with blends of grains in my palm chewing through the flavors and contemplating the end results. The next decade with an idea formulating in my mind, I made tiny moves shimmying opportunities and leveraging means until Maize & Barley was more than just a dream.
My chef partner and I opened Maize & Barley in April 2019. A project lovingly built by our hands over the course of 10 months and a decade of planning. A handmade adobe wall mixed with earl grey tea and lime wash. Wood tables and bar tops repurposed and refinished from Habitat for Humanity, like many other objects there from the tile backsplash, the entry door’s original Danish light fixture, to the mock Caribbean window feature on our north wall. Maize & Barley was going to be the first of its kind, a craft beer bar committed to sustainable food and not the usual beer friendly foods. We were going to lean into a history of culinary flavors of the Caribbean, all of its beautiful diaspora of influences and offer it up with a truly unique beer program. Small kegs, changing frequently from local producers. It is well known the craft beer industry is dominated by white men. However beer has its origins in women and brown people.
With my breast cancer diagnosis, isolating at home away from my taps, customer interactions, the daily swapping of menu ideas with chef, I found myself reaching out to friends in the industry, checking in on them. Pondering how we would all pull through this stronger, more empowered to succeed. Looking back I am fully aware this was my coping mechanism to look outward than address the intense internal grief I was suppressing over all that had been taken from me in cancer. I turned my pain and loss into advocacy. I had long been a member of a global non profit organization founded to empower women in the fermentation industry through education and community building, Pink Boots Society. I would decide to become more heavily involved and later spend nearly three years in a leadership role of the local Seattle chapter. My goal was that as members made moves within a highly volatile workforce they would be better primed through our educational support and actives to leverage for better wages and positions. It also gave me another way to fall back more heavily into my love of craft beer, working with so many incredible women in the various roles they filled in the industry.
During this period we went to YCH (Yakima Chief Hops) HBS (Hop & Brew School), an intensive four day program about the state of the hop industry in Yakima Valley, one of the world’s largest hop growing regions. Educators, presenters and industry leaders around the world coming to speak on topics from water management, hop sensory, and even philanthropy. The craft beer industry is renowned for charitable giving with records in 2016 noting $73.4bn given to local charities.
During this work and time I came across several other women, Pam Broulette, owner and founder of Icicle Brewing and Shelley Desmaris, owner of CLS Farms and founder of the 1in8 campaign, breast cancer survivors turning their diagnosis into outreach. Connecting with Sarah Perez and Jess Klembara of the Scars is Beautiful Project, we became panelists at the annual CBC (Craft Brewers Conference) two consecutive years to speak on breast cancer survivorship and our paths to advocacy. Finding strength in shared loss, recovery and empowerment became integral to the work I would continue to do. Every surgery putting me in weeks long recoveries, my work provided me outlets to feel strong where my body felt pain and fatigue. Attending conferences, I met an array of people within the industry. One of my favorite note speakers, Fawn Ward, the owner/founder of Uncle Nearest presented at CBC 2024. An incredible storyteller, industry leader and icon. Connecting with women around the country and finding myself in all women's Brewster arm wrestling matches filled with screaming crowds to raise funds for local reproductive rights centers, put on by Lindsay Barr. Meeting industry legends like Garrett Oliver; a leading mind in brewing, history, education outreach represented in the Michael Jackson foundation designed to provide educational and career advancement for BIPOC people in distillation and brewing.
During the course of this blog I’ll reflect on trips to the USDA hop breeding program in Prosser. YCH HBS, educational compenents and the fun of being surrounded by renowned brewers and panelists. Judging competitions as a long standing BJCP (Beer Judge Certificate Program). Discuss the beers we have on tap, why certain beers get chosen, what’s our process for building and curating a great line up. Collaboration brews with other leading women in the industry and more.
