As CEO and Founder of HerzMuses Enterprises, LLC Julia Herz is a strategic consultant and educator who supports small business and nonprofit entities. Prior to consulting, Herz was the Craft Beer Program Director for the Brewers Association and Publisher of CraftBeer.com (2007-2020). She specializes in cause based marketing including the new Gray For Good – For All Womanhood campaign. She also happens to love beer. She is a BJCP Certified beer judge, an award-winning homebrewer, a Certified Cicerone®, and a lead architect of the Brewers Association National Beer Holidays, the Independent Craft Brewer Seal, CraftBeer.com, Brewers Association diversity and inclusion efforts, and more. Herz is the co-author of Beer Pairing: The Essential Guide from the Pairing Pros (Voyageur Press 2015).
Emily Del Bel is a Sensory Scientist and Raw Materials Specialist at Rahr Corporation. She is an Oregon native whose passion for beer began at Oregon State University where she obtained a B.S. in Food Science and Technology. In 2012 she moved to Minnesota to obtain a M.S. in Food Science at the University of Minnesota and despite the crazy weather, decided to stay. As a sensory scientist she has evaluated many different products, including wine, dairy products, and textiles. In her current role at the Rahr Technical Center (RTC) she leads the sensory program, assists in the research and development of hops and other brewing and distilling ingredients, and gets to nerd out over beer daily.
Sarah Flora is a Los Angeles-based homebrewer who wants to be the next Martha Stewart (pre-2004) of brewing. A few years ago, Sarah purchased a homebrew kit as a gift for her husband, but little did she know it would become her new hobby and the start of her next career. Running operations for an art gallery by day, on her days off she’s brewing and documenting every stage while reviewing her brews in the process. Since, she’s won numerous awards for her beers, grown an engaged following on Instagram (36K Followers) and YouTube (16K Subscribers), and received press coverage nationwide. As she continues to share her passion for homebrewing, Sarah is also planning to open up her own brewery in Washington state.
Since opening Crooked Lane Brewing Co in September 2016, Teresa Psuty has produced a diverse beer repertoire ranging from classic European-style ales and lagers to innovative American styles to please almost any palate. She has won numerous craft beer competition awards, including two medals at GABF and Brewery of the Year at the inaugural California Craft Brewers Cup. A mom of three rambunctious kids, she carves out time for serving on the board of the Sacramento Area Brewers' Guild, and goofing around co-hosting The Session on The Brewing Network.
After several years of homebrewing for some good old fermentation fun, Ellen decided it was time to go pro after her previous career came to a natural conclusion (age may have something to do with it!) She skipped brewing school, earned the rank of Certified beer judge from the BJCP, and went straight to working at the bottom of the food chain in the industry, scrubbing floors, cleaning tanks, and shoveling spent grain. Concurrently voraciously consuming technical brewing academic content, the practical experience and scientific knowledge bases in time came together, leading to a slow rise through the ranks, eventually to Head Brewer at Crooked Lane. When she's not nerding out on brewing science, she enjoys riding mountain and road bikes, running, cooking, and spending what precious time with friends that the circumstances allow.
Shawna Cormier is the founder of Seattle Beer School and Beer Schlepper at Floodland Brewing in Seattle. She's also a Certified Cicerone®, BJCP Certified Beer Judge, and former Sensory Analysis Program Developer. She's a homebrewer and Vice President of American Homebrewers Association's Governing Committee. Frequent co-host/interrupter of Cheers to Beers podcast. People have said she looks like a young Billy Crystal. They're not wrong.
Annie is a well-known research & development brewer with extensive experience in the food & beverage and consumer goods industries, and as a software development/IT specialist in state government. Annie has been brewing for over 23 years, is a recognized National Beer Judge and Brewmaster.
Having won a number of prestigious brewing awards, including the American Homebrewer of the Year in 2013, Annie is one of the top women brewers in the world, her recorded oral history is preserved in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, Brewing History Initiative.
Annie attended Sacramento State University and the University of California, Davis majoring in Art, Communications and Computer Studies. Annie most recently won the prestigious Glen Hay Falconer Foundation's Scholarship for Engineering & Brewing to the American Brewers Guild and graduated November, 2020. She makes her home in Seattle, WA.
A former professor of Communication Studies, Dr. J Jackson-Beckham dedicated her academic career to the study of American beer. Today, she helps craft beverage organizations develop inclusive, equitable, and just practices that drive success, build communities, and empower individuals through her consultancy, Crafted For All, LLC.
She is also the founder and Executive Director of Craft x EDU (pronounced “craft by E-D-U”), a nonprofit whose mission is to champion equity, inclusion, and justice in the craft brewing community through education and professional development. She is an author, speaker, and vocal advocate for the craft beverage community.
In 2018, Dr. J was named the Brewers Association’s first ever Diversity Ambassador. Today, Jackson-Beckham leads the Brewers Association’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) department as the association’s Equity & Inclusion Partner.
Nina Houts is a Sales Representative for Imperial Yeast - East Coast in Philadelphia, PA. Prior to dedicating herself to helping brewers of all scales produce great beer, she gained her boots-on experience in the Portland, OR craft beer industry through brewing & production roles at Base Camp Brewing and Hopworks Urban Brewery. She has since traded in her XtraTufs (but not her overalls; she still lives in those) in favor of slinging yeast, and has enjoyed the deep dive into learning more about fermentation.
When she is not talking about yeast, Nina is likely on her bicycle and exploring the crispy lager options of the Philadelphia beer scene.
Co-founder of Little Pomona Orchard & Cidery with her husband James, Susanna Forbes fervently believes there's a place for cider in everyone's hearts.
Cider, with its wonderful community, exciting flavours and links to the land, made them sell up, leave London and set up business in Herefordshire, one of the UK's cidermaking heartland.
Little Pomona is determined to let the apple speak, using native yeasts and minimal intervention all the way. Nestling between the orchards and the hops of Brook House Farm is the their Tasting Room which, as soon as conditions allow, will be reopening. A co-founder of Cider Women, the pan-industry facebook group for all women interested in cider, Susanna is thriilled to be joining human dynamo Michelle Pagano for this year's cider session.
Loy Maierhauser first fell in love with beer after she began homebrewing in 2004, and has been a beer lover, brewer, and connoisseur ever since. Loy is currently an Assistant Brewer at MAP Brewing in Bozeman, is a Certified Cicerone, and is a Certified Beer Judge through the BJCP.
She's a beer educator, offering beer classes to women in the community through a series of events called Beer Maven. She also serves as the Secretary of the Montana Pink Boots Society chapter. When Loy’s not working on something beer related, you can probably find her kayaking, traveling around to find the best dive bars in Montana, crafting, or cross country skiing.
Mandy Naglich is an Advanced Cicerone, National Homebrew Competition Gold Medalist, and writer. She covers food, travel, and beer for a variety of print and online publications including Food & Wine, Vice, Taste of Home, VinePair and other outlets. She is the co-author of the desserts cookbook, Hello, Cookie Dough.
As an AROXA Certified Beer Taster, her sensory expertise and wildly popular blind tasting classes have been covered in publications and podcasts like The Sporkful, The New York Times, SevenFifty Daily, Vice, and Mic.com.
Mandy’s homebrewed Belgian beers regularly win accolades at sanctioned competitions including multiple first place awards at the New York Regional Competition and the National Homebrew Competition held by the American Homebrew Association. She is the homebrew advice columnist for VinePair.
Meagen Anderson hails from the Midwest and has had the pleasure of being part of the incredible evolution of the craft beer movement in the United States for the past 15 years. Her professional portfolio includes commercial roles for The Boston Beer Company and the revered New Zealand based hop co-operative, NZ Hops Ltd. Always seeking growth, in 2020 she committed to an alcohol-free lifestyle and began an intense pursuit in inner work. Dedicated to sharing her journey as a part of continued learning she hopes to shed light on becoming more conscious and seeking fulfillment in all we do.
Meagen is pursuing an MBA in Sustainable Business at Maharishi International University in Fairfield, IA. She currently resides in Kalamazoo, MI with her husband Robb, two children Escher and Daphne, and schnauzer-mix named Oskar.
Alison joined the National Honey Board’s Ingredient Marketing Team in 2016. She enjoys her time traveling the country educating food and beverage manufacturers about using honey and is always ready to conduct a honey tasting or talk about her favorite furry little friends, honey bees. Before working for the National Honey Board, Alison worked in public relations and marketing, but she finds that talking about honey is a pretty sweet gig.
Veteran freelance journalist Tara Nurin trains her eyes, ears and typing fingers on the places where food and beverage intersects with business, culture, history, sustainability and identity. Often using liquid lubricants as her mirror to reflect broader societal trends, the Forbes beer and spirits contributor files her stories from some of the world’s most colorful breweries, bars and boardrooms and appears as a frequent presenter on broadcasts and live panels hosted by entities like the Smithsonian and the Brewers Association. Passionate about promoting women’s challenges and achievements, the former TV news reporter is publishing her first book, a history of women in beer, in fall 2021. After spending her first 26 winter holidays in Puerto Rico and residing in 11 states and countries, the trilingual Nurin has chosen to live as an urban pioneer on Camden, NJ’s, riverfront.
Natalya Watson is a Beer Sommelier and Advanced Cicerone® passionate about sharing her knowledge of beer with others because she believes that beer is simply too delicious to remain undiscovered. She’s the founder of Virtual Beer School®, host of the award-winning ‘Beer with Nat’ podcast, and author of Beer: Taste the Evolution in 50 Styles (Kyle Books 2020). British-American, Natalya grew up in Northern Ireland before her family relocated to southern California. There she studied microbiology at UCLA and learned that while not the best at 'doing' science, she had a real knack for making complex scientific concepts accessible and engaging for non-scientists. She then pursued her Master's in Public Health at UC Berkeley, but after she was introduced to good beer by good friends in graduate school she never looked back... and in 2015, she moved to London to pursue a career in beer. She got her start behind the bar at Mother Kelly's, a London beer institution, then held the role of UK Marketing Manager for Duvel Moortgat for three-plus years before setting up her own beer education business in June 2019.
Michelle “The Brew Babe” is a renowned inspirational Public Speaker, Digital Content Creator, and Assistant General Manager of Skydance Brewing Co. She has succeeded across several sectors of media including Print and Online Journalism, Public Relations, Marketing, and Web Design for over a decade. Michelle has spent the past five years sharing her educational experiences, cider & beer reviews, and information on living gluten-free to her 27.4K+ followers worldwide. Shortly after Michelle began homebrewing, she was diagnosed with Celiac Disease. She accommodated her new lifestyle by expanding her education on alternative fermentation (gluten-free, cider, kombucha, tepache, etc.) and created a new brand through her Instagram @TheBrewBabe and blog TheOutcask.com. She is a Certified Cider Professional (American Cider Association), Certified in Cider and Perry Production (Cornell AgriTech), and General Brewing (The Brewing Class). She has competed and judged in several international competitions.
Jen Blair is the Beer Program Manager for New Realm Brewing Company and co-host of the beer and brewing podcast False Bottomed Girls. She is an Advanced Cicerone and a National BJCP Beer Judge. She is a member of the AHA Governing Committee and the chair for the AHA Industry subcommittee. An avid all-grain brewer, her favorite beers to brew are barleywines and smoked beers.
Cat Wiest has been brewing professionally for almost a decade. She hijacked her husbands home brewing hobby in 2011 after reading the story “We’re Here, We’re Beer, Get Used To It” in Bitch. Not long after that, she answered a Craigslist ad and found herself working full time as a production brewer. One of her favorite things about beer is how throughout history it has fostered community and brought people together.
In 2020 Cat earned her International Diploma in Brewing Technology through the Siebel Institute in Chicago and the World Brewing Academy in Germany, with thanks to a scholarship from the Glen Hay Falconer Foundation. She has been actively involved with the Pink Boots Society to assist, encourage, and inspire women in the fermented beverage industry though education. She serves on the Oregon Brewers Guild’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee, and is involved with the Brewer’s Association's Mentorship Program. Cat lives on the coast with her husband and two cats. She is a dedicated beach bum, and when not working is more than likely beach combing, scrambling over the rocky coastline, playing in the surf, or otherwise just gazing west over the water.
Andrea is owner of Valley Malt and Ground Up Grain. Since 2009 Andrea Stanley has been on a mission to bring the malthouse back and turn local grains into local malt for craft brewers and distillers in New England. What began as a curiosity about grains growing on local farms has turned into a career of a creating world-class malt for craft brewers and distillers, and with the addition of Ground Up mill in 2018, fresh stone milled flour for bakers.
Depending on the day Andrea works milling flour stirring malt, and helping to rehabilitate an old paper mill in Holyoke, MA which will be the new home for the mill and malthouse. When her hands are not in grain she is working to make the dream of a sustainable, transparent, and regionalized food system real. In 2013, she helped form the Craft Maltster’s Guild, and served as the chair of the board for 5 years. In 2019, she helped to form the Northeast Grainshed Alliance which is supporting the sustainable growth of Northeast grains. In 2016, she was honored by Food and Wine and Forbes Magazine as one of the 20 Most Innovative Women in Food and Drink.
In her spare time she searches for anything she can read about the history of barley and malt, gardening, and walking her dog Petunia. She lives in Hadley MA with her business partner and husband, Christian and their 3 teenagers.
Tyler and Laurie met at a homebrew club meeting at a brewery in Downtown Los Angeles in early 2019 and became fast friends. After spending hours nerd-chatting about homebrew and beer, the two decided to try their hand at podcasting. Enter Brew’d Up! A podcast where two women discuss the trials and tribulations of learning how to make adult beverages. Both award winning homebrewers, Tyler and Laurie impart common knowledge as well as experiential anecdotes as they explore the world of craft beer and homebrewing. Their differences, combined with their common love of fermented bevs provides for a candid and inclusive podcast listening experience. Brew’d Up! is in its second season and is available on all major podcast platforms.
Maral Barsoumian is the Co-Owner and Marketing President of Amoretti, a premium ingredient manufacturer based in Southern California. Not only did she graduate the USC Entrepreneur program at the age of 20, but she then went on to start Amoretti at age 22, along with the love of her life Jack and brother-in-law, Ara. Having no experience or education in the pastry or beverage world, Amoretti was created out of thin air, extreme debt, 20 hour work days and a will to succeed. Not knowing when to quit, Maral used her passion and entrepreneurial minded soul and paired it with Jack’s organic chemistry and cell molecular biology background. This recipe along with the guiding hand of destiny, the Barsoumians put everything on the line and started a company that is one of a kind, creating amazing and unique super concentrated natural ingredients. As they say, where there is a will, there is a way.
Lauren hails from Portland, Oregon, but has been calling New Zealand home for almost two years now. She is a professional brewer, a wine maker, and has experience in both hop breeding programs and the craft malt industry. Always keen to keep networking and build the profile of the industry, Lauren has been a founding chapter member of Pink Boots and leads the Nelson Tasman region’s group in New Zealand. In her role with NZ Hops she thrives on the exciting mix of science and craft. The focus by everyone on sustainable ways to operate will ensure generations to come will keep drinking delicious beers and Lauren loves being a part of that community, from the Tasman region of NZ, to the global brewing industry.
Blanca Quintero has been in the craft beer industry since 2012. She started as a beertender for Stone Brewing followed by working at Firestone Walker Brewing Company in Retail/Marketing/Sales and is now at Highland Park Brewery in Los Angeles as Assistant General Manager. Journeying into the beer world from a 9-5 job proved an arduous journey that she met with gumption and hard work. She became a Certified Cicerone and is an avid beer geek. She advocates for women in the beer industry and was the Chapter Leader for Pink Boots Society Los Angeles for 3 years leading to her election to the Board of Directors in the fall of 2020. A Los Angeles native, she has become impassioned with promotion of women and BIPOC in the beer industry.
Karen W. Hertz is the founder of Holidaily Brewing Company. In her early 30’s, Karen survived both melanoma and thyroid cancers, leading to a treatment regimen including a gluten-free diet. After adopting a gluten-free diet, Karen struggled to find a great tasting, 100% gluten-free beer. If the lack of quality gluten-free options was a challenge for her, she thought it certainly was a challenge for others as well. With an MBA in Entrepreneurial Studies from the University of Colorado at Denver and 10 years of beer industry experience under her belt, Hertz researched gluten-free ingredients, taste-testing alternatives, and gaining an understanding of brewing processes in order to create a better solution. Thus, the idea for Holidaily Brewing Company was born.
Since opening the brewery in 2016, Holidaily has grown nearly 800%. After years of exponential growth in Colorado, Holidaily Brewing opened the doors to a new production brewery in May of 2019, making them the largest dedicated gluten-free brewery in the U.S. The expansion increased their brewing capacity, allowing them to meet the demand in Colorado, expand distribution to Arizona, Kansas, Missouri and prepare for additional regional growth..
Outside of her role as Chief Brewista, Karen enjoys living in Golden, Colorado with her husband and twin daughters and taking advantage of all that the Colorado outdoors have to offer.
Theresa McCulla, Ph.D., is Curator of the American Brewing History Initiative at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, where is she building an archive of the history of homebrewing and craft beer in the United States. Previously, she worked for Harvard University Library, Harvard University Dining Services, and the Central Intelligence Agency. McCulla earned a PhD in American Studies and an MA in History from Harvard University, a Culinary Arts Diploma from the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, and a BA in Romance Languages from Harvard College. She is writing a book about the history of food and race in New Orleans.
Kate Bernot is a beer writer who contributes primarily to Good Beer Hunting and Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine. She was formerly the beer editor at DRAFT Magazine, and she has written for Imbibe, Craft Spirits Magazine, Chicago Magazine, Montana Quarterly, and more. She is a BJCP-certified beer judge and lives in Missoula, Montana.
Patrice M. Palmer (they/them/their pronouns) calls both the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Detroit, MI home. They are a doctoral candidate in the School of Education at Baylor University and have published works centered on diversity, equity and inclusion within higher education while intentionally focusing on the concept of intersectional leadership within their teaching methods.
Patrice is an award winning diversity, equity and inclusion educator as well as a United States fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) of London.
Patrice is an adjunct professor of Organizational Change Management at Colorado State University and currently serves as the Director of Social and Cultural Inclusion in the College of Business. That position is jointly held with New Belgium Brewing Company’s DEI Specialist role. In 2020 Hop Culture Magazine recognized Patrice as one of Most Important Voices in Craft Beer, they’ve also been featured in Imbibe magazine, Good Beer Hunting and 5280 magazine for their contribution to diversity, equity and inclusion within the industry.
Alyson Schramm Naeger is a BJCP Mead Judge, Certified Sommelier, Certified Specialist of Wine, Certified Specialist of Spirits, and Certified Cicerone®. Alyson earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in German Language with a minor in International Studies from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. After graduating, Alyson co-founded Schramm's Mead in Ferndale, Michigan with her father Ken Schramm, where she serves as the company's CEO. In 2018, Alyson & Ken founded Schramm's Orchards in Rochester Hills, Michigan, a property dedicated to growing premium quality fruit crops for mead production.
Jen Jordan brews at Laughing Monk Brewing in San Francisco, California, and is also the President on the Board of Directors for the Pink Boots Society. During her 15 year career as a public elementary school teacher in the San Francisco Unified School District, she naturally fell in love with beer, and spent the majority of her freetime homebrewing. In 2013, Jen was named Homebrewer of the Year by the San Francisco Homebrewers Guild for her multiple award winning beers, and became a certified BJCP judge. In 2014 she started her professional brewing career, and was the first woman to be hired as a brewer by Anchor Brewing Company in SF. Jen's passion for education persisted long after leaving her teaching career for brewing. She is a graduate of the American Brewers Guild Intensive Brewing Science and Engineering Program, and considers beer itself to be a teacher.
Laura Ulrich is part of the Small Batch Brewing team at Stone Brewing, where she is responsible for creating specialty beers and developing pilot beer recipes for ingredient research. In 2007, she played a significant role in helping Teri Fahrendorf launch Pink Boots Society, a non-profit organization providing scholarship opportunities to women working in the fermented beverage industry.
Having worked in the brewing industry for more than 18 years, her entry into professional brewing was with Odell Brewing Co. in Fort Collins, Colo., where she balanced multiple roles. She moved to San Diego in 2004 to work with Stone Brewing and in 2006,
Ulrich had an epiphany after pouring Stone Smoked Porter over a scoop of vanilla ice cream and the result was one of Stone’s most highly-demanded special release beers—Stone Smoked Porter w/Vanilla Bean.
Ulrich has a Bachelor’s Degree in English from Lindenwood University St Charles, Mo. She is a Cicerone® Certified Beer Server and has judged at the Great American Beer Festival since 2014. At her leisure, you may catch Laura enjoying a glass of Stone IPA while watching football, soccer, or any sporting event, really with her 2 black cats Diablo and Negro.
Celeste is the founder and brewer at Harlem Brewing Company. By following her truth - she calls it Brewing it Forward, Celeste has tapped into
her passion for creating beers that infuse flavor, passion and pride. She has used her
influence to help open doors for a new generation of brewers and indy beer distributors
She launched Harlem Brewing Company in 2000, inspired by her love of the craft and the
Harlem community. She became the first African American woman brewer to launch a
commercially distributed beer, and later went on to sell her beers in Walmart, the largest
food and beverage company in the world.
She introduced her Harlem “Sugar Hill” Golden Ale, a nod to its famous
neighborhood namesake, in 2001 and has since launched several Neighborhood
Original recipes including her award winning Harlem Renaissance Wit, Harlem 125th
Street IPA, and a hard cider - Harlem Strawberry Hill. In 2018, she co-launched the Rocky
Mount Brewery, a collaboration project between Harlem Brew South and Spaceway
Brewing in Rocky Mount, NC. To help address the challenges she sees with beer deserts
(areas that lack opportunities in craft brewing), Harlem Brew South is currently
renovating a historic tobacco warehouse to house its first taproom and teaching
brewery. Her beers have been widely distributed throughout NYC, along the east coast
as well as Japan and the UK. Celeste and her beers have received many awards
including Entrepreneur of the Year from the Harlem Business Alliance, Best Brew NYC,
Best Amber Ale - Beer and Bacon Fest, Emerging Entrepreneur Award - Clinton
Foundation and the Local Hero Award from the Association of Resident Theaters.
Anne Flesch is Fermentis Regional sales Manager for Western Northern North America. Anne has a biosystem engineering and a Master degree in Agronomy from Montpellier, France. She is also an Enologist and worked previously in the Biofuel and Wine production Industry in France and Washington state before joining Fermentis in 2017 supporting all beverage fermentations.
Herlinda Heras is one of the busiest and most well-connected people in the craft brewing world. She is the Coordinator of the Craft Beer Appreciation Certificate program at Sonoma State University, that’s when she isn’t traveling around the world attending conferences and judging in brewing competitions. She also presents “Brews News with Herlinda” on The Drive, on Thursdays before Brew Ha Ha, covering international news in the brewing business. Herlinda brings a wide range of guests to Brew Ha Ha, ranging from the most important and influential people in the brewing community all the way to some award-winning individual home brewers with great stories to tell.
Stephanie Drews is a photographer based in Southern California who specializes in behind-the-scenes storytelling and candid portraiture. She is a huge fan of documentary photography, and she owns more photo books than she does shoes. Earning her MFA in Photography from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, California, Stephanie spent the last ten plus years documenting the combat sport community in Los Angeles before joining Amoretti as their in-house photographer. She’d photographed everything from UFC athletes in Las Vegas to kick boxing in the Netherlands, from Muay Thai in Bangkok to Brazilian jiu jitsu in Santiago, Chile: Today, as an Amoretti team member she works with professional chefs, bakers and brewers to document not only their creative processes but to produce mouth-watering imagery of their final products. Her favorite part of any story (whether it be about food or fighting) is the people she encounters, and she considers the friendships she’s developed through her photography to be her greatest achievement.
Natalie is an award winning Research and Development Brewer at Breakside Brewery in Portland, Oregon. She started serving beer and washing kegs at a local brewery in 2014. In 2018 she received a scholarship through the Pink Boots Society to study brewing in Germany, whilst on the trip she was able to visit Leipzig to drink her favorite beer from the source, Gose. One of her proudest accomplishments is after years of tinkering, her Gose won gold at the Great American Beer Festival in 2020. Natalie is up to a lot in the industry including being involved in Breakside's own as well as the Oregon Brewers Guild Diversity and Equity Committee, the Scholarship Liaison for the Portland Pink Boots Chapter and a GABF judge. Outside of nerding out on historic beer styles and going to complete opposite direction building recipes to include an array of flowers, fruits and a little bit of magic you can find Natalie frolicking in flower fields with her dog, Beef.
Marcus Baskerville, born and raised in Rancho Cordova, California. Marcus started homebrewing from a sibling rivalry competition with his older brother, Everett. Upon taking a promotion in San Antonio Tx, Marcus took more interest into homebrewing. After gaining more confidence due to trial and error, he was noticing he would rather drink his own beer versus what he found on store shelves. He started donating beer to local places around town for tap takeovers & quickly received an offer from another local brewery where he met now Co-Owner Mike Holt. Marcus has received several accolades while operating Weathered Souls Brewing Co. such as San Antonio brewery of the year twice, 2019 best 33 stouts in the world, 2020 Wine Enthusiast 40 under 40 Top Taste Makers, Craft beer and Brewing 2020 Break Out Brewer and many others. In 2020, he created the world wide initiative called Black Is Beautiful, a cause supporting equality and inclusion through a collaborative effort. Black Is Beautiful has garnered the attention from CNN, The New York Times, Forbes and many orders. He is a father to 2 beautiful little girls and a husband to a beautiful wife. When he’s relaxing, he learning more about bourbon and trying new creations in the kitchen.
Teri Fahrendorf put on a brand-new pair of pink rubber boots and stomped into history in 2007, when she founded Pink Boots Society during her epic brewing roadtrip that year. She documented her five-month roadtrip at roadbrewer.com
Teri has been a Brewmaster since 1988 when she graduated from Siebel Institute as its first female class president. She’s been lucky enough to be first on many occasions in her long brewing career, and unlucky enough to experience a serious burn injury along the way. Read about it on her website terifahrendorf.com as a cautionary tale to scare yourself safe.
While working her career job, Teri grew Pink Boot Society from 60 to 1,500 women and was President, Secretary and Treasurer for nine years, not nine months. Pink Boots Society had a long pregnancy before Teri handed her off to Laura Ulrich who reigned as PBS President for five years and grew PBS into a truly professional organization.
Currently Teri is the Malt Innovation Center Manager at Great Western Malting Company, where she helps develop new malts and calls Portland, Oregon home. The pandemic inspired Teri to start her side-hustle as a potter and making ceramics keeps her weekends full, since she can’t go anywhere anyway. You can connect with her on Facebook and see her pottery at raindragonstudio.com.com
Sarah has over 10 years of homebrewing experience and is currently the BJCP assistant representative for UK and Ireland. Sarah is also chair of the UK Homebrewers Association, organizer of the Welsh National Homebrew Competition and the face behind Daft Cat Brewing on YouTube. “One of my motivations for brewing is to brew and try new styles that I cannot get otherwise. I now find my biggest motivator is sharing knowledge and experience on my YouTube channel, in person at beer and brewing events and at competitions around the UK to help folk brew better beer.”
Rebecca Read is an Australian based home brewer and owner of craft beer retailer Curious Craft. She began her brewing journey in 2013 after craft beer began to explode in Australia, starting out on basic store-bought kits before making the leap to all grain brewing in 2017 and hasn’t looked back since. Rebecca is a passionate supporter of small scale producers through her beer business and is a keen advocate for breweries showcasing Australian ingredients.
One of Rebecca’s great loves is introducing people to new flavours and old traditions and is proud to be in the position to share this passion with her local community. Rebecca is working with a local brewery on developing her own small-batch beers and curates drinks lists for local events. Rebecca is studying to be a Cicerone and Certified BJCP judge.
Carolina Pérez is a Chemical Engineer with postgraduate degrees in Quality Engineering and Education in Virtual Environments. Carolina specializes in Beer Quality Control and Sensory Analysis, and has been training palates for more than 20 years. Carolina has judged in national and international competitions since 2004, and became the first person in South America to become a BJCP National judge in 2009. Carolina enjoys participate in the exciting world of craft beer because it is full of creativity.
Kathleen Kuehn is a senior lecturer in Media and Communication at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, where she researches and teaches on digital/social media, consumer culture and labour issues. She is currently writing a book called ‘The Gendered Labour of Craft Brewing: One of the Boys?’ for Routledge Press. The book focuses on the history of women in beer and the role women are currently playing in the craft beer industries across the United States, Australia and New Zealand. She’s still looking for interview participants so please get in touch if you’d like to participate!
Lee Hedgmon started her fermentation journey making wine, mead, and beer and in her home, while in grad school at the University of Minnesota. After moving back to Portland in 2009 she decided academia didn't suit her as well as carbonated alcoholic beverages and started volunteering at different breweries while teaching. She landed her first paid with Coalition Brewing and has worked for Old Town, Pints Brewing, Zoiglhaus, and Ground Breaker, as well as helped many homebrewers while working at F.H. Steinbart and Portland U-Brew, over the years. She leapt into the world of distilling after several years brewing and loves it. Working for McMenamins at both distilleries, Edgefield and Cornelius Pass Roadhouse for several years before landing at the women-owned and operated Freeland Spirits in 2019. When she isn't creating delicious canned cocktails, mashing and distilling whiskey and gins, Lee runs her own small business, The Barreled Bee, where she pairs regional honey varietals with local distilleries used spirits barrels. Always willing to chat and have a pint or a snifter of something delicious and make new friends, Lee is a joy to be around.
Nicki is the first-shift, hotside brewer at Rohrbach Brewing Company in Rochester, NY. Her path to professional brewer has wound its way through more than a decade of working in higher education, homebrewing, formal education in the brewing sciences, and commercial experience at various breweries around Western New York. As one of a handful of pioneering female brewers in the region, she has been featured on WXXI News, the Experimental Brewing podcast and Boomtown Table.
Ashleigh Carter is one of the owners and is the Head Brewer at Bierstadt Lagerhaus in Denver Colorado. In her ten year career in brewing, she has gone from working in a homebrew shop packaging specialty malt, to an assistant brewer at Dry Dock Brewing (Aurora, CO), to the Lead Brewer at Prost Brewing (Denver, CO), and now is in charge of everything beer at Bierstadt. Her vision of a three malt, two hop lager brewery, replete with horizontal lager tanks and a hard-to-find outside of Bavaria floatation tank is firmly rooted in traditional techniques and patience. In 2020 Wine Enthusiast magazine awarded her as one of the 40 under 40 top tastemakers in the country-one of only two brewers to make this list.
Monica Duggan, Sales & Operations Manager, Liquid Gravity Brewing Company In true 'Girls run the world' fashion, Monica joined the world of craft beer and hit the ground running. Since 2014, Monica has been active with the Brewers Association, her local Brewers Guild, the California Craft Brewers Association, and is currently the President of her local Pink Boots Chapter. She makes her living as the Sales & Operations Manager at Liquid Gravity Brewing Company, a first year brewery in beautiful San Luis Obispo, California.
