Beer tastes better after you meet the person who made it, says the first female brewmaster in North America.
But that’s not the only reason Nancy More is attending the second annual Siris Cask Festival at the 12 Kings Pub this Sunday, a celebration that features 40 beers made exclusively by women, be they cisgender or transgender.
More will also be there wearing her academia hat, as she is an instructor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s brewing program, which will receive a scholarship from the festival to bestow on a female identifying student.
“The Tri-Cities Cask Festival Association approached us last summer when they were planning the first Siris festival,” says More, who joined B.C.’s only brewing diploma program in 2012 to help flesh out the curriculum.
“They wanted to create a scholarship from part of festival proceeds to help a second year student put herself through the final year and pay her tuition.”
The association has pledged a minimum of $7,500 to be distributed to KPU over five years. Kristy Tattrie was last year’s recipient of $1,500 and will return this year to present a beer she brewed with Ashley Brooks, one of three associate directors for the event who graduated from the same program one year prior.
“I just got missed!” Brooks jokes of graduating before the festival created the female-only scholarship.
Brooks entered the industry in 2014 through KPU and was immediately hired as an assistant brewer before becoming Big Ridge’s brew master and then transferring over to Four Winds.
With her other two associate directors—brewmasters Claire Wilson of Dogwood Brewing and Julia Hanlon of Steamworks Brewing, Brooks will facilitate a women-only discussion panel for the first hour of the 11a.m.-4p.m. festival.
At last years event, More guesses that over 200 women showed up for the pre-opening, which at that time was a series of speeches rather than open dialogue.
“I think I’d given up on the thought that if I could break through that barrier, more women would come behind me,” More says, adding that integration of more women in the beer industry it was painfully slow. “So for me to be in a room with so many women who had made their own beer—I was close to tears.”
But on its website, Siris Cask Festival writes that their small club needs more members so that in the future, nobody will feel compelled to ask “What does it mean to be a female brewer?”
“[That question] makes us feel like we’re kind of singled out. In my eyes, we’re just people,” says Brooks though she admits the male dominated industry does cause some female brewers to be shy.
“I know it’s kind of a catch 22—you’re having a female only cask event but you want to be equal—but we feel like this is a stepping stone we have to have right now,” says Brooks, who adds she’s never felt discriminated in her industry based on her gender.
More taught Brooks in KPU’s four term, two-year program that teaches everything from history to chemistry to business management.
“I may have broke ground for women in this industry 39 years ago,” More says of being the first female hired by Labatt Brewing Company for their technical training program. “But these brewers are doing something really special—their passion for beer is astounding.”
With more opportunities and breweries to choose from, More says young women can find places that support them more than she could when she started.
“Like any industry, it’s important to have relatable role models. To be able to look at someone and say “I see her in that position, I can do that too.”
Tickets to Siris Cask Festival, which is a 19+ event, cost $40 and include a souvenir tasting glass 10 tokens for tasters, an event program, and entry to door prize draws. Additional tokens will be available at the venue for $2 each.
@bexinvcity
