Craft beer industry set to celebrate in person, no facial hair required
File Photo / William Trevaskis
Heather Sanborn, co-owner of Rising Tide Brewing Co. in Portland with her husband Nathan Sanborn, was honored as a Mainebiz Woman to Watch in 2015.
The craft beer industry is heavily hirsute, but a female-focused festival coming to Portland in April is looking to change that.
The Beer With(out) Beards Festival will celebrate the achievements of women in craft beer, and will showcase over 35 breweries nationwide that are owned or led by women and femme-identifying people, organizers recently announced.
Around 3,000 people are expected to attend the festival, spokeswoman Jacqueline Agudelo told Mainebiz. The event is scheduled for Saturday, April 9, at Brick South in Thompson’s Point.
Several Maine-based breweries plan to be there, said Agudelo, including one whose name may not seem to fit the criteria, Bissell Brothers Brewing.
But the Portland beer maker, founded by siblings Noah and Peter Bissell in 2011, is also led by Hester Bissell, who’s married to Noah and describes her role as “team mom” on the company website.
Allagash Brewing Co. and Austin Street Brewery, both of Portland, are also slated to be at BW(O)B, along with other craft beer companies from as far as California and Miami.
The festival is now in its fifth year, after taking place for the first two in New York and then going virtual in 2020 and 2021.
The event was conceived by Grace Weitz, managing editor of a craft beer lifestyle magazine, Hop Culture. In 2018, she came up with the idea as part of a graduate school project at New York University.
“When I first started working in the craft beer industry as a sales rep, I immediately noticed that I stood out. Out on my route, I mostly met men with some type of facial hair. While I never felt ostracized for being clean-shaven or a woman, I did feel alone,” Weitz said in a news release.
“I started BW(O)B to create a space where everyone felt welcome to show up, taste amazing beers, and cultivate conversations around how to break through barriers. And now more than ever, Beers With(out) Beards is a festival that provides an opportunity for everyone asking to be heard in a predominantly white, male industry.”
Men made up 76% of craft brewery owners in 2021, according to Bart Watson, chief economist of the Brewers Association, a national trade group whose board chair is Dan Kleban, co-founder and owner of Maine Beer Co. in Freeport.
Maine is home to 136 craft breweries, ranking second to Vermont in the highest number per capita. The brewing leaders include women such as Heather Sanborn, who co-founded Rising Tide Brewing in Portland with her husband, Nathan, in 2010, and Christy Cain, who launched Olive Pit Brewing Co. in Lisbon Falls last month.
In 2019, Maine’s breweries generated an economic impact of $668 million, according to the Brewers Association.
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