International Women’s Day is March 8, and while many people will pay lip service to it, such days only mean something when they spawn more than conversation, something that the Pink Boots Society understands.
The Pink Boots Society is a national organization that assists, inspires, and encourages female beer professionals through education. A primary way it does so is through scholarships. Every year around International Women’s Day, breweries across the country hold collaborative brew days to raise money to help fund those scholarships. Locally, Bombshell Beer Company—the first all-women-owned microbrewery in North Carolina—hosted this year’s brew day at its Holly Springs brewery on March 6, an all-day affair that culminated in a special IPA that’ll be available in Lowes Foods and other local outlets later this month.
“The focus is to celebrate International Women’s Day and to build awareness about Pink Boots Society,” says Michelle Miniutti, one of Bombshell’s founders, who also serves as the PBS Raleigh chapter’s financial liaison. “There are these brew days taking place all around the country this week. This weekend they’re doing one at Preyer Brewing in Greensboro, and they’re also doing one down at Bold Missy in Charlotte. The goal is to bring people together, build collaboration, and to then sell the beer and donate portions of the proceeds back to Pink Boots.”
According to Miniutti, most of the money raised locally will stay in the area.
“The brewing industry is kind of more of a lifestyle, it’s not a high paying industry. For someone to have $2,500 to go and advance their education is really cool,” she says. “Because a lot of them are working and paying rent and paying for their vehicles, and there’s probably not a lot left over after that. This is really enabling people to advance their careers in the brewing industry, where it would have been much more difficult for them from a financial and time perspective.”
People from other breweries, bottle shops, and Wake Tech showed up Wednesday throughout the day to help at the Bombshell event, which was open only to people within the beer industry. A dozen or so pairs of hands were busily turning knobs, opening valves, attaching hoses, and pouring in ingredients to brew the limited edition IPA, all under the guidance of Bombshell’s head brewer Devin Singley.
Miniutti estimates that Bombshell will have more than one hundred cases of packaged beer and the rest of the batch in kegs.
“It should have a little bit of haze, but it’s not intentionally a hazy IPA,” Miniutti says. “We’re using a lot of pale malt in there. We’re using a special blend of hops that was created specifically for the Pink Boots Society, and we’re also using Mosaic and Mandarina Bavaria hops. Those are all prominently fruit forward.”
Last year’s collaborative brew raised about $300, and Miniutti anticipates that this year’s will at least double that. Participants in the brew-day event were voting on a name for the brew, so, though it hasn’t been determined yet, it’s a safe bet that it’ll either have “pink” or “boots” in it. (Last year’s was called Pinky Brewster.) You’ll be able to do your part by buying (and drinking) the beer later this month (or early April) at Lowes Foods, in select bottle shops, and on tap at some restaurants.
You must be logged in to post a comment.