An annual beer-tasting event aimed at women and run by women is moving to a new venue for its fifth incarnation.
The Queen of Craft women beer series traditionally runs every Friday in March, which founder Karyn Boscariol notes happens five times this year, not the usual four.
The two-hour sessions introduce attendees to a number of beers and a number of interesting topics.
Boscariol works at Wellington Brewery, which supports the annual event.
She said the new trend in beer is the woman beer drinker and Queen of Craft offers women a place to try them in a safe, social environment.
Each session has a theme and a speaker and attendees are offered samples of six to eight beers.
Some sessions offer a more scientific look into the beer-making process, while others focus on the more social aspects of enjoying beer, but Boscariol said all sessions are very social.
“So by the end of the two hours, all of the women are a little tipsy and quite loose and having a lot of fun. It usually gets very chatty,” said Boscariol.
Last year, one session focused on sexism in beer advertising.
“We looked at the history of that, and even craft breweries that are still using sexist images to sell their product. We had really great speakers there and really deep discussion about it all,” said Boscariol.
All proceeds for the event go to Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis.
After the sessions are completed, the organizers draw names of attendees out of a hat to assemble a brew team, six women who work together to develop a one-off beer to be sold through Wellington Brewery for a limited time.
Cara Collins had attended Queen of Craft throughout its first four years and was delighted to have been selected for last year’s brew team.
“If someone told me I would get to go and brew a beer that will be for sale publicly at Wellington Brewery and you get to keep your day job — I’d be like, ‘how do I sign up?’” Said Collins.
The 2017 brew team developed an American Pale Ale with distinct cranberry notes, which was made available for sale in December under the name Sadako.
“We were looking for something that had some North American notes and flavours, so we talked about different flavouring agents. We knew it was coming out in December, so we were talking about cranberry, which are native to North America,” said Collins.
Like the other Queen of Craft one-off beers before it, Sadako quickly sold out.
Cara Collins' design for the Sadako can. Kenneth Armstrong/GuelphTodayCollins left a career in fine art about six years ago, but was able to flex her creative muscles once again when she was asked to design the imagery for the can.
“Not only did I get to work on the team to help plan this year’s brew, but I got to pull those ideas together into the label and to put our spin on that,” said Collins.
She decided to focus on the cranberry flower, but said her treatment of it was not particularly dainty.
“It is a beer for women, but it’s not just for women. It was important to not make it too dainty and fragile. That’s not who we are as whole people,” said Collins.
This week, tickets were released for this year’s series. Boscariol said they are more than half sold.
“Over the five years we have seen a lot of really deep friendships that have flourished through this program and a lot of women come as singles and leave at the end of march with a whole new set of friends that they have this one thing in common with,” said Boscariol.
Men are allowed to attend the sessions. Boscariol said they have had men attend just about every session, but men should be prepared to be outnumbered.
More tickets are on sale for this year’s event because of the extra Friday in the month, as well as the move to a single venue for all five sessions — the newly-opened community space at 10C.
