We are so excited and honoured to be hosting an International Women’s Collaboration Brew Day (IWCBD) at Double-Barrelled Brewery on Tuesday 8th March.
An inspirational and collaborative day open to all women who are keen to learn about beer, get involved with beer and most importantly who want to have fun with beer!
What is IWCBD?
International Women’s Collaboration Brew Day is an annual worldwide event created to celebrate International Women’s Day by encouraging all women with an interest in beer to be involved with a brew – because there is a role for women in breweries and beer, in whatever capacity they may like. Founded by the awesome Sophie De Ronde; Head Brewer at Burnt Mill Brewery back in 2014; IWCBD has been encouraging women all over the world to get involved with beer production.
Our team of strong DB women are excited to show you around our brewery and get you involved with creating a beer and have you be a part of a very special day.
We hope this day helps anyone who identifies as a woman to engage with the industry, providing a network of voices, companions, and friends. This years IWCBD theme is ‘celebration’ – and what better way of celebrating women than uniting and creating something great!
Get to know us
Meet the women of DB are that have organised and will host the IWCBD 2022, four of many wonderful women who make up the DB team.
Meet Luci!
Luci is our wonderful co-founder and Managing Director of Double-Barrelled who discovered her love for beer through trying a range of delicious and luxurious imperial stouts…a slow ease into beer there Luci!
Luci will be busy hosting people on the day, getting involved with the brew and making sure people have a beer in their hand as much as possible! Luci loves working within one of the ‘coolest, most fun and creative industries’ filled with incredibly passionate people who help create unique products which bring people happiness.
Luci’s favourite beer: Canadian brewery Bellwood’s Jelly King – a delicious dry hopped mixed fermentation, fruited sour, tried at a few festivals and has always stood out of the crowd. Also, for her sins; a Ding Shandy.
Chelsea
Meet one of our incredible brewers at Double-Barrelled – Chelsea!
We are proud to have a strong female brewer amongst our team who has developed the IWCBD recipe and will be leading both the brew and tutored talks throughout the day.
Chelsea’s favourite thing about working within the beer industry is its open culture to share knowledge and ‘togetherness’ – a value we constantly strive to have and encourage at DB. Growing up in the Ding amongst family who worked for Courage’s Brewery, together with her love for drinking cask down the pub helped Chelsea find her brewery career path within craft-beer hotspot Reading, beginning her journey at Siren Craft Brew and continuing it here at Double-Barrelled.
Favourite beer? Chelsea loves anything from Lambiek Fabriek – especially their Fontan-Elle which is a young and wild Lambic aged in oak barrels. With super light lemony notes and extra earthy ‘funkiness’ happening on the pallet – exemplifying just how diverse and fun beer can be!
Hi Kirsty!
Kirsty is our Sales Operations Manager and all round legend at DB. Kirsty’s role within IWCBD is inviting all the awesome women who will be attending the brew day, hosting with her big welcoming smile, and helping the sales team sell and dispatch the new delicious beer that will be created.
Kirsty has always enjoyed a pint and therefore the beer industry! She loves working with friendly people and seeing friends and families enjoy DB beer when popping into independent pubs that are flourishing round the Ding.
Kirsty is renowned as the DIPA Queen in the office for her love of big hoppy beers, however nothing beats a pint of Ding for her on a summer’s day!
Liv
Introducing you to Liv – our Taproom Assistant Manager, Marketing & Events Assistant and generally helpful human!
Liv has been helping to organise the event, in charge of all coms and socials surrounding the event and post-event and will be hosting and running around taking social media content on the brew day!
Prior to her discovery of tasty craft beer, Liv had only ever experienced the typical ‘uni beers’ – which shockingly, didn’t do it for her. Joining the Taproom team back in 2020 opened her eyes to what an innovative, diversified, and vibrant industry she was now a part of – and immediately fell in love with not just the process and products, but what many of these independent breweries stood for. So much love, passion, science, and teamwork go into creating beer, and enjoying such a process and exciting end product is a wonderful thing to celebrate, especially when surrounded by great friends and family.
Liv’s favourite beer is constantly changing as she discovers what styles are out there and loves whatever surprises her! Although she does enjoy a humble hazy pale amongst her pals.
Why is IWCBD Important us?
After the last year, where many individuals and groups raised difficult stories of sexism, racism and misogyny within the beer industry, it feels even more important now than ever.
As an industry, beer in it’s very nature should be welcoming and inclusive; and it’s been incredibly hard to discover that so many breweries that are seen to be leading the way in our industry globally are also involved in abusive and discriminatory practices.
This year IWCBD is about celebrating the great women within the industry and showcasing those who understand the importance of diversity and equality. It can be exhausting out there’ so, this is also a great way of raising up other fabulous women.
Beer is for Everyone
Beer is for everyone and working in beer should be for everyone too. The women of DB have expressed their personal reasons to why the IWCBD is important to and valued by them.
Luci
‘IWCBD is the perfect opportunity to introduce the concept of working in and enjoying beer to those who are passionate about it and may not have necessarily thought about the opportunities for people like them for working within it, and maybe have been put off by the occasional bro culture that they’ve seen at events or in the pub. The industry has a long way to go to be a truly inclusive and diverse environment; this is just one small step in the right direction.’
Chelsea
‘IWCBD is important to me because all women, not just within our industry, still experience a lack of opportunity to exceed in careers that are often male led. IWCBD is a great way to share a passion for a job I love doing and a product I love creating.’
Kirsty
‘Beer has such a ‘blokey’ connotation and that is so wrong because lots of women enjoy beer too. I love the fact that IWCBD embraces women, and that those women are a part of the entire process – from developing the recipe, designing the can, selling and marketing the event and product and of course enjoying it too!’
Liv
‘The one word I would use to describe this day and what it means is inspiring. I was fortunate enough to be involved in the IWCBD 2021 here at Double-Barrelled and witness Chelsea run her first brew day which was incredible. The hard work, teamwork and passion that went into the brew day was nothing but motivating and inspiring and I was grateful for the experience to get stuck in and learn more about beer! IWCBD is an amazing opportunity to learn no matter how much or little you know about beer and the industry, there is always something new to discover and even better amongst some great women!
I also believe IWCBD is important to help normalise the relationship between women and beer – beer is not a ‘man’s drink’ and brewing is not a ‘man’s hobby’ and the exposure of this day and incredible product is another step that helps this normalisation happen.’
We are so excited to show you around and get you involved with creating a beer together to celebrate IWD!
Whilst spaces for the brew day are now full, we will be opening the Taproom for all for a post brew beer between 3pm-7pm on Tuesday 8th March before heading over to the Fox and Hounds in Caversham.
Stay tuned for a sister blog that will reveal how the brew day went and all about the creation, name, artwork, and story of the delicious beer of IWCBD 2022.