To celebrate Women’s Day on March 8, Slow Boat Brewery’s Becky Lane tells us about their efforts to promote a women’s beer culture in China.
The Cause. At Slow Boat, we hope to create an environment where women can step away from beer’s unfortunate stereotype as ‘a man’s drink.’ Little marketing effort has been made to develop a ‘beer culture’ that includes women as anything other than background eye-candy. No wonder women feel alienated – many therefore evaluate (and reject) the popular mass-produced beer simply on flavor, through lack of culture to identify with. At Slow Boat, as with all the microbreweries popping up in China, we’re making beer that is diverse in flavor and style, and can be evaluated on its own merits.
East vs. West. First-time Chinese customers tend to prefer darker beers, such as stouts or porters, over the hoppier beers, which are popular in North America. They’d perceive these beers as ‘sweeter’ because of the heavy malt notes and rich mouthfeel. When I first started bartending, I’d be taking orders from waifish young Chinese ladies who wanted to try their first craft beer: a heavy bodied, 7-9 percent alcohol brew. I’d be thinking: You go girl. You do you.
The Drink. For the darker-beer-leaning ladies, the Vanilla Stout is always popular, but since we’re moving into warmer weather I’d recommend our Monkey’s Fist IPA. It is an IPA and therefore bitter, but it might suit many first time drinkers who tend to ask for a ‘light beer’: strong passion fruit and mango aroma, fruity Citra hops, and sweetness from five different kinds of malt.
The Event. This year’s International Women’s Day will mark the beginning of an ongoing collaboration between Slow Boat and women brewers in China. We’ve invited three of Beijing’s brightest female brewers, Zhao Yan, Wang Chenxi and He Xiaoxiao, to sell their beer in our taproom. All proceeds go to the Starfish Project, a China-based charitable organization that provides employment support and skills training for women.
> Slow Boat Women’s Day Tap Takeover and Fundraiser, Sunday March 8; Slow Boat Taproom
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