Barley’s Angels, a Milwaukee women’s craft beer enthusiast group, is going to be collaborating with Company Brewing to bring an exclusive beer that will be sold during Riverwest FemFest 2016.

A tropical porter with toasted coconut is on the schedule for brewing later this week with Barley’s Angels members and Company Brewing’s owner/brewmaster George Bregar working together. To make this, they will use a combination of dark roasted malts with the addition of toasted coconut to play well off the chocolate notes the malts will provide in this beer. An ABV of around 6 percent is expected and the batch size will yield only about five barrels. With this beer being such a small batch, it should spark the interest of many local craft beer lovers who like to get their hands on limited brews.

The idea behind bringing this beer together is a collaborative effort between FemFest founder Olivia Doyle, Bregar and the recipe’s developer Amanda Kindig, a member of Barley’s Angels. A vote was brought to the table in the women’s beer group, and Kindig’s recipe won.

"I've brewed the base porter four times now," Kindig noted. "I have two three gallon kegs to put my finished beers in, so this is my favorite recipe to make since I can have three gallons of plain porter and then add some flavoring additions to the other half of the batch."

Some other ingredients she has added in the past were chipotle peppers, cocoa nibs and orange peel. Kindig has been homebrewing for about two years and has had an affinity for craft beer since college. The inspiration for the addition of the toasted coconut to this porter came from Church Beer Works while visiting in Pittsburgh, where she drank their coconut stout.

Barley’s Angels Milwaukee is part of an international group with more than 80 chapters around the world whose main mission is to bring women together and learn about craft beer. They meet on the first Thursday of each month at various beer related venues around Milwaukee. An educational component is always included whether it is sampling beers, learning about the brewing process or pairing beers with different food. The Milwaukee chapter’s co-founder Erin Anderson says, "We just all love craft beer and want to learn more."

In the case of this collaboration, the women are not only coming together to learn and support each other in the craft beer industry, they are partnering with a local festival that celebrates the powerful and positive impact women can have on each other and the community around them.

The relationship between these two women’s groups came from an idea by Bregar after Doyle had reached out to him to host a venue for the 2nd Annual Riverwest FemFest that will be held at multiple Riverwest venues from Thursday, Jan. 21 through Sunday, Jan. 24.

"I became aware of Barley's Angels after simply finding them on Instagram," says Bregar. "From there, I began to learn what they were about. During a meeting with the FemFest crew, the idea popped into my head that it would be fun to bring both organizations together for a special brew."

FemFest is a community festival and fundraising effort that celebrates talented and strong women through music, art and poetry. More than 50 different musical acts, artists and poets will round out the four-day festival at Riverwest Public House, the Jazz Gallery, High Dive and Company Brewing. Last year, FemFest raised $2,100 to help support the Milwaukee Women’s Center, a division of Community Advocates that houses and supports men, women and children dealing with domestic violence, mental health issues and substance abuse. This year's festival will also be benefiting Date Rape Awareness Milwaukee (DRAM) by providing all Riverwest bars with date rape test strips to help protect and support the community.

"We are very excited by all the support we’ve been getting, inclusive of the ladies brewing special beer for this festival," said Doyle. "By getting more groups and venues involved, we can increase our fundraising efforts to help these incredibly important organizations."

This is the first time that Barley’s Angels Milwaukee has collaborated with a brewery to make a beer, and hopefully it will not be their last according to Anderson.

"We look forward to supporting FemFest and all ladies in Milwaukee," she said. "Hopefully, this is the beginning of a long-term relationship. It would be great to continue to partner with Company Brewing and FemFest."

The collaboration beer will be served at Company Brewing throughout FemFest until the five-barrel batch is sold out. FemFest starts on Jan. 21 at Riverwest Public House and closes with an after-party at High Dive on Jan. 24. A complete schedule, venue information and ways you can participate in the festival can be found at FemFest's website.

For more information on how to join the all-women’s beer group, visit their website. Their next meeting is on Thursday, Jan. 7 at The Brown Bottle with social hour starting at 6 p.m. All ladies 21 years of age and older are welcome.