Last year, a quintet of women who work as sales reps for craft brewers came together to co-host a series of events in honor of Women's Month in March. Now, the number of breweries has grown, as has the quantity of events.
Julianna Pierandozzi from 3 Sheeps, Clare Twietmeyer from Cincinnati’s Rhinegeist, Kylen Eberlein from Indeed, Jenny Durkin from Minneapolis’ Surly, and Kelly Miller from Revolution in Chicago brewed up the collaboration.
"We have grown immensely in our efforts from last year; there are now nine participating breweries," says Pierandozzi.
"New Barons, Eagle Park, 3 Sheeps, Surly, Great Lakes, Revolution, Bells, Indeed and New Belgium and their respective women representatives have all come together to again raise money for Sojourner Family Peace Center during Women’s Month.
In addition, retailers Otto’s, Discount Liquor, Downer Wine and Spirits, Otto's, Ray’s and Total Wine will display the breweries' products along with QR codes to make it easy for customers to donate to Sojourner.
Last year's nine events now number 23! There are happy hours, beer dinners, brunch parties, trivia events, bottle exchanges and more.
The schedule of events is:
- March 2, 8 p.m., at Izzy Hops, raffle
- March 2, 7 p.m., Red Lion, trivia
- March 5, time TBA, Ray's Growler Gallery, bottles exchange and raffle
- March 8, 5 p.m., Station 6, food specials and raffle
- March 9, 4 p.m., MKE Burger, Franklin, raffle
- March 9, 6 p.m., Palomino, beer diner
- March 12, noon, Saint Bibiana, brunch party
- March 12, 4 p.m., Sugar Maple, Sunday funday
- March 15, 7 p.m., Crafty Cow Tosa, music night
- March 16, 7 p.m., Von Trier, trivia night
- March 21, 7 p.m. WI on Tap, bingo
- March 22, 7 p.m., Ferch's, jukebox bingo
- March 22, 6 p.m., Inventors Brewpub, Trivia
- March 23, 6 p.m., NBBC, ladies' night
- March 26, 1 p.m., Elwood's, women's month fest
- March 27, 6 p.m., Brass Tap, trivia
- March 28, 7:30 p.m., Bad Moon, women's history trivia
- March 29, 7 p.m., Three Lions, trivia
- March 29, 5 p.m., Reunion, beat the brewery bags tourney
- March 30, 6 p.m., Crafty Cow MKE, trivia/March Madness
- March 31, 4 p.m., 3 Cellars, donation night
- All month long: Erv's Mug entries for grand prize, Cleveland Pub Monday night bingo.
Proceeds will benefit Sojourner.
“The beer industry, the service industry in general, has been male dominated," says Pierandozzi. "We are seeing more women employees, owners, buyers, managers, and now sales reps. We definitely aren’t the first, but we just happen to be the first who wanted to band together and celebrate it in a big way.”
Twietmeyer adds, “The idea actually came about rather organically. We’ve all seen each other often in the market over the years and have had similar experiences, we wanted to do something special as women in a male dominated industry.”
Is it normal for sales reps from competing breweries to collaborate? Even in craft beer, which rarely seems to even acknowledge that competition is a thing – preferring at most friendly rivalry and out and out collaboration – the answer is typically no.
“This camaraderie formed from the fact that we’re like each other’s coworkers in this market since all our breweries are from different states,” says Twietmeyer. “We’re also all competitive in our owns ways and it’s exciting to combine all our work together for a fantastic cause.”
“I've never seen a collab of this nature before,” says New Barons Co-CEO & Taproom Manager Heidi Dalibor. “I was really excited when I was approached and asked to get involved. There are some truly incredible women in the beer industry that are all making an impact and together I think we can do even more to support each other and make sure the representation is there.”
While, as Pierandozzi notes, more and more women are brewery owners, working as brewers and in other roles at breweries, there is still progress to be made and collaborations like these can help.
“Over the last few years I've seen women in beer working closer and closer,” says Dalibor. “The Winter Whales Event was one of the first times I recognized how powerful we can all be working together. Love, Milwaukee was another great example.
“I'm certain this will lead to more collaboration."
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
