All female beer brewing competition won by Dea Latis member

Trumpet heralds at the ready:  DeaLatis member and confirmed beer advocate Louise Ashworth is the winner of a competition for women to create a recipe for their perfect beer. Louise’s fabulous recipe triumphed and later in Spring she will be travelling up to Grantham to brew ……. Wheat Watchers! 

Jane Peyton, Principal of the School of Booze devised the competition in collaboration with Sara Barton at Brewsters Brewing Company as a way of inspiring women to consider brewing beer.  Entrants were asked to take inspiration from one of DivineFairtrade chocolate brands and come up with a beer that they would want to drink.  The prize was for the winner to brew their own recipe with Sara at Brewsters.

Louise described her inspiration for Wheat Watcher’s “My idea is for a wheat beer with raspberries as I think that a lot of women, and men, can be put off from drinking real ale as they think that it will be too bitter. I think that wheat beer is delicious and can be more accessible for non-ale drinkers than many other styles of beer. Unfortunately it isn’t always easy to find a wheat beer in the majority of pubs. I would really like to see wheat beer more widely available and hopefully the beer that we are going to create will be onsale in a large number of pubs.”

Jane and Sara were really impressed with the quality and inventiveness of the competition entries.  Dozens of women entered (and a few men too!) and Sara judged the entries blind.  She chose these recipes as the top 3:

 1st place: Wheat beer with raspberries. By Louise Ashworth

Inspired by Divine Dark Chocolate with Raspberries.

2nd place: Stout with raspberries, cardamom and black pepper. By Orla Lambe

Inspired by Divine Dark Chocolate with Raspberries.

3rd place: Golden ale with chestnut honey and thyme (the honey is supplied by the entrant’s friend from local bees) by Hazel Paterson

Inspired by Divine’s Fruit and Nut

Sara chose Louise’s entry as the winner because she “liked the contrast between the light fruity style of the wheat beer and the dark chocolate with raspberries and felt it would really complement the flavour of the chocolate. Wheat beers are a very interesting complex product with interplay between malt, hops and yeast in particular giving a deceptively full flavoured brew. I am really looking forward to producing the winning entry and am sure it will go down well with publicans and drinkers alike.”

Another really inventive entry was by another DeaLatis member – Niki Skaife, publican of the excellent Masons Arms, Bishop Monkton, near Harrogate.  Niki received an honourable mention for her delicious sounding Mild with Sloe and Juniper.

Jane and Sara had such fun with this competition – and judging by the amazing recipes that came in, so did the women who entered.  It was obvious by all the recipes that us women love flavour! 

When Louise’s Wheat Watcher’s beer is brewed we’ll let you know – maybe you’ll find it on the bar of a pub near you…..

Tags: beer, CAMRA, brewsters, brewing, chocolate, calories, female, ale, School of Booze, brewster

Great piece about what pubs can do to improve their beer service to women:

http://www.londonlovesbusiness.com/lifestyle/browns-beer-why-pubs-must-wake-up-to-women/1710.article

Tags: beer and calories, beer and health, beer and women, beer for women, calories in beer, pubs for women, women brewers, women in pubs, women-friendly pubs

Women only beerfest in Leicester

Well done to the brewsters who have organised this weekend’s beer festival. All beers brewed by women. Wish I was a bit closer to Leicester!

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/Brewers-putting-ale-female/story-15198794-detail/story.html

Tags: beer and health, beer and women, beer festival, beer for women, brewsters, cathy price, dea latis, lady brewers, pub crawl, pubs, red lion, women and beer, women brewers

A pint a day keeps the doctor away

Great bit of coverage on the Daily Mail online for the health benefits of moderate beer consumption. Well done the Beer Academy!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2096454/A-pint-day-keeps-doctor-away–YES-mean-beer.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

 

 

 

 

Dea Latis welcomes pub-loving Cathy

Annabel Smith (far left) and Ros Shiel (far right) present Cathy Price with her Dea Latis membership certificate

Dea Latis, the industry beer and women forum, has welcomed a pub enthusiast into its fold. Cathy Price, who is on a mission to visit every Red Lion pub in the country, has been made an honorary Dea Latis member in recognition of her unique contribution to the group’s aim of ‘bringing beer to women’.

Cathy’s pub pilgrimage began in April last year after a visit to a Red Lion in Hawkshead, Cumbria. To date, she has visited 135 of the estimated Red Lions in the countryand is expecting the challenge to take until 2014 to complete. Cathy orders a beer – preferably local ale -  in every pub she visits, having been ‘converted’ by Dea Latis members from her previous tipple of red wine.

Unsurprisingly, Cathy’s ambitious pub crawl creates interest wherever she goes and she has been interviewed countless times by local press and radio stations. She has written about all her visits and is planning to put them in a book. “It’s been the most amazing experience,” she says. “There’s something unique about walking into a pub in a new part of the country and sitting down with a glass of beer. It’s the best way to find out about a local area and the people who live there.”

Read Cathy’s poem about her pub experiences – good and bad –below. Follow Cathy via on Facebook/Cathy’s Crazy Red Lion Pub Crawl or onTwitter CathyPrice@RedLion-Quest

Red Lion’s with brass bellsThose with bad smells,Good home cooked food Bar tenders in a mood, Slug trails on the floor Toilet seats behind the door, Signs which are faded Décor old and jaded, Super helpful staff Locals good for a laugh,, Beer gardens with umbrellas Merry beer- drinking  fellas, Brewery’s at the back Red Wines in a rack, Smelly ash trays outside Hanging baskets that have died, Curtains that need cleaning Bars shiny and gleaming, A local Cask Ale A pub up’ For Sale’,

I have sat on church pewsSeen Estuary views,Perched on a bar stool In some we play pool, A perfect thatched roof Staff cold and aloof A Bowling Green at the rear A pint of “Off” Beer A Punjabi Landlord Offers on the blackboard Pink Port over ice I thought it sounded quite nice Cheap House Doubles A flat glass of bubbles All this I have seen To these Red Lion’s I have been And there are still hundreds more To enjoy, and explore. The worst and the best Of this RED LION QUEST!

 

Tags: beer and health, beer and women, cathy price, dea latis, pub crawl, pubs, red lion, women and beer

A Dream Come Brew

Have you ever dreamed of brewing your own beer in a proper brewery as opposed to a bucket in the airing cupboard?  I have.  Many times.  Then last year I met Sara Barton, founder of Brewsters Brewery at the launch of Project Venus’s brewing collaboration – Venus Jade.  I confessed my aspiration and Sara responded with an emphatic ‘Do it!’

 Turns out that I was not the only DeaLatis member harbouring the brewing fantasy because when I mentioned it to Marverine Cole (@BeerBeauty) and Shea Luke (@RealAleGirlShea) they also had that ambition. We discussed our ideal recipe and decided on a dark spicy winter ale. So on a very auspicious date 21/1/12 (it’s a palindrome) the three of us accepted Sara’s invitation to ‘do it’ and we travelled up to Brewsters Brewery in Grantham and did it! 

 And as I write this, a wonderful yeast that smells of green apples is bubbling away and turning our 30 barrel brew into delicious beer.  What an incredible thought. But who knew what hard physical work it is to brew beer?  Hauling the malts around, hoisting buckets up high, pouring the contents into mash tuns and coppers, and then the cleaning afterwards.  Oh the cleaning – raking out the mash tun, poking around in the hot copper to extract the thousands of whole hops, washing out vessels and leaving the brewery as we found it.  But what satisfaction!And what fun.  All three of us virgin brewers felt as though we were in the best toy shop imaginable – and one in which lunch was served with Brewsters Pale Ale, and Brewsters’ brand new Black IPA (called Cruella) decanted straight from the conditioning tanks.  Heaven.

 In a couple of weeks Brewsters will cask and bottle condition the beer for sale through their ‘Wicked Women’ range. We’re waiting to mention the beer’s name until the launch party in late February or early March – most likely at London’s Tap East with its incredible range of beers (thanks Glyn!) so hopefully you’ll come and taste the difference. 

 Huge thanks to Sara, Sean, and Richard at Brewsters for making our dream come brew.  I’m even more in love with beer than I was before and my maiden voyage on the brew boat has made me even more obsessed with brewing.  We’ve done a winter brew, but there are three more seasons in a year.  So how’s about it BrewsterSara, Beer Beauty, and RealAleGirlShea?

 By Jane Peyton, Principal of the School of Booze

Tags: ale, beer, Beer Beauty, beer drinking, brewing, brewsters, female, School of Booze, women

Duchesse de Bourgogne – a beer that’s impossible not to like?

We’re halfway through our Dea Diets – our quest to swap wine for beer during January to prove to the world that beer is lower in calories.

And our pal Jane Peyton at the wonderful School of Booze has written this review of the beer, Duchesse de Bourgogne, exclusively for Dea Latis. Why not give it a go this weekend and let us know what you think of it?

Try this experiment.  Choose a female friend who professes not to like beer.  Discreetly open a bottle of Duchesse de Bourgogne from Belgium and decant into a wine glass.  Don’t tell her that it is beer and watch her reaction as she sips it. And then wait for the ‘Get Away!’ response when you ‘fess up that it is not an unusual type of red wine, rather, one of the most amazing examples of our beloved malt & hops brews.

Duchesse de Bourgogne (6.2% ABV) is a superb example of a lambic beer.  This means the yeast gives the beer a sour tangy sweetness and some unexpected flavours.  I included it in a tutored beer tasting last night and the group suggested wood, lemon, spice, must, Balsamic vinegar (usually a sign of stale beer but welcome with this exceptional ale).

This is a Flanders red ale made by blending younger and older beers that have been aged in oak barrels. It has a highly perfumed nose of sweet-sour cherries and vinegar.  On the palate it has a mousse-y mouth filling texture with intense cherry fruit and sour-sweet characters.  I find it more-ish and a real delight to drink.  Perhaps part of my delight is the anticipation of subverting the attitudes of women who assume that beer is all bitter, bulky, and blokey.  Not this one!

Tags: beer, beer tasting, calories, Duchess de Bourgogne, female, tasting notes, women

Dea Diets has arrived!

Brush away those January blues by taking part in Dea Diets!

January can be bad enough without the dreaded ‘D’ word (detox, diet, depressing….you choose!) so here at Dea Latis, we have vowed to attempt to shift those extra Christmas pounds by not giving up alcohol completely, but by swapping wine for beer!

Did you know, a 175ml glass of white wine at 12% abv contains 131 calories whereas a half pint of standard beer at 3.8% abv contains only 85 calories. Beer has a lower alcohol by volume – typically between 4-5% ABV – compared to wine, at between 12-14% ABV.

So let us know if you’re joining in by commenting on this post below. And if you are, keep a note of your weight now, and let us know how much you’ve lost!

For more information, click here:

Tags: beer, calories, calories in beer, detox, diets, January, lose weight, wine, women

Are you up for the challenge? Swap wine for beer this January!

Pictured l-r: Cathy Price; Lucy Bostock, Vital PR; Kimberley Owen, Vital; Liz Slee, Vital; Dr Alex Kenyon, Leeds Metropolitan University; Joanna Dring, Carlsberg; Lisa Harlow; Michelle Perrett; Jo Kreckler, Greene King; Ros Shiel; Annabel Smith, Cask Marque

A group of female beer fans have vowed to switch from wine to beer during January as a way of cutting back on alcohol intake and shifting the extra pounds from Christmas.

In their bid to show women everywhere that beer is not as calorific as wine, members of the Dea Latis women and beer group plan to swap their glasses of wine for a glass of beer. They aim to dispel the widely-held views that beer is calorific, gassy and gives drinkers a ‘beer belly’.

Dea Latis member Annabel Smith said, “For many women, beer’s supposedly high calorie content is the main reason why they don’t drink it. In fact, beer is lower in alcohol content and therefore in calories, than wine – so for anyone who wants to reduce their alcohol content during January, but can’t face complete abstinence, beer’s a great option.”

A 175ml glass of white wine at 12% abv contains 131 calories whereas a half pint of standard beer at 3.8% abv contains only 85 calories. Beer has a lower alcohol by volume – typically between 4-5% ABV – compared to wine, at between 12-14% ABV.

Will you be taking part? Let us know!

Choosing beers: Dea Latis’s tips

1.  Keep an eye on the abv – the higher it is, the more calories it will have
2. Beers on the traditional handpulls tend to be less fizzy
3. Don’t be afraid to ask for a taster glass as many pubs will oblige
4. Try drinking beer from different glasses – in fact, it’s great in a wine glass  
5. If you’re eating as well, remember that darker beers tend to go better with strong flavours (pies and beef) and lighter beers with more delicate flavours (fish and chicken). For spicy foods and curries, lagers have the carbon dioxide ‘bite’ to cut through the strong flavours.

 

Tags: beer, Christmas, detox, diet, January, low alcohol beer, new year's resolution, spirits, wine, women

A celebration of Beer Writers…with one glaring omission!

The 2011 winners of the British Guild of Beer Writers Awards were announced last night (1 December) at a spectacular ceremony at London’s Park Plaza Riverbank hotel.

 The great and the good of the beer world including journalists, brewers and pub operators saw the very best beer writing and broadcasting recognised in the annual awards.

And an extremely big ‘congratulations’ to our very own Dea Latis member, Marverine Cole who was awarded the Adnams Award for Best Writing in Regional Media.

We were a little perplexed however….the 23 tables followed a theme – all of them named after famous beer drinkers. But, not one was named after a woman!

So beer fans – our challenge: can we come up with 23 famous beer drinking ladies?  Who knows, let’s try and get the tables named after the fairer sex at the 2012 awards!

 Post your comments below, on our Facebook page or tweet us @DeaLatis.

 The full list of winners:

Brewer of the Year 2011 – Evin O’Riordain, Kernel Brewery

Budweiser Budvar John White Travel Bursary – prize £1,000 plus trip to Czech Republic . Winner: Des de Moor

Shepherd Neame 1698 Award for Beer and Food Writing – prize £1,000. Winner: Mark Dredge

Thwaites Award for Best Corporate Communications – prize £1,000. Winner: Pete Brown

Brains SA Gold Award for Best Use of Online Media – £1,000 & £500. Winner: Martyn Cornell; Silver Award: Mark Charlwood

Adnams Award for Best Writing in Regional Media – prize £1,000 & £500. Winner: Marverine Cole; Silver Award: Gavin Aitchison

Fuller’s ESB Award for Best Writing for the Beer and Pub Trade – prize £1,000 & £500 . Winner: Ben McFarland: Silver Award: Glynn Davis

Molson Coors Award for Best Writing in National Media – prize £1,000 & £500 Winner: Adrian Tierney-Jones; Silver Award: Will Hawkes

The Michael Jackson Gold Award – Beer Writer of the Year 2011: Ben McFarland