Rhubarb sour beer brewed by 30 women

In an industry first, an all-female collaboration today unveiled a new limited edition craft beer: Rhubarb: A User’s Guide, just in time for this year’s London Craft Beer Festival.

Led by brewing expert Jenn Merrick, 30 women, including both current brewers and students, gathered for just 24 hours to create this unique kettle sour, in a bid to celebrate female brewing’s past, present and future.

Described as a sherbet-flavoured, crisp, refreshing beer that’s ideal for the summer, it has been brewed with Yorkshire ‘Pink Gold’ rhubarb juice, infused with fresh lemon thyme, hibiscus and rose petals and dry-hopped with Huell Melon.

Organised by We Are Beer, founders of London Craft Beer Festival, the kettle sour was hosted and brewed at Pressure Drop by brewer, Katie McCain. The all-female team comprised of 20 brewers and 10 undergraduates and lecturer from Heriot-Watt’s world-renowned MSc in Brewing and Distilling (see list below).

The day, which was extremely hands-on, saw everybody throwing themselves into the experience; contributing to the recipe design, blending flavours, prepping ingredients, and pitching in with the mashing and the boiling.

Jen Merrick, founder of community brewery, Earth Station, said: “It was such an inspiring day to see so many women who contribute to the craft beer industry all in one place, making a beer that drew on the skills of these industry leaders and connecting them with the next generation of brewers.”

Greg Wells, co-founder of We Are Beer, the company behind the London Craft Beer Festival who commissioned the project, said: “This is an amazing summer beer that will be a fantastic addition to the London Craft Beer Festival, which will see our biggest line up of beer, food and music yet.

“The aim of this limited-edition beer is to celebrate the incredible female talent and influence on modern brewing by creating a collaborative beer with past, present and future female brewers from across the industry.”

Continuing with the all-female theme, illustrator Tara O’Brien was commissioned to produce the artwork design for the label. The craft beer is available in 330 ml bottles at 3.6% ABV.

Rhubarb: A User’s Guide will be available at London Craft Beer Festival on 3rd to 5th August, at Tobacco Dock.

Connecting generations of brewing talent

Jenn Merrick, former Beavertown head brewer, is brewing a collaborative beer with Heriot-Watt students at Pressure Drop Brewery in London on 23rd March.

The idea came from the team at We Are Beer (London, Edinburgh & Bristol Craft Beer Festivals) who asked Pressure Drop Brewery facilitate a project to celebrate and profile women’s contribution to modern beer. Jenn Merrick of yet-to-be-built Earth Station Brewing will lead the project alongside the students and faculty at Heriot-Watt to make a beer that celebrates women in brewing; the craft, creativity and business expertise of women in the industry’s past, present and future.

Sienna O’Rourke, Sales & Marketing Coordinator for Pressure Drop explained: “The We Are Beer guys behind the festival did some research and found that 35% of their attendees were female but they want to grow that to 50%. They felt that celebrating and profiling amazing female talent would be a great way to head towards this goal. Meanwhile, intake of female students at Herriott Watt is shooting through the roof, and half the staff are female too, so it felt like a unique opportunity to connect the next generation of female brewing talent.”

The brew will take place on Friday 23rd of March at the brewery in Tottenham and the name of the beer is up for grabs and will be decided on the day.

After that, the beer will be poured at all the 2018 We Are Beer events and will have a national release in limited edition small pack.

Meanwhile, Jenn Merrick will launch Earth Station Brewery this summer. Located in East London’s Royal Docks—a stone’s throw from London City Airport and next to the brand new Elizabeth rail line—the brewery will form part of an “exciting hub for creativity and manufacturing” owned by local arts charity Create London.

 

With grateful thanks to the ‘In Your Area.co.uk’ news website for the photograph of Jenn.