TORONTO – TORONTO – Tracing a career path from a chemistry lab to the floor of a brewery may seem like a daunting task, but Jenn Robitaille plotted the course in the space of a college lunch break. In doing so, she joined a pioneering group of women determined to break down gender stereotypes in the brewing industry.
Robitaille, 29, was nearing the end of a chemical engineering diploma in Toronto and struggling to find a practical way to apply it upon graduation.
An impromptu chat with a fellow student cleared the matter up in a surprisingly short time. The student, a brewer at Magnotta Breweries in Woodbridge, Ont., spoke at length about the ways in which his microbiology background had enhanced his professional life.
Robitaille was already a Magnotta employee, working the cash at a retail location during her spare hours.
In short order she transferred to the company’s brewery operation, becoming the only woman in the plant and one of just a handful in the country to take a job in the field.
Three and a half years and several promotions later, Robitaille revels in her chosen career, but is decidedly less positive about the stereotypes that still dog her and her fellow female beer enthusiasts.
“I’d like to see more women interested in beer, but I think the way it’s been presented, through marketing and long-running attitudes, that people assume it’s not a woman-friendly industry or lifestyle,” Robitaille said in a telephone interview. “Women aren’t allowed to drink beer, but they’re allowed to look really sexy next to one.”
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Robitaille got her chance to take action early this year with the launch of an all-female organization whose mission is to encourage beer appreciation among their fellow women.
Barley’s Angels, which launched in five countries last February, is committed to introducing women to the complexities of craft beer and challenging the notion that brews are for the boys alone. Barley’s Angels is the consumer arm of the Pink Boots society, an organization founded in 2008 in order to support and encourage the comparatively few women working in the brewing industry.
Mirella Amato, founder of Barley’s Angels’ Toronto chapter, is uniquely positioned to fulfil the organization’s goal.
She is Canada’s only female cicerone – the industry equivalent of a sommelier – as well as a national level beer judge.
Novices to the world of beer, she said, often need help getting familiar with the basics.
“A lot of people are aware of the huge selection, but they don’t know where to start,” she said. “They don’t know how to approach it. I’m all about making beer as accessible as possible.”
Amato kicked off her chapter’s activities with a series of four lectures delivered by local women in the industry, including Robitaille. She had an unusually deep talent pool to plumb, she acknowledged, adding it’s a stroke of luck that more than half of the province’s known female brewers work in the area.
The women, who were all under 30, epitomize what Amato described as a “new wave” working its way through the industry – women willing to flout convention and break into an industry that hasn’t typically embraced them.
Lundy Dale, who founded Canada’s other Barley’s Angels chapter in Vancouver, said she regularly witnesses gender discrimination everywhere from the liquor store where she works as a beer expert to the bars she frequents with friends.
“When I ask guys if they need help, they’ll look at me and say, ‘I’m fine,’ and wait for a male associate,” Dale said. “Any time I go out with my beer buddies and I’ll order a stout and they’ll order a lager, bartenders will give me the lager and them the stout because they assume that women don’t know how to drink heavier beers. It’s that judgmental thing that happens.”
Dale finds it natural, if discouraging, that women are reluctant to embrace a product and an industry geared so obviously towards men.
Like Robitaille, she lays part of the blame on marketing campaigns that commonly feature scantily clad females.
“Women will stay away from that because they’re tired of seeing that on a regular basis,” Dale said.
Barley’s Angels’ events are as varied as the audience they hope to woo. Amato followed up the Toronto lecture series with a brewery tour, has a dinner event in the works and hopes to host a series of food pairing workshops.
Women in Vancouver will soon have an opportunity to learn about the ways beer can be matched with chocolate.
Robitaille hopes such events will force women to re-evaluate the merits of her favourite beverage and possibly even consider emulating her career path, though she acknowledges brewing won’t be for everyone.
“You’re not going to get rich. There are a lot of physical demands, but a lot of jobs have that,” she said. “For me, it’s something that I’ve been able to give everything I have to, and I do every day. For me, it’s exciting to get up and go to work.”
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