On March 8th 2022, International Women's Day was celebrated around the world. We wanted to mark the occasion with something special so we decided to get together with our friends from Barn Owl to create a new brew.
The Pink Boots Society is a group that works to promote more women and non-binaries in the fermented beverage industry. I'm sure we're all well aware of the stereotypical image of the brewer as a bearded chap dressed in plaid but we believe that brewing and working in the industry should be open to everyone. The Pink Boots Society was founded to help realize this goal. They offer scholarships and support to women and non-binaries looking to pursue further education in the fermented beverage industry.
The annual Pink Boots Brewday takes place around Women's Day and is a fundraiser for the organisation. We will be donating $1 to them for every pint of this beer that we sell.
The Beer
The idea with this beer was to involve all the fantastic women that work at both of our breweries. We wanted to bring everyone together to create something totally unique and special.
The process began with a planning session at Barn Owl Brewing. Several staff members from each establishment gathered and compared notes to decide what type of beer we would like to brew.
The Pink Boots Brew day is supported by Yakima Valley Hops, one of the biggest hop suppliers in the world, and they create a blend of hops specifically for brewers to use for this event. The 2022 Pink Boots Blend was a combination of the following hops:
Informed by the tasting notes of the hops and some of the ideas that the ladies had, we were able to come up with a recipe that was then brewed over two days at Kelowna Brewing Company.
We invited everyone down to come and brew with us, to chat and hang out and to get a feel for what brewing a beer on a large scale is actually like:
So what is the beer?
It's a Lime Margarita Hibiscus Gose! We wanted something bold and striking and unique and we thought that this fit the bill perfectly. A Gose is a German-style salted sour beer so we thought 'why not take inspiration from one of our favourite cocktails?' and this beer was born.
It's now ready! And it's delicious! You can find our Women's Day collab beer on tap at both locations now!
You can find out more about the Pink Boots Society here:
