Latest / The Brewery Underground Podcast | Craft Beer Interviews, Reviews and Beer Travel / Pink Boots Society: Supporting Women in Craft Beer | Erin Wallace & Georgina Solis | Episode 122

Transcript

Pink Boots Society: Supporting Women in Craft Beer | Erin Wallace & Georgina Solis | Episode 122 · The Brewery Underground Podcast | Craft Beer Interviews, Reviews and Beer Travel

• 0:05
  Stand by for the Brewery Underground podcast in
• 0:14
  Nashville. I Will Rise.
• 0:17
  Crossing Brews will need the skies.
• 0:20
  Steven Scott Daily The Way Brewery Underground, night and
• 0:26
  day. Hey out there, Steven Scott,
• 0:43
  Brewery Underground podcast. We are in Nashville, TN Scott,
• 0:49
  what's going on man? How are you?
• 0:51
  Doing well, doing well. The weather's turning.
• 0:53
  It's nice outside. We we had some warmer days.
• 0:56
  It's got a little cooler again, but about where it should be,
• 0:59
  you know, 'cause you know, around here can be 95° the next
• 1:02
  week. And we, we don't want to be
• 1:03
  there just yet, but the weather is turning for the better.
• 1:06
  So I'm starting to get that spring fever, you know?
• 1:09
  We are getting that spring fever and I'll tell you what the it's
• 1:13
  turning on this podcast today in a spring fever sort of a way.
• 1:17
  A great podcast episode. Here it is Ladies night on the
• 1:22
  Brewery Underground podcast because we have on from Pink
• 1:26
  Boot Society a couple of fine folks.
• 1:29
  We have Aaron Wallace, she is the board president of Pink
• 1:32
  Boots and also Georgie Solis, the executive director.
• 1:38
  And ladies, thank you for joining us.
• 1:41
  Thank you for having us. You've set, you've set the bar,
• 1:45
  Steve. Now we've got to call her
• 1:46
  Georgie from here on out. She said.
• 1:49
  She said we. Could I just want to know that
• 1:51
  you set the precedent? Well, she said.
• 1:53
  She said before we started recording that people who called
• 1:56
  that for what, 10 years now? So we'll just roll with it,
• 1:58
  right? Absolutely.
• 2:00
  Yeah, yeah. Well, welcome ladies.
• 2:03
  Yeah, welcome. We're happy to have you happy.
• 2:07
  To where do we find each of you? And I already know the answer,
• 2:10
  but I'll let you tell the audience.
• 2:13
  Do you want to go first, Jordy? I don't know, Scott.
• 2:16
  Let's test it out. Where did?
• 2:17
  Where am I? You are in Houston.
• 2:19
  Texas Ding Ding, Ding. Yep.
• 2:22
  See, I passed that exam earlier today.
• 2:26
  I could Aaron. I could answer for Aaron too.
• 2:29
  Go right ahead then. I got I'm going to pass the
• 2:33
  test. I believe you're in
• 2:34
  Philadelphia. I am, yeah.
• 2:38
  We're getting ready for a pretty big year up here in
• 2:41
  Philadelphia. I think we pretty much have
• 2:44
  everything coming here this year so.
• 2:48
  Yeah, you've got CBC coming, don't you?
• 2:51
  Well, it's the 250th anniversary of the United States, so we have
• 2:56
  CBC, we have some March Madness games coming, we have some PGA
• 3:02
  games coming, we have FIFA World Cup coming, we have the All Star
• 3:06
  Game, a slew of conferences including CBC, and then yeah.
• 3:15
  Just a few things going on there, yeah.
• 3:18
  Georgie, are you going up for any of that in Philly?
• 3:21
  Just for CBC, yeah. That's the one I'd pick too.
• 3:24
  Yeah, we've Houston also hosting some some FIFA cups, but I'll
• 3:29
  watch from home. Well, and Aaron is multitasking
• 3:33
  tonight because not only are you on the podcast, but you're also
• 3:37
  at work, is that right? Yeah, yeah, I am currently
• 3:41
  hosting a private event down at the brewery.
• 3:44
  So they're it. Luckily it's very nice weather
• 3:47
  up here. It's like close to it's like
• 3:49
  like low 80s I'm hearing. Although tomorrow it's supposed
• 3:52
  to be he's supposed to be 56 and snowing tomorrow, so I'm not
• 3:56
  hopeful. This is going to last.
• 3:58
  Very long, but everybody's outside of the yard having a
• 4:01
  good time and I'm in the office, Aaron.
• 4:04
  Tell me, what's the name of the brewery that though?
• 4:07
  I worked for Other Half. Yeah, I worked for Other Half.
• 4:11
  I used to own restaurants in the Philadelphia area.
• 4:15
  They were all craft beer focused and I used to have a small
• 4:19
  little brew pub out in the suburbs.
• 4:22
  But I sold everything over the last few years and sold my last
• 4:26
  restaurant shortly after COVID technically was over.
• 4:31
  I don't know if it's ever really been over but it's been about
• 4:35
  three years since since I owned it.
• 4:37
  I'm just doing consulting and event planning and then other
• 4:42
  half was looking for an event planner and manager and just
• 4:46
  seemed like a nice little bit and I don't have to be the owner
• 4:50
  so when something is wrong it's somebody else's problem.
• 4:55
  You get to put that on someone, I'll say, by the way.
• 4:58
  Something's wrong over here. You post a little, I'm like.
• 5:01
  Oh. There's plumbing problem in the
• 5:03
  bathroom. Not my problem.
• 5:07
  Well, Aaron, we're guessing because actually I was just
• 5:09
  about to say we're guessing being that you're at a brewery,
• 5:11
  you're drinking something and I just saw you pick something up.
• 5:14
  What are you drinking there tonight?
• 5:16
  Iced tea I'm still it's not very exciting.
• 5:22
  It is like decaffeinated no sugar iced tea.
• 5:27
  And then once my shifts over, in a few hours I will be having a
• 5:31
  beer. That's all right, You gotta
• 5:32
  hydrate too along the way. It's not too bad.
• 5:36
  Do you get to do any quality to control testing or anything
• 5:39
  along the way during the day you know?
• 5:42
  Oh yeah, they definitely the beginning of the day too.
• 5:45
  We always do a little tasting of either something that was just
• 5:49
  freshly tapped or something new that came in.
• 5:53
  Tomorrow we are having our Hot Madness so we're releasing 6 new
• 5:58
  beers. Wow, wow.
• 6:01
  For Hot Madness that are all basketball themes.
• 6:04
  So the truck is coming down from New York with some of those
• 6:08
  tomorrow. We have some already in stock.
• 6:10
  Some are coming down tomorrow. So I'm sure I will be drinking
• 6:13
  my repair share of Hazy IPA tomorrow.
• 6:20
  That's you don't hit the snooze on days like that, do you?
• 6:23
  Just go get up and. It's just it's that's going to
• 6:27
  be we'll be coming down, I'll be walking right into like the
• 6:32
  delivery truck come in unloading that and walking.
• 6:36
  Everybody will be watering the beers to go.
• 6:38
  So it'll be a crazy day. Yep.
• 6:41
  I I don't know a lot about Other Half, but I do know they make
• 6:44
  really good beer. I've had some and I know people
• 6:46
  get excited about it. We don't really get it here, but
• 6:49
  I've gotten it from other places and brought it home and I do
• 6:51
  know Other Half is really sought after and they made really good
• 6:54
  quality beer. We'll work on sending you some
• 6:56
  down. We're known for the hazy Ipas
• 7:00
  and then a lot of like bourbon barrel aged stouts.
• 7:03
  The I mean, banana, Thai banana is like in all their bourbon.
• 7:09
  I don't know why Thai bananas and a lot of their bourbon
• 7:11
  stouts, but you know, we have one now that's got pineapple and
• 7:15
  coconut in it. So a lot of the adjunct stouts
• 7:18
  we do do a few showers. You don't see them as often
• 7:23
  anymore right now. And then Lauders, so and their
• 7:27
  lovers are I. I'm don't like IPS but not my
• 7:32
  favorite style. So I'm very excited when we get
• 7:34
  some nice fresh loggers. Yeah, I think that's probably
• 7:38
  something during this podcast that's going to come up because
• 7:40
  we know, you know, the logger game is certainly changing quite
• 7:44
  a bit in the beer industry and in a good way.
• 7:46
  In a good way. And Georgie, just, you know,
• 7:49
  showing us a beer there. So what are you drinking?
• 7:52
  What do you got? Yeah, man, I've been on that
• 7:54
  logger kick for years now. Like I think I when I first
• 7:59
  entered the industry, all about the IP as I don't know.
• 8:02
  But then there's this weird like debris, like I I just, I just
• 8:06
  want a beer that tastes like a beer, taking that word from my
• 8:09
  husband. But yeah, I just.
• 8:12
  And so the cleaner, the lighter the better.
• 8:16
  So yeah, I was in Austin last week for for a collaboration
• 8:20
  brew day with Pink Boots with a brewery, and we stopped by a
• 8:23
  well known spot over there called Hold Out and they have a
• 8:26
  nice American lager called Nice and Clean.
• 8:29
  And it is exactly that. And it's just, it's just hits on
• 8:33
  a hot summer day. So even though it's only 80°
• 8:36
  here too, but man, yeah, it's refreshing.
• 8:38
  Nice. See, it's so funny to me because
• 8:40
  you know, having been in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania
• 8:44
  was founded by Germans, you know, that is the large majority
• 8:50
  of like when people came over, they came over from Germany.
• 8:53
  So Philadelphia's always had such a big logger, you know,
• 8:58
  like, I mean, Yingling loggers, you know, obviously one of the
• 9:01
  business biggest, but we've always had a very big logger
• 9:05
  tradition here in Philadelphia. So I was always surprised when I
• 9:08
  left and I was like, what do you mean?
• 9:10
  You know, I have a double blocker, a logger.
• 9:12
  And like now the craft beer is really kind of taking off now.
• 9:16
  It's like you go to a lot and you just see loggers and Ibas,
• 9:19
  so sometimes I miss my good Belgian stuff.
• 9:23
  Yeah, the loggers are they're they're big here too.
• 9:26
  It's they've taken over and I think Georgie, like you said,
• 9:29
  it's it's beer flavored beer and it's so good.
• 9:33
  Five years ago, anyone that was making them, they just weren't
• 9:35
  even as good. They were making them even
• 9:37
  crapper is they weren't as good as they are now.
• 9:39
  Yeah, I mean with loggers, right?
• 9:41
  You can tell if something's off. And so.
• 9:44
  And that's how you know, if it's a good brewery.
• 9:46
  I'm like, sure, you can throw all sorts of purees in there,
• 9:49
  but can you get a logger without, you know, diacetyl over
• 9:52
  the threshold then? Yeah.
• 9:53
  Or under, Yeah. Yeah, that's something we've
• 9:56
  talked about over the past year or so, that breweries, they
• 9:59
  can't hide them anymore, man. You know, if you want to keep
• 10:01
  your customers coming back, you got to be making a great logger.
• 10:05
  Yeah. Oh, absolutely.
• 10:06
  And maybe. Nothing else.
• 10:08
  Right, nothing to hide about and I agree with you.
• 10:11
  Go somewhere and you can gauge the brewery maybe by the lager.
• 10:13
  If you just start there like OK the the the rest of the beer
• 10:16
  should be good. Right.
• 10:17
  Yeah, but if that's clean, crisp and no off flavors, then you're
• 10:22
  like, OK, someone knows what? They're doing because you're in
• 10:25
  Texas. Have you heard of a brewery
• 10:27
  called Real Ale? Maybe if I hadn't and I was in
• 10:33
  the industry, something would be very rough.
• 10:35
  So you are very familiar with Fireman's Four, yes?
• 10:39
  Absolutely. We love Fireman's Four.
• 10:42
  It is my desert island beer. Uh huh.
• 10:45
  I would take Fireman's Four with me and on untapped, I only if
• 10:49
  only given 3 or 4 fives. And Fireman's 4 is a 5.
• 10:53
  And I think it's just, it's it's almost perfect.
• 10:56
  Yeah. It is, and it's in my
• 10:58
  refrigerator right now that you gave me.
• 11:00
  Why aren't you drinking? It it's imported into us when I
• 11:08
  say that it's, you know, by mule or someone coming from there.
• 11:12
  My brother lives in San Antonio, so every time he comes up he
• 11:14
  brings us some SO. That's your request, yes.
• 11:17
  Yes, Fireman's for just cases, just 12 ounce cans, a couple of
• 11:21
  cases and we're good for a while.
• 11:22
  Very, very well respected brewery here in Texas, Yeah.
• 11:25
  Good. And they do it a lot.
• 11:26
  I've been and but do a lot of other things well too.
• 11:28
  But that fireman's four, it's still just you live there and
• 11:31
  you know how good it is. Yeah, well, I'll keep that in
• 11:33
  mind. OK, next.
• 11:35
  Time if I ever run into you or planning to see ya, I'll bring
• 11:38
  you some. All right, girl.
• 11:40
  Seriously. That?
• 11:40
  Well, Steve, what are you drinking?
• 11:42
  And I'm drinking This is a wheat beer from Metazoa Brewing
• 11:46
  Company in Indianapolis. It's called Total Canine.
• 11:50
  And yeah, just started drinking it.
• 11:53
  Our buddy Rich and we, we do a collab podcast sometimes with
• 11:58
  the guys in Nashville called the Foamy Heads.
• 12:01
  And a friend of our Rich was going through Indianapolis not
• 12:05
  long ago and brought us back some beers.
• 12:07
  Always good to always good to get one from brewery I've never
• 12:10
  had before. So that's what I'm drinking
• 12:11
  tonight. I can't believe it lasted that
• 12:13
  long. I know it.
• 12:17
  So much beer, so much time. Well, Steve, you might like this
• 12:21
  one and look at this can art and they kind of go.
• 12:24
  Yeah, that's awesome. Hazy Day in the Hood New England
• 12:27
  IPA from your friends at St. Side out of Cincinnati.
• 12:31
  Yeah, so I picked this up in Ohio last week when I was there.
• 12:35
  So cheers to all of you, Salou Shi.
• 12:37
  Salou. Thank you.
• 12:41
  Yeah, well, well, I know there's there's so many questions.
• 12:44
  I know we're going to talk about beer here, but we also wanted to
• 12:48
  kind of begin talking about what you all represent in such a
• 12:52
  fantastic way, the organization called the Pink Boot Society.
• 12:57
  And for people that are not familiar, can you just kind of
• 13:00
  give an overview of of what you find folks do with them?
• 13:07
  Madam. President, That's because I'd,
• 13:10
  I'd, I have the mission memorized.
• 13:13
  So our mission is to assist. Oh my God, now you put me on the
• 13:19
  spot. I'm not going to be able to do
• 13:21
  it. You're at work, that's why.
• 13:24
  It's also like, yes, but we are a nonprofit organization for
• 13:30
  women and non binary individuals in the industry to help them
• 13:35
  assist and further their careers through education.
• 13:38
  So everything that we do is education based.
• 13:42
  We host a ton of webinars and educational opportunities
• 13:48
  online. We have in person conferences
• 13:51
  and events. We fundraise for scholarships.
• 13:57
  So Georgie can give you the actual numbers, but I think over
• 14:01
  the, I mean, we're, we're 19 years now, going to be 20 years
• 14:07
  next year. We've offered over half,
• 14:11
  $1,000,000 in scholarships. I was a scholarship recipient,
• 14:16
  Georgie was a scholarship recipient.
• 14:18
  You know, so sometimes, like for me, it was tickets and some
• 14:23
  travel expenses to be able to attend conferences.
• 14:27
  Georgie got way better. She got to go to Belgium and
• 14:31
  brew beer. But you know, we do trips to
• 14:34
  Germany and sensory training or online Cicerone or WSET training
• 14:42
  for wine or sake. So it's a ton of ways that you
• 14:46
  can broaden your education and hopefully then further your
• 14:50
  career. Yeah, how long have you both
• 14:53
  been with Pink Boots? God.
• 14:58
  I joined Pink Boots. I helped start the North Texas
• 15:02
  chapter and which incorporates like Dallas, Fort Worth, that
• 15:06
  region back in 2016 or 17. And so started that chapter was
• 15:14
  running it and then joined the board of directors in 2021 and
• 15:23
  was on the board until we had a big transition with M pink
• 15:27
  boots. That left my job brewing because
• 15:31
  I I was working as a Brewer for a few breweries before this and
• 15:35
  I've been now in this role as the executive director.
• 15:38
  It was two years in February. OK, it's been a minute.
• 15:42
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 15:44
  So I've been a member for a while.
• 15:46
  I was a member before we even started collecting dues when I
• 15:51
  all it really was was you just kind of joined, you know, like
• 15:56
  there were occasional a few scholarships here and there, but
• 16:01
  then so I was a member for a while, but never really all that
• 16:05
  active. And then it's so funny in 2015,
• 16:09
  but December of 2015, so shortly, 2016, I got together
• 16:14
  with a bunch of the women from the Philadelphia area and we
• 16:17
  started our chapter here in Philly because that's when CBC
• 16:21
  was coming to Philly last. So we started our chapter up
• 16:25
  here in 2016. And now it's 10 years later.
• 16:29
  I ran the Philly chapter for for five or six years before I
• 16:34
  joined the board. And I've been on the board now
• 16:37
  for five years. And now we're going to come back
• 16:40
  to Philly at CVC and then I'll be the president.
• 16:45
  And it's been a long, yeah, it's like 10 years.
• 16:48
  It's been a, it's been a, a crazy 10 years.
• 16:52
  Yeah, you both started chapters. What does it take to start a
• 16:55
  chapter? You just got to get like a
• 16:56
  groundswell and and tell us well.
• 17:01
  For us in North Texas, there was this other brewery is they, they
• 17:06
  closed shortly after, but it was just a few, you know, women that
• 17:11
  were like, Hey, let's kind of get together and start.
• 17:14
  I had never heard of pee boots. I was just like, I think I've,
• 17:17
  I've seen something, I don't really know what it's about, but
• 17:21
  she's like, Hey, I kind of need help to get this, this going.
• 17:23
  And we, we were already doing some meetings because of our
• 17:27
  local Texas Guild is pretty active.
• 17:30
  And so we kind of knew each other, but we really hadn't like
• 17:33
  talked to each other. And so it's like, Hey, let's
• 17:35
  just have our first meeting. We, I guess people texted each
• 17:39
  other, hey, we're going to meet at this place.
• 17:42
  And then it just kind of grew organically from there.
• 17:45
  We went to our first meeting and oh wow, I feel comfortable, I
• 17:50
  feel safe here. I can ask questions and I'm not
• 17:52
  going to get a weird look. And so that is really kind of
• 17:56
  what just like everybody felt great and we just kept having
• 18:00
  meetings every month. They kept growing.
• 18:02
  And at that time in that area, there weren't many women in on
• 18:08
  the production distribution side.
• 18:10
  And so it was just me at every meeting and I, I was teaching
• 18:15
  our members whatever I could about brewing and what I was
• 18:19
  learning in the cellar and what I was learning about
• 18:21
  distribution. Because at that point in that
• 18:23
  area, they were mostly in the front of house.
• 18:25
  There were mostly beer tenders. There were managers and they
• 18:29
  were very curious to learn about the brewing process, the product
• 18:32
  that they were selling. And so that is kind of what it
• 18:36
  just, yeah, organically grew. And now it's in great hands with
• 18:40
  somebody else. And I'm here in the Houston
• 18:42
  chapter, but that's my version. But every chapter is different,
• 18:47
  has its own dynamic, which I'm sure Erin can share how she
• 18:50
  started hers there. Yeah.
• 18:52
  I mean, we had a few of us, like Tara Nurin.
• 18:56
  There was a woman, Alva, who was on the liquor law side of
• 19:01
  things. She was a lawyer who was very
• 19:03
  big, working for craft breweries and all.
• 19:05
  And Tara is a local, you know, local to the Philadelphia area,
• 19:10
  but an author. And we kept.
• 19:13
  And for us, it was like there were a few of us that were part
• 19:16
  of Pink Boots. We kind of knew what it was, but
• 19:18
  we didn't have an active chapter.
• 19:20
  And then we started thinking CBCS coming around.
• 19:22
  We have so many women that were very much in a beer in the
• 19:28
  Philadelphia area of Philadelphia.
• 19:30
  You know, I sometimes forget the riches that we have here in
• 19:34
  Philadelphia. You know, at 10 years ago, there
• 19:37
  weren't as many breweries, but we had beer from everywhere.
• 19:42
  You know, we have so much Belgian like, you know, right
• 19:47
  off the boat, Belgian beer, so many German companies that are
• 19:51
  here. So we and like, you know,
• 19:54
  Russian River sells in California.
• 19:56
  And then for a while the only other place they sold was
• 19:58
  Philadelphia. So like we could, yeah.
• 20:01
  I mean, it was like there is nothing.
• 20:03
  You walk in the bar and you're like, oh, there's funny the
• 20:05
  elder. It's like, you know, like that's
• 20:07
  there's blind pig. Like that is average at a bar in
• 20:11
  Philadelphia. So we are very, very lucky with
• 20:15
  what we've had. But so we had a lot of sales
• 20:19
  reps from from companies outside the state that were local in
• 20:24
  Philadelphia, but the sales Rep were ribbon and there were a
• 20:29
  very small handful of production, but not very many.
• 20:33
  And we just wanted to say, like when people were coming to
• 20:36
  Philly, we wanted to showcase what a strong group of women and
• 20:39
  we had in the in the area and in the scene.
• 20:43
  So that's how we all got together because originally it's
• 20:45
  like we're going to start a chapter and we're going to do
• 20:47
  some of the first CBC. And we did our first brew day
• 20:50
  and we did our first, like, fundraiser the night before CBC
• 20:54
  started. And yeah, I spoke at the CBC
• 20:57
  like pink boots get together. But the the plan was like, I
• 21:03
  guess somehow I got voted on as the chapter leader at night
• 21:07
  because we met in the backroom of my restaurant, like, and I
• 21:11
  got voted on as the chapter leader.
• 21:12
  And my deal was I was already on the board of a of Philly Loves
• 21:16
  beer or Philly Beer week at the time.
• 21:19
  And I had four restaurants. I was like, I don't need, I
• 21:22
  don't need anything. I don't have time.
• 21:25
  But I was like, I'm just going to stay on it and get us through
• 21:28
  CBC and then somebody else can take this over because I do not
• 21:31
  have the time for this and then. And then you loved it, right?
• 21:36
  Well, I don't know if it was necessarily that right away, but
• 21:41
  we have one of our members got a scholarship and she spoke at the
• 21:48
  CB at CBC, but she went on her scholarship after CBC and I and
• 21:54
  I would brew, I would do a collaboration with her brewery
• 21:57
  all the time. And I happen to be up there
• 22:00
  working on the collaborative beer that we were making that
• 22:02
  year on the first day back after her scholarship.
• 22:07
  And she got to go spend like a week at brewing school.
• 22:11
  And she was talking about the connection she made and what she
• 22:15
  learned and how and like how she was going to bring this back and
• 22:18
  do this differently now at work and train these people because
• 22:22
  they were doing it wrong, you know, like, and she learned a
• 22:25
  better way. And like, I heard how much that
• 22:29
  meant to her. And I was like, oh, we need to
• 22:33
  keep up with this because more people need these opportunities
• 22:38
  that we're offering. And if I want the people to take
• 22:43
  up on that, then we need to have an active chapter so they know
• 22:46
  these things are there. And at the time, the chapters
• 22:49
  couldn't fundraise for themselves.
• 22:50
  So it was like everything was going through national.
• 22:53
  Now, as we've expanded, the chapters can fundraise for
• 22:56
  themselves, so we can offer chapter specific scholarships.
• 23:00
  So now besides what we've expanded that national offers
• 23:03
  individual chapter. So we offer.
• 23:05
  So I mean, two of the chapter members from Philly this year
• 23:09
  just went to Germany for sensory training.
• 23:12
  We can offer so much more that way.
• 23:15
  And it's like now it's not like 20 people fighting for two seats
• 23:19
  that are national has because the chapters can do that as
• 23:22
  well. And it's, it's been, I mean, but
• 23:24
  that was the reason stayed on. It was like, all right, we got
• 23:27
  to make this happen for others. I know we both have a lot of
• 23:30
  questions. Here I want to.
• 23:31
  Say I want to. I want to say that they.
• 23:35
  Suck you in and they don't let you go.
• 23:39
  Every time I try to get out they pull me back in.
• 23:45
  Hey, I want I want to say that the the timing of this podcast
• 23:49
  is pretty cool because as we're recording this International
• 23:54
  Women's Day was just celebrated a couple of days ago and you
• 23:58
  guys have put out some great pictures on social media about
• 24:01
  it. Can you talk about what that day
• 24:04
  means for you all? Absolutely, and a lot of that
• 24:07
  content is our chapters hosting these brew days and and tagging
• 24:13
  Pink Boots Nationals and it it really is.
• 24:17
  It's so rewarding seeing the excitement and seeing
• 24:21
  individuals who would normally not get an opportunity to go
• 24:25
  into the brewhouse and make the beer, look at the ingredients
• 24:30
  and talk to the Brewer and see what's going on.
• 24:33
  I I had that the opportunity to witness that at the brew day
• 24:36
  that I just went to in Austin, one of their members from the
• 24:40
  front front of house, she was I want to go, I want to go do the
• 24:43
  brew day. And the Brewer is a great friend
• 24:46
  of mine and I'm I'm serving him like teaching her and she's very
• 24:50
  curious, like bright eyed and which is what I was felt like
• 24:53
  when I first went into the industry but ten years ago.
• 24:57
  And so seeing that excitement and that like empowerment that
• 25:01
  they feel when it's OK, I can see the product from start to
• 25:05
  finish. This is what I am, you know,
• 25:08
  serving to our customers upfront that to me, like, along with the
• 25:13
  scholarships that Aaron is mentioning that are giving our
• 25:17
  members that feeling of like, I know what I almost, I know what
• 25:22
  I'm talking about here. And, you know, I can have a seat
• 25:25
  at the table because Pink Boots has provided help that education
• 25:29
  and develop my career. I, yeah, seeing all of those
• 25:34
  posts, all those tags, I'm like, OK, all right, yeah, we're doing
• 25:37
  something pretty cool here. And I bet you find that it keeps
• 25:40
  women in the industry longer, right?
• 25:43
  Absolutely. I mean, I would think of this.
• 25:45
  I can excel my career. I can do this and do this and I
• 25:47
  can I can find a path maybe. Maybe I want to do this later on
• 25:51
  or something else. I, I almost left about a year
• 25:55
  into it. There was an incident at, you
• 25:58
  know, the brewery that I worked at and I was like, I don't know
• 26:03
  what I'm going to do, but Pink Boots and that tribe, I was
• 26:07
  like, no, no, I, I have, I can take up space here and this is
• 26:11
  going to work out. And so absolutely it in many
• 26:15
  ways, and not just educationally, but in
• 26:17
  networking, it's like, yeah, I, I can, I can do this.
• 26:19
  I want to do this. Fabulous.
• 26:22
  Go back to the chapters for a minute because I'm curious.
• 26:25
  You, you, you started it in your own cities.
• 26:28
  You kind of did it on your own. If new chapters wanted to be
• 26:31
  started, do you guys proactively kind of go out, say, hey, we
• 26:34
  need we need someone in this part of the country or in this
• 26:36
  state? Or is that really up to an
• 26:38
  individual or a small group in that area?
• 26:41
  The latter, OK, they usually will reach out to us and say,
• 26:44
  hey, what can I do to start a chapter here?
• 26:48
  There's a couple of us and we have some instructions on our
• 26:52
  website that, you know, there's some requirements that you need
• 26:54
  to meet in order to be able to start a chapter.
• 26:58
  And they send in their application, they gather their
• 27:01
  members and then they start the chapter.
• 27:04
  It really in order for it to work and needs to start from
• 27:07
  there, from their communities and initiate in yeah, in that
• 27:11
  city or that region. And you have a good
• 27:14
  representation across the United States, but also in other
• 27:17
  countries as well. Yeah, yeah, we have.
• 27:19
  Some of our biggest chapters are international.
• 27:24
  Australia is the biggest one and then Canada comes in after that
• 27:30
  and then the French and the spade chapters and Latin
• 27:34
  America, all very, very active and constantly on social media
• 27:38
  and I think I just got a request from somebody wanting to start
• 27:41
  one in Italy. Yeah.
• 27:43
  And it is is in other countries. I mean that's amazing.
• 27:48
  Did that just start happening over the last few years or is it
• 27:52
  been a a gradual thing or just recently or?
• 27:55
  No, Aaron, Australia's like 10 years old, isn't it like.
• 28:00
  I think so, yeah. They just had a big anniversary.
• 28:04
  They no the, the Australia chapter and the, I think the
• 28:07
  Canadian chapter might be 6 years old and then the other
• 28:11
  ones kind of follow after that. But no, they've they've been
• 28:13
  around. That's awesome.
• 28:15
  That tells you there's a there's a need in the demand, not just
• 28:19
  here, but across the world. That's so cool.
• 28:23
  Yeah. Like, I mean that that's got to
• 28:24
  be word of mouth for the most part, don't you think initially?
• 28:29
  Since I wasn't around when those chapters came, I'm not sure.
• 28:33
  I'm not sure how how this the word spread.
• 28:36
  You know, originally Pink Boots here in the States started with
• 28:39
  our founder Terry doing a cross country tour, trying to find
• 28:43
  other women that were at breweries.
• 28:46
  And so I mean, that was very grassroots.
• 28:48
  And so for international chapters to have discovered that
• 28:52
  along the way and said, hey, I want to start our own here.
• 28:56
  Yeah, it's pretty incredible. But yeah, I I can't speak to to
• 28:59
  how how they heard about pig boots here in the States.
• 29:04
  Can you talk about let's go, that's a good segue and talk
• 29:06
  about your founder, Terry. I, I was reading like before you
• 29:10
  guys were actually like a, an LLC, like it really was just a,
• 29:14
  she was keeping a notebook kind of thing and like just keeping
• 29:19
  names of people she had met her along the way.
• 29:21
  Can you speak to that a little bit, maybe talk about how it
• 29:22
  evolved into what it is now? Aaron, I think you might.
• 29:26
  You were around longer than I have.
• 29:29
  Yeah. So for a while there now, I
• 29:32
  don't know break when it officially started, but for a
• 29:35
  while there when I joined, it was literally just this website
• 29:41
  that you would just like enter your information.
• 29:44
  You're like, oh, I'm a woman who works in beer and you had to
• 29:47
  make a certain percentage of your salary had to be beer
• 29:52
  related. You know, now we've opened it up
• 29:55
  to all fermentation and alcohol, but it had to be a certain
• 29:59
  percentage of your salary that had to come from beer there.
• 30:02
  You know, like you had these certain rules, but you just kind
• 30:06
  of put your information and signed up.
• 30:08
  And it was kind of like a director more so than anything
• 30:12
  else. And there were a handful of
• 30:14
  scholarships, usually like some Cicerone beer training, but
• 30:20
  there were a few small scholarships.
• 30:22
  And then I actually think it was the year that CDC King of Philly
• 30:27
  is when they, they had an executive director.
• 30:30
  But they were realizing like this was starting to grow.
• 30:33
  And since they were since they had become a nonprofit and they
• 30:38
  were meeting once a year and they were starting to do a
• 30:41
  little bit of fundraising and they were getting some traction
• 30:44
  on the scholarship. And they and they were, you
• 30:46
  know, starting to grow. That's when they realized they
• 30:49
  needed to get things a little more organized where they're
• 30:52
  started to become a membership due, a yearly membership due.
• 30:55
  There started to become, you know, some additional
• 30:59
  requirements. When I started a chapter, they
• 31:01
  gave us an e-mail and said good luck.
• 31:03
  Yeah, like here you go figure it out.
• 31:06
  And then it's like, OK, well, we need to have like, because this
• 31:09
  chapter is doing this thing and that chapter is doing that thing
• 31:12
  and everybody's doing something different.
• 31:14
  So, you know, we started putting the structure in place kind of
• 31:17
  after that it was, you know, I don't think originally it was
• 31:22
  supposed to be as chapter base, but as it grew, it was like, and
• 31:26
  everybody wanted to get together.
• 31:28
  And obviously, you know, we got together when we could at GABF,
• 31:31
  we got together when we could at CBC.
• 31:34
  But you know, the chapters really became a thing for a
• 31:38
  chance for everybody you know to network and and share.
• 31:42
  It's amazing. She just received a pretty high
• 31:44
  honor. Could you talk to us about that?
• 31:49
  Yeah, yeah, we actually, Erin was the one that she was like,
• 31:52
  hey, Terry just got inducted into the Crafter Hall of Fame.
• 31:56
  Yeah. What is awesome.
• 31:59
  So yeah, we reached out to her. It's like, Terry, obviously we
• 32:01
  need to post this everywhere. So I need a quote something.
• 32:06
  So yeah, I'm watching the video for getting it.
• 32:08
  I mean, I'm really glad that they finally recognized her
• 32:14
  efforts because of pink Boots means a lot to a lot of our our
• 32:18
  member base and to our allies. Like they see the value in it,
• 32:21
  which is why they continue to support us and they continue to
• 32:24
  register for our collaboration project every year.
• 32:28
  And yeah, the value is there. So yeah, it's it's pretty
• 32:30
  incredible. Very happy for Terry.
• 32:32
  Well deserved. Well, and the fruits of the
• 32:35
  labour, I mean she started this in 2716.
• 32:39
  Members, do you know how many members now there are?
• 32:42
  Is it? Is it too high to count at this
• 32:44
  point? No, no, no, no.
• 32:46
  We're just. Shy.
• 32:47
  We have software for that. Yes, yeah, I know that.
• 32:52
  We're not. It's not a handwritten Ledger
• 32:53
  anymore. No, we're.
• 32:56
  On the part of the day. Just shy of 1900 worldwide.
• 33:00
  Nice. Outstanding.
• 33:02
  How does and you touched on a little bit, but how does someone
• 33:05
  become a member with an and? Probably through their local
• 33:09
  chapter I would assume to start. Well, not necessarily because we
• 33:14
  don't have chapters everywhere. And so we do have some folks
• 33:17
  that join just like the national database, but for the most part
• 33:22
  they will be, you know, they, they heard about it local
• 33:26
  brewery or a friend that works at a different business and
• 33:29
  they'll go to a meeting. But yeah, you just go to our
• 33:32
  website and go through our, our membership benefits and our
• 33:36
  qualifications. We have three different member
• 33:38
  types. We have the professional 1 and
• 33:42
  then we have business and planning and then aspiring.
• 33:45
  So anybody who is not currently in the industry but maybe is
• 33:49
  going through some kind of certification or looking to
• 33:52
  transition into the industry and wants to learn more about, but
• 33:55
  it's fully ready to commit. So they just go on our website
• 33:58
  and sign up. That's awesome.
• 34:00
  And you don't have to be necessarily a Brewer or a
• 34:03
  brewery, right? You just have to kind of be in
• 34:05
  the business. Yeah, be in the business.
• 34:08
  You could be a Brewer or you could be an accountant.
• 34:11
  So. I mean, we have, I mean, we have
• 34:16
  authors. We have authors, we have people
• 34:20
  who deal with insurance, particularly, you know, a little
• 34:24
  more restaurant, brewery, you know, or wine side of insurance.
• 34:31
  God, we've, I've, we've had people from all, you know,
• 34:34
  distillers now wine makers. You have people.
• 34:39
  I've been have APR company that was a member for a while because
• 34:43
  she kind of specialized in, you know, beer and liquor.
• 34:49
  So it doesn't matter. You don't have to just be
• 34:51
  production distributors. Yeah.
• 34:55
  Oh, yeah. One of our new board members
• 34:56
  works for Beer Distributor. Do you find that you mentioned
• 35:03
  Georgia, you mentioned safe space earlier.
• 35:04
  You were in a situation and when you first got started, you kind
• 35:08
  of felt like you're in a safe space.
• 35:09
  Do you feel like the that when women are kind of getting into
• 35:12
  it or hearing about it, they're realizing, oh, they're there,
• 35:14
  there are more women involved and that creates a safe space
• 35:17
  and that creates other people. Hey, I can go to GABF and I've
• 35:21
  got my peers with me or some other meetings.
• 35:23
  And you know, I mean, it's not just me by myself.
• 35:26
  And I can, I can, I can appreciate beer now, maybe a
• 35:29
  little more. Yeah, absolutely.
• 35:32
  And I was just at our our Houston's chapter meeting on
• 35:36
  Monday and we had two of our two of our members won different
• 35:40
  scholarships. And a part of our scholarship
• 35:42
  component is that they need to do a pay it forward.
• 35:45
  So either writing an article, doing a presentation online or
• 35:48
  presenting at their local chapter meeting.
• 35:51
  And one thing that one of them said that really resonated with
• 35:54
  me, she was awarded a scholarship to go to the Yakima
• 35:58
  region. The Yakima chapter hosted a
• 36:01
  scholarship. They go tour the farms and very
• 36:04
  hands on. And at the very end of it, she
• 36:07
  she works for Saint Arnold Burn Company in Houston.
• 36:09
  And she said, you know, I've only been here for two years and
• 36:14
  it would have been a few more years before I would have gotten
• 36:17
  the opportunity to go do like the hop Rep, like hop selection.
• 36:21
  So because of the scholarship, like I got to experience this
• 36:24
  now and now I can like comfortably contribute and
• 36:28
  confidently contribute to conversations because I've had
• 36:30
  this experience. And so that like at meetings, at
• 36:35
  Pink Boots meetings, like I see the members approaching a topic
• 36:40
  that they're not even comfortable with, but they are
• 36:42
  comfortably asking the questions and are saying, I don't know,
• 36:47
  like teach me. And I haven't seen that in other
• 36:51
  environments. There's unfortunately this like
• 36:53
  ego, like I know everything. I'm going to call myself a
• 36:57
  master Brewer after two years. And it's like, let's just all
• 37:02
  kind of be nice and teach each other and grow and push this
• 37:06
  community forward. And so that's that safe space
• 37:09
  that Pink Boots is creating. And the cool thing is, is it
• 37:13
  sounds like what you're you guys are, what you ladies are both
• 37:16
  saying is that Pink Boots is really given a lot of folks out
• 37:21
  there a great voice to stand up and be able to now be more
• 37:25
  successful than perhaps they would be.
• 37:27
  Maybe they were just standoffish and over the years.
• 37:29
  And I would love to get that more of that perspective from
• 37:32
  you both on that. I guess too, from what I've
• 37:37
  seen, you know, for the last few years I've been kind of working
• 37:41
  on the conference committee for Pink Boots.
• 37:44
  So. So I helped plan the
• 37:45
  conferences. Plan or like the whole thing,
• 37:53
  give yourself more credit. You know, and having one been
• 37:58
  to, you know, skilled meetings and other conferences that are,
• 38:04
  you know, more of a mixed crowd. And let's just say we're going
• 38:07
  to say more of a mixed crowd. But if you go to most skilled
• 38:10
  meetings, it is going to be way more men and way less women at
• 38:14
  the meetings. I went to the conference that I
• 38:18
  got a scholarship through in Pink Boots, which was an
• 38:21
  industry conference, you know, And so it was still like maybe
• 38:24
  7030, you know, percent, which wasn't bad at the time.
• 38:28
  Like like that was pretty good. But it's like a lot of people
• 38:34
  don't feel comfortable speaking up and asking questions or like
• 38:37
  you'll sit there after a talk and there's not much, you know,
• 38:41
  people the, the speakers like, and do you have a question?
• 38:43
  And nobody's really kind of talking up there.
• 38:47
  A few, you know, maybe a few comments here or there.
• 38:50
  And it's like, you come to the Pink Boots conference and it's
• 38:54
  like after that speaker's done, everybody has questions.
• 38:57
  They're following them out. Like we're like, OK, it's like
• 39:00
  time for the next speaker. And they're still like hoping to
• 39:04
  connect with that speaker later on to continue those
• 39:06
  conversations. We usually bring them back for
• 39:09
  additional webinars and, and learning opportunities because
• 39:16
  you don't feel uncomfortable asking you a question.
• 39:18
  You don't get looked down upon. You don't get, you know, little
• 39:25
  yeah, stuff or like, you know, the weird, the weird look of
• 39:28
  like what? You don't know this.
• 39:30
  Like come on. Everybody.
• 39:33
  You know, I'm not production like I've brewed some beer.
• 39:36
  I used to own a brewery. I've brewed beer with my
• 39:39
  Brewers, you know, but there are definitely people I felt very
• 39:42
  comfortable going into the brewery and brewing beer with
• 39:45
  them and learning from them and other people that didn't make
• 39:48
  you feel so great when you're just like, wait, what are we
• 39:50
  doing now? Like how, what happens next?
• 39:52
  And like, these are people that work for me, you know?
• 39:55
  So it's, you know, it's definitely way more.
• 40:01
  Yeah. Like a safer space, a little
• 40:03
  more open space. Growing up in the industry and
• 40:07
  coming up, there were people, you know, and I will say in
• 40:11
  Philadelphia, there were people I could go to and ask questions.
• 40:14
  And the majority of the time, they were men.
• 40:16
  I mean, that's, you know, the majority of the other bar owners
• 40:19
  or restaurant owners in the city are men.
• 40:22
  There's way more women now. But it's like I was going to men
• 40:25
  for questions. And then when I finally would
• 40:28
  meet up with another female bar owner, we would sit down and
• 40:30
  talk. It's like all these other
• 40:32
  conversations and questions that we had and experiences that we
• 40:36
  shared that we don't necessarily, you know, have in
• 40:39
  common sometimes with like, how do you deal with juggling your
• 40:43
  family and a bar? Like, you know, I'm like, oh, if
• 40:46
  I had to put a papoose on and carry around the you.
• 40:50
  Know. Restaurant with me, while I'm
• 40:51
  going to get nice out of the basement, like there's things
• 40:54
  like that that you know, the men don't always deal with or have
• 40:59
  answers or questions for. So it was definitely it's
• 41:04
  definitely been a lot like the connections that are made there
• 41:10
  tend to be a little bit deeper. You can have a little more
• 41:13
  personal conversations and get answers a lot easier than
• 41:18
  sometimes you kept in a room full a different room.
• 41:22
  You guys mentioned scholarships earlier.
• 41:25
  Can you talk about some of them and kind of who's benefited from
• 41:29
  them? I mean, we both have brought our
• 41:30
  scholarship, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
• 41:32
  What? Actually, I don't know.
• 41:33
  What scholarship did you get, Aaron?
• 41:35
  So years ago there used to be a beer marketing and tourism
• 41:39
  conference and I won a scholarship to that, which was
• 41:43
  lovely because February right before COVID hit, I got to go
• 41:49
  down to Saint Petersburg when it was freezing cold in Philly.
• 41:52
  I got to go down there for a week to to the Congress in Saint
• 41:55
  Petersburg. So and then everything shut
• 41:58
  down. Yeah.
• 42:00
  Yeah, it was, but I don't think they do that conference anymore.
• 42:04
  They kind of all paused during COVID and I think they tried to
• 42:08
  bring things back and it just never got up and running again.
• 42:12
  I remember that cuz I know one of my coworkers at the time went
• 42:16
  to it. But yeah, I had didn't see it
• 42:18
  after COVID. I, yeah, I got a super cool
• 42:22
  scholarship and it was one of those moments where I was like,
• 42:25
  this is too good. Like I'm probably not going to
• 42:27
  get it, but I'll apply anyway. But at that time there was a
• 42:33
  partnership with, I'm not going to say it in the language
• 42:38
  because it sounds awful, like I'm Hawking something up, but
• 42:41
  they brew deliria. You may or may not have heard of
• 42:43
  it, but yeah, the scholarship was to go on International
• 42:50
  Women's Day and go brew a batch of Deliria with the team.
• 42:53
  And so brought my essay, sent in my application, didn't think
• 42:58
  anything of it. And then I get the the call.
• 43:01
  It's like, hey, you're going to go to Belgium.
• 43:04
  And I was like, what? OK.
• 43:07
  And so my husband and I were like, well, OK, let's let's make
• 43:10
  a trip out of it. And so we flew out there
• 43:13
  together, spent a few days in Belgium.
• 43:17
  And we were, we stayed in Brussels.
• 43:19
  And of course, you have to go to Cantillon when you're there.
• 43:22
  And I just remember like walking into that brewery and I almost
• 43:26
  like started crying. And I told I looked at my
• 43:28
  husband. I was like the smell.
• 43:30
  It's just you don't. It's just.
• 43:34
  And then the tour guide is like a lot of Brewers almost cry when
• 43:37
  they walk in here. I was like, that's me.
• 43:40
  Wow. The tour is absolutely
• 43:41
  incredible. And my husband came back to the
• 43:44
  States and I took a train to Ghent and spent the whole day at
• 43:48
  the brewery with their head Brewer.
• 43:50
  And I, when I went, I was the the only Brewer there.
• 43:54
  They had a lot of folks local, but they were media and so they,
• 43:59
  you know, they really weren't like what's yeast, what's grain?
• 44:02
  And so I'm just kind of hanging out watching because I was like,
• 44:05
  I do have like the privilege of doing this back home.
• 44:08
  And so I was kind of just like helping like guiding and the
• 44:10
  Brewer after the whole day. And they were like, hey, do you
• 44:13
  want to stay and hang out with us?
• 44:14
  And then they started like opening like vintage bottles.
• 44:17
  And I was like, I would have never, ever had the opportunity
• 44:22
  in my life to do this had I not been through Pink Boots and this
• 44:26
  scholarship. And so that like, that's what
• 44:29
  like propelled me to be like, OK, I wanted, I want to do more
• 44:32
  for this organization. I want to join leadership.
• 44:34
  And you know, I ran for the board of directors, finally made
• 44:37
  it on. And I was like, I want to be
• 44:39
  focused on scholarships and then grow this program because of
• 44:42
  that experience was absolutely unique and incredible.
• 44:45
  And I want other folks to to do it.
• 44:48
  We were able to get a few more members that scholarship.
• 44:52
  We no longer do that one, but now we have a very, very cool
• 44:55
  partnership with trip from trips, beer trips to go to
• 44:59
  Germany, tour hot farms or do sensory training.
• 45:03
  And the members that have gone through it are just like once in
• 45:06
  a lifetime experience and just like, thank you so much for
• 45:09
  this. And so that's.
• 45:11
  Yeah, as you can tell, I'm like. What I love to bring up is that
• 45:18
  woman who got the scholarship in Philly that encouraged like that
• 45:22
  made me want to keep the chapter going.
• 45:26
  She left Philadelphia and she's one of the Brewers at Cantyon
• 45:30
  now. So she spoke fluent French and
• 45:32
  like packed her bags, went over there, introduced herself and
• 45:35
  said, I want to start working here.
• 45:37
  And they figured it out. And she now lives in Belgium
• 45:40
  like full time brewing a canty. And it's been over there for
• 45:43
  years. And I'm like, it's that like she
• 45:46
  started out getting that scholarship with pink boots and
• 45:48
  propelling her career and like really having the confidence to
• 45:52
  go and do what she wanted to do, which was live overseas, so.
• 45:56
  You're telling me I could have applied for a Quanteon and I
• 45:59
  didn't do it? I when you were like, do you
• 46:04
  know somebody in Belgium? Granted, I didn't know you meant
• 46:07
  totally introduce. You right, right.
• 46:09
  We did not know each other back then.
• 46:12
  Well, maybe not that area now, but maybe another part of the
• 46:14
  world you. Know I, you know, didn't have a
• 46:18
  short stint in Hungary where I did some brewing as actually a
• 46:21
  first brewing I actually did was there and that was incredible.
• 46:26
  But yeah, I might know some folks in Europe up the pond.
• 46:30
  Well, it's really cool because Georgie, when you were telling,
• 46:32
  telling that story, and you probably have told him many,
• 46:35
  many times, but I could just see each time you tell him maybe
• 46:39
  it's 10 years later or five. You probably just get chills and
• 46:41
  goosebumps just thinking about it, huh?
• 46:43
  Oh absolutely. Like, like I was exploring this
• 46:46
  beautiful city, ancient city with folks I would have never
• 46:50
  met. We're not for this opportunity
• 46:53
  with pink boots. And so, yeah, that's where I'm
• 46:56
  like telling folks, like, it means something.
• 46:58
  We're doing something. Yeah.
• 47:00
  Yeah. It's just, it was incredible.
• 47:02
  I can't find another word. I wish I had a bigger
• 47:04
  vocabulary, but it was just that.
• 47:07
  It's life changing, at least in the sense of your career and,
• 47:12
  and you know, even life changing in general.
• 47:13
  I mean, that is amazing and it there's some motivation, right?
• 47:16
  And some inspiration. I got to do this thing now.
• 47:18
  You know what, Let me set my sights on something else or I
• 47:21
  want to stick with this thing for a long time.
• 47:23
  Oh yeah. And it is this little like
• 47:25
  bragging point. It's like, Oh yeah, I've been
• 47:27
  developed them. I'm Deliria like what have you
• 47:30
  done? You both have very accomplished
• 47:36
  resumes in the business. Are there things you still want
• 47:39
  to accomplish though that you have not done?
• 47:43
  In the business, I mean, I think deep down maybe every Brewer
• 47:51
  wants to have their own brewery. Yeah, wait.
• 47:54
  And so it was and it still is a dream of of ours to have our
• 47:59
  little brew pub. We'll see when and if that
• 48:03
  happens, but that's that. I think that would be the the
• 48:06
  ultimate accomplishment for me would be to my own place.
• 48:10
  The good thing is you know someone who's had one so could
• 48:12
  give you some insurance and outs.
• 48:14
  You know what? Yeah, she might have some
• 48:16
  pointers for me. She'll.
• 48:17
  Say sometimes it's not what it's cracked up to me.
• 48:23
  Yeah, I don't know. I don't know.
• 48:25
  Sometimes I just want a vacation.
• 48:27
  Yeah. Well, and it kind of brings
• 48:29
  another question of other folks that go through this program and
• 48:33
  the scholarships, how many that you meet that I'll, I'll give
• 48:38
  the same question. How many that that come up to
• 48:40
  you and say, I want to do more, I want to brew more, I want to
• 48:43
  be in fermentation, I want to do all these things.
• 48:46
  You must hear that quite often. I mean, I honestly, I wish I did
• 48:52
  not that it's not happening, but those aren't conversations that
• 48:54
  are like I'm hearing. I'm pretty sure these recipients
• 48:58
  are, you know, telling their employers that's like, hey, I I
• 49:01
  need more, more simulation, more challenge here to expand and
• 49:06
  grow. What we hear is like, thank you,
• 49:09
  thank you, thank you, thank you for this opportunity.
• 49:12
  It's giving me the tools to ask for more.
• 49:15
  And so I'm just hoping that they're they're at least being
• 49:18
  heard. And I got to feel like
• 49:19
  ultimately it's creating more opportunities too.
• 49:22
  You get people that have come back now we've got some
• 49:23
  experience, we've got some additional spirits maybe
• 49:25
  somebody else doesn't have. I've been to Germany, I've been
• 49:28
  to Hungary, I've been to Belgium.
• 49:30
  Guess what? That's on my resume.
• 49:31
  Resume. Now you know.
• 49:34
  Yeah, if y'all want to go I'm sure Trip will take you along.
• 49:40
  Why not be fun? You all do a fundraiser.
• 49:45
  We probably do multiple, I know you do.
• 49:47
  But there's your biggest one is collaboration collective and can
• 49:52
  you talk about that? And it's been rebranded too.
• 49:54
  And is there a reason behind that?
• 49:58
  So I guess you let me take turns.
• 50:01
  So originally this collaboration brewed I, but as we have
• 50:06
  expanded our membership, like I said, we used to just be women
• 50:11
  in beer. Now we're women in non binary.
• 50:14
  And then it was beer and then we've opened it up to cider and
• 50:17
  kombucha and just anything for minute or alcohol.
• 50:20
  So spirits. But we were hearing from some of
• 50:24
  our members like, and I know we used to have a quite a few
• 50:27
  members in the Philadelphia area that worked for the spirits and
• 50:31
  they're like, well, how do we participate in collaboration?
• 50:34
  They would come with a brew day that one of the breweries was
• 50:36
  hosting, but they just felt like their businesses couldn't really
• 50:41
  collaborate because it was called collaboration brew day
• 50:44
  and they don't brew. So we've looked at Reap and
• 50:48
  like, you know, since we expanded it and trying to be
• 50:51
  more inclusive, we've regranded it to collaboration collective.
• 50:55
  You can host a brew day, you can host a cider making day.
• 50:59
  There was a chapter in Pittsburgh they they made hot
• 51:03
  sauce one year and we've recently had some members who
• 51:08
  made bitters using the Pink Boots hot blend.
• 51:12
  So they have cocktail bitters. And like for me, I, you know,
• 51:16
  when I sold my brewery, I sold my brewery 1st and kept my rest.
• 51:19
  I kept some of the restaurants. It was like, you know, I would
• 51:24
  go to the brew days and then usually at my restaurants I
• 51:27
  would buy the different collaboration beers and put them
• 51:31
  on and do an event and then donate some money back.
• 51:34
  But it was always like I was kind of on the outskirts of
• 51:37
  collaboration brew days. But like this is kind of opening
• 51:41
  it all up. But now I can have a
• 51:43
  collaboration collective event pouring the different brew days
• 51:47
  or the spirits or the cider and just really leaving it open for
• 51:52
  our members to have, you know, be creative with whether it's a
• 51:58
  beer or a cider or whatever they're producing.
• 52:01
  But at the same time, yeah, be creative with, you know, we have
• 52:07
  a group of of members from the Bountiful bag that make bags and
• 52:14
  all out of used small green bags.
• 52:17
  So like, you know, they we can all pull this in together and
• 52:22
  and be a little more inclusive of whatever is doing that are
• 52:26
  members of Pink Boots. So.
• 52:30
  There is a map, there is a, there's a link that's on your
• 52:32
  website for the collaboration collective and it tells about
• 52:36
  what it is, but there's also a map on there and it says this
• 52:39
  year's participating businesses. And we talked about how your
• 52:42
  international, it's literally New Zealand, Hong Kong, Japan,
• 52:49
  like most of Europe, Canada, it's impressive just looking at
• 52:53
  this map and. I haven't updated but yes.
• 52:59
  She's going to be busy. Tomorrow I was really excited
• 53:02
  and I saw this the other day because I remember this.
• 53:06
  We have one solo member in Norway and when I represented
• 53:14
  the pink booths, when I joined the board, I went to CBC.
• 53:18
  We had a booth at CBC and you know, many of the members are
• 53:21
  burgers and all. Like for me, I have a restaurant
• 53:23
  owner, so like I enjoy CBC, but like, you know, Georgie, it
• 53:29
  makes more sense for her to go to the panel discussions than it
• 53:32
  does for me. So I worked the booth the entire
• 53:34
  time and I got to meet this woman from Norway and she
• 53:38
  brought me one of her pink boots beers was called Boot Print and
• 53:43
  literally made a boot print with different hops and different
• 53:47
  designs. And I was excited and it was
• 53:50
  delicious and I got to take it home and enjoy it and it was
• 53:53
  delicious. But I was also very excited cuz
• 53:56
  I was watching everything that was getting shared on our
• 54:00
  Instagram and they re shared what they brewed this year and
• 54:04
  their label and all for this year.
• 54:06
  And I was like, cool, I remember her.
• 54:08
  So it's like, you know, some people make a new beer every
• 54:11
  year. Some people kind of, you know,
• 54:15
  make an updated version of a beer every year.
• 54:20
  So it's always exciting to see what everybody does.
• 54:23
  I I love it. When I was the chapter leader, I
• 54:26
  think one year we had 15 different brew days happen in
• 54:30
  the area. And if I didn't make it to a
• 54:32
  brew day, then I need it to the release parties and it's.
• 54:37
  So much fun. As ambitious as you might.
• 54:40
  Be like and Philly like, even though we were Philly, like we
• 54:44
  had a chapter member that was near as they were in
• 54:47
  Pennsylvania, but they were near the New York State line.
• 54:51
  And then, you know, there wasn't a New Jersey chapter at the
• 54:54
  time. So I like South Jersey usually
• 54:58
  join the Philly chapter. So like I went all the way down
• 55:01
  to Cape May to Cape May Brewing for the release of one of their
• 55:06
  years. So like I've been down for their
• 55:08
  releases quite a few times. Yeah, some ways everybody and
• 55:12
  everybody does something so different but makes sense for
• 55:15
  their brewery. It's just really exciting to see
• 55:18
  what everybody has go and want to.
• 55:22
  What from that, from that fundraiser, what does that kind
• 55:25
  of support and what, where does that money kind of go?
• 55:29
  Those scholarships? Yeah.
• 55:32
  They are they're quite pricey. We would love to send more of
• 55:37
  our members because it is very popular.
• 55:39
  We, we just launched this last year.
• 55:42
  We actually met Tripp at CBC and he, he, he, he's, I had this
• 55:48
  company for a long time and he curates trips for individuals
• 55:53
  like in the industry, whether they're home Brewers or just
• 55:57
  really big enthusiasts to go to Germany.
• 55:59
  And the very first trip that he took Pink Boots members to
• 56:03
  Germany, he said afterwards, he's like Georgie, everybody
• 56:07
  that like I've been taking folks to for years, like who are
• 56:10
  these, who are these people? Who, what's Pink Boots?
• 56:13
  They were amazing. They like they knew their shit.
• 56:17
  They wanted. To learn more.
• 56:19
  And we, and so trip is like, I want to keep bringing this group
• 56:23
  of folks over because it's giving him more credibility and
• 56:26
  clout when he's bringing these members who you know, are in the
• 56:30
  industry. And are they, like I said, they
• 56:32
  know they're shit and they want to learn more.
• 56:34
  And so it's, it's been a very, very great partnership.
• 56:37
  And so that's what those funds go to.
• 56:40
  And right now we're sending, last year I think we sent 10
• 56:42
  members. This year, we're only able to
• 56:46
  send, no, actually another 10. We wanted to send an additional
• 56:51
  6 and maybe we'll still be able to if we get some more funds.
• 56:55
  But yeah, that's we, we just want these opportunities for as
• 56:58
  many members as possible. It's it's amazing.
• 57:01
  And I went to Germany a couple years ago just on our own and
• 57:04
  it's not a cheap trip. No, it's a lot of fun.
• 57:07
  It's. A lot.
• 57:09
  And yeah, so that's that's what we want to do for folks.
• 57:13
  It's, it's impressive. It's very impressive.
• 57:15
  You, you talked about chapters and you talked about Aaron, you
• 57:17
  talked about local chapters kind of being self-sufficient.
• 57:20
  You've got 1 coming up. I don't think we touched on it
• 57:23
  yet. It's called a new poor.
• 57:25
  You want to chat about that a little bit and.
• 57:27
  Yeah, So I I've not been it like this has been, I'm learning like
• 57:32
  as I become the president, fortunately that means some
• 57:36
  things have to go. So I am not on the chapter
• 57:39
  leadership in Philadelphia anymore because I there there's
• 57:43
  only so much time in a day and I but I'm trying to help them out
• 57:47
  where I can. But for CBC, a few years ago,
• 57:51
  before COVID, we used to do a chapter fundraiser where we did
• 57:56
  a beer festival called Bolt Women in Beer.
• 58:00
  And then, you know, includes this grown to be more than just
• 58:03
  fear and more than just it's women in non binary.
• 58:07
  You know, we've kind of opened up and then COVID stopped that
• 58:09
  for a while. We couldn't do in person things.
• 58:11
  And now the chapter is looking to kind of re you know, like
• 58:17
  they were like, OK, this is what we used to do, but how do we
• 58:19
  bring it back and make it more relevant for what's happening
• 58:22
  now? So the chapters putting together
• 58:24
  a Newport, they're doing it the Sunday before CDC starts.
• 58:28
  It's a fundraiser because they just sent two people to Germany
• 58:32
  last year and they wanna send more.
• 58:35
  So they're hoping to raise enough money that they can send
• 58:37
  at least two more people to Germany more.
• 58:41
  It would be lovely, but it's open.
• 58:44
  The what we're doing for this one is it is going to be a
• 58:48
  little more Pennsylvania focus. So it's open to Philadelphia
• 58:52
  chapter members first. But we opened it up to our
• 58:54
  allies and other producers. So there's going to be wine
• 58:58
  there, there's going to be distilling there.
• 58:59
  There's one of our members is a kombucha networks or kombucha.
• 59:04
  So we're going to have a kombucha make amazing kombucha.
• 59:08
  It's some of the best kombucha. It's so exciting about it and it
• 59:11
  also tastes good sometimes, like they're green One tastes so
• 59:15
  good. But a little bit of gin.
• 59:18
  You'd like to make it a little alcoholic?
• 59:20
  Why not? But we have, you know, they make
• 59:24
  it alcoholic sometimes too. So but we're gonna have that and
• 59:28
  then we've opened it up to to, you know, in Pennsylvania, we
• 59:33
  have a theory chapter, we have a Pittsburgh chapter and we just
• 59:36
  started a live sport chapter like a week ago.
• 59:39
  So they've been opening up spaces to pour for the other
• 59:44
  Pennsylvania chapters as well. They are trying to keep it
• 59:48
  Pennsylvania based for this one just to kind of showcase the the
• 59:53
  pig boots members and and the members from Pennsylvania.
• 59:55
  So like when people are coming in the CDC, if they get a
• 59:58
  ticket, they can see some of the breweries that you might not,
• 1:00:01
  you know, have a chance to travel to because, you know,
• 1:00:04
  Erie's 8 hours away. So yeah, I don't even get out
• 1:00:08
  there that often. But you'll be able to taste some
• 1:00:10
  of the beers for the Brewer from the breweries that, you know,
• 1:00:13
  while you're visiting Philadelphia for CDC.
• 1:00:17
  So. And then they're going to have
• 1:00:19
  some women from Advance. There's going to be some
• 1:00:21
  educational sessions as well. I know they're working.
• 1:00:25
  I'm actually really excited because we went there for honor
• 1:00:27
  chapter meeting February. There's this beautiful like sour
• 1:00:31
  farmhouse distillery. They have a little tap room in
• 1:00:34
  Philadelphia, but they grow a lot of their own ingredients at
• 1:00:37
  their farms. And they're going to do like a
• 1:00:39
  little tasting when talk about sour beers.
• 1:00:42
  It'll be some educational stuff in with the whole festival as
• 1:00:47
  well. Saddle.
• 1:00:48
  It should be fun. I don't know how you ladies keep
• 1:00:52
  everything straight. You're both wearing a lot of
• 1:00:53
  hats and a hats for a while. Aaron's like now like this.
• 1:00:57
  This hour podcast is killing me right now.
• 1:01:00
  I got, I don't. I don't want to go back
• 1:01:02
  downstairs. Then I'm curious when you when
• 1:01:06
  you get the talk to your founder Terry and she talks about where
• 1:01:10
  she started to wear pink boots is today.
• 1:01:15
  Was it ever envisioned to be this big and do you think it's
• 1:01:18
  going to get a lot bigger going forward?
• 1:01:20
  I. Mean you'll have to ask her what
• 1:01:23
  I have on the podcast, I don't speak for her and what what her
• 1:01:27
  vision was back then. I think from some of the
• 1:01:32
  interviews I've seen, she she's grateful for what it's become,
• 1:01:36
  but I don't think she envisioned it turning into this, what it is
• 1:01:41
  now. Yeah, where do you all see it
• 1:01:44
  going in the future? And bigger and more bold things
• 1:01:48
  going on with Pink boots. Taking over the world, Yeah,
• 1:01:55
  we've been planning our world of our takeover.
• 1:01:59
  No, I mean, just just like any business that has to pivot with
• 1:02:04
  the times, I mean, so does Pink Boots, right, with the, the
• 1:02:07
  landscape is changing. And so ultimately my hope and
• 1:02:11
  goal is that we're still providing or filling a need that
• 1:02:15
  is in the industry. That need is going to change.
• 1:02:18
  It has changed over the years. And so as long as we're able to
• 1:02:22
  meet our membership base, whatever that looks like in a
• 1:02:26
  few years, that is, that is what I hope for for the future.
• 1:02:32
  Are you seeing certain positions within breweries or even the
• 1:02:35
  beer industry that have grown for women?
• 1:02:37
  I mean production. Yeah, has that.
• 1:02:40
  Yeah, has definitely grown. I mean, I think I just saw
• 1:02:45
  something recently online that said that it's now at 7 percent,
• 1:02:50
  70% production is with. Oh wow.
• 1:02:57
  Which still doesn't seem like the top.
• 1:02:59
  Say 70 or 7. Oh my God, I was like, that can
• 1:03:03
  be right. I wish going back to how it
• 1:03:08
  originated when women were making everything.
• 1:03:11
  But yeah, I think that that would probably be the area of
• 1:03:17
  growth is is production. And seven's not enough, we could
• 1:03:21
  all agree on that. But there's got to be roles
• 1:03:23
  where it's it's a lot less. Where else would you see further
• 1:03:27
  growth? Where would you rather see
• 1:03:28
  further growth? Leadership.
• 1:03:33
  I think both of those would be ideal.
• 1:03:38
  We're pretty smart. Yeah, I agree.
• 1:03:43
  So yeah, I I would hope to see more of our members have those
• 1:03:48
  opportunities for, for a leadership position and growth.
• 1:03:52
  And ownership as well. I'd like to see, and I think
• 1:03:56
  too, I think from what I've been reading the more recently, front
• 1:04:00
  of the house is probably the little bit of area where women
• 1:04:03
  tend to have a little, maybe a slight edge or, you know, with
• 1:04:07
  more jobs front of the house that production.
• 1:04:11
  But then when it comes to front of the house management, that
• 1:04:13
  number changes drastically and it's way more men and than it is
• 1:04:17
  women. You know, I'd like to.
• 1:04:21
  See well, and I and I sometimes. Ownership grow.
• 1:04:23
  Yeah, and I sometimes wondering, Georgia, you were talking about
• 1:04:26
  this, you know, you know, who knows where things are going to
• 1:04:28
  be heading, but things seem to be heading where at least from
• 1:04:32
  the brewery standpoint that we see in the places we go, where
• 1:04:36
  everything is becoming like more family friendly and, you know,
• 1:04:41
  different craft beer options. It's not just craft beer.
• 1:04:44
  It could be ciders and seltzers and other things like that.
• 1:04:47
  So hopefully you're you're all voice and and the initiatives
• 1:04:52
  that you're doing will evolve with that too.
• 1:04:55
  And and maybe that's the type of thing that you're seeing as
• 1:04:57
  well. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:04:59
  I mean, I, I think that if you're only focusing on on your
• 1:05:03
  beverage, then you're not really adapting.
• 1:05:05
  Like people want an experience. We talk about that a lot.
• 1:05:09
  I mean, we do. We've seen some brewery.
• 1:05:12
  We said we there's a brewery that opened here in Nashville in
• 1:05:14
  the past year and they're great and they serve, you know, great
• 1:05:18
  barbecue and they have great food and that's family friendly.
• 1:05:21
  And we see some other breweries that have opened up over the
• 1:05:24
  past couple of years here that, I mean, you go there and there's
• 1:05:28
  family and they've got all kinds of activities.
• 1:05:31
  So as you say, I mean, it's not it's not the way it was 1015
• 1:05:35
  years ago where you just can't most, most of the places just
• 1:05:38
  can't rely on, hey, this is our crap beer, you know?
• 1:05:41
  Yeah. No, no, because you could have.
• 1:05:43
  I mean like. Hair.
• 1:05:44
  But if you don't have a concept, then yeah.
• 1:05:46
  I mean as I'm planning for CDC, we're hosting a lot of events
• 1:05:50
  here and over and 1/2 on top of with big boots as well.
• 1:05:55
  Like, I don't know how I'm getting to do this week, but
• 1:05:59
  what I'm working on, like we're hosting in a bit with a hop
• 1:06:02
  company. You know, obviously the Brewers
• 1:06:05
  are going to make fears with some of these hops that they
• 1:06:07
  want to showcase. But what they also just did was
• 1:06:10
  send me a huge kit of Euphorics for me to make hot hops.
• 1:06:17
  So I am like literally was opening them today and smelling
• 1:06:21
  them so that this week I can start playing around with doing
• 1:06:25
  hop, but you know, cocktails with some of their products and
• 1:06:28
  stuff. So like even the companies are
• 1:06:30
  looking about like, how does this all, you know, this
• 1:06:33
  industry change and where can we use things and stuff like that?
• 1:06:36
  So I'm very much looking for. I found a bottle of guava and I
• 1:06:44
  don't know what I want to do with it, but we're somehow fixed
• 1:06:49
  because I was like yes. I'm sure you'll find a good use
• 1:06:52
  for it. Well, we don't want to keep you
• 1:06:57
  forever, Steve. You got anything else you want
• 1:06:59
  to end on? You know, I want to end on
• 1:07:01
  thanking you both for taking time to talk to us today and
• 1:07:05
  hopefully we can get you on again because I think what
• 1:07:08
  you're doing out there, I think the initiative, I think Pink
• 1:07:11
  Boot Society is fantastic. And you know, we look forward to
• 1:07:16
  seeing what the future holds for you all.
• 1:07:19
  Thank you. Yeah, happy to hop on again.
• 1:07:23
  I mean, I'll get more beer next time because.
• 1:07:25
  We all will. I was like, damn, I went through
• 1:07:28
  those. I mean super light.
• 1:07:30
  Bring bring the cooler. You learn, you bring the cooler.
• 1:07:33
  And if you think you don't have enough, add one or two more in
• 1:07:35
  there. You know what?
• 1:07:36
  I am going to do a little cooler, but yeah, no, I thank
• 1:07:40
  you both for asking us to do this.
• 1:07:42
  We love, as you could tell, we love talking about pink boots.
• 1:07:46
  Pink Boots is in great hands with you all and the people we
• 1:07:50
  don't even know. But meeting you, I know it's in
• 1:07:52
  great hands. The beer industry is in great
• 1:07:54
  hands because of you. Thank you for being a part of
• 1:07:58
  this. It means a lot to us and we're
• 1:08:00
  seeing supporters. Big supporters?
• 1:08:03
  Well, let's raise our beers. What we have left?
• 1:08:06
  Hang up man, that's bad luck. I'm out.
• 1:08:09
  And Aaron's water I'll. Thumbs up I'll give you there.
• 1:08:15
  You go, you got to stay hydrated, Aaron.
• 1:08:16
  It's always a good thing what we all do.
• 1:08:18
  We all do. All right.
• 1:08:19
  Aaron and Georgie from Pink Boot Society, thank you today for
• 1:08:23
  joining us on the Murray Underground podcast.
• 1:08:26
  Pleasure. Thanks.
• 1:08:27
  Pleasure was ours. Thank you.
• 1:08:28
  Cheers.