International Women’s Day: Celebrating those in the beer industry in Worthing

This was the first time a Unite Brew has taken place on the south coast.

Organised by Hand Brew Co in Worthing and Brighton, it saw women and non-binary brewers, directors, suppliers, business managers and many more from all different breweries and companies arrived at the brewery in Canterbury Road.

They enjoyed workshops, activities and entertainment, while raising money for Common Ground, a local charity working with refugees, and Strut Safe, an Edinburgh-based organisation founded in the wake of Sarah Everard’s murder.

Unite Brew, a project founded by Sophie De Ronde, the head brewer at Burnt Mill Brewery in Suffolk, is where ‘brewsters’ (female brewers) get together for a collaboration brew, and Kate said that to her knowledge, her event was the first Unite Brew to take place on the south coast.

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Kate Hyde, brewer and production manager at Hand Brew Co, said: “I don’t know any women that work in brewing, I think in the UK only 11 per cent of brewing production roles are held by women, so it’s quite a rare thing to do this job.

“When I found myself in this role, I knew I always wanted to organise a collaborative brew. I am quite new to Sussex, I moved here a couple of years ago and selfishly I wanted to meet more people and having this event was a great opportunity to do that.

“It’s the objectives of Unite Brew that really spoke to me, this idea of creating a network which I think is really important in not just our profession but in life, we all need someone that we can lean on, we need people who understand the way we live, the way we feel and to empathise with us if we are having a bad day and cheer if we are having a good day.”

Kate organised the event after feeling the need to meet more people like herself and allowing women to come together and amplify the female voice through a stronger community in the beer industry.

Kate said: “The day was very overwhelming, I really found the whole response to the day very validating because there’s that feeling of ‘is it just me that feels lonely and isolated’ but actually all these people came because they want to meet other people in the industry, they want to break out of their cliques, they want to amplify their voices when they walk into a room full of men and they want to feel like they’ve got the strength of other voices validating them behind them.”

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The Hand Brew Co brewery made a beer on International Women’s Day with a special blend of hops from Yakima Chief Hops.

Yakima Chief Hops bring out an annual blend every year for International Women’s Day called the pink boost blend.

The beer made yesterday (March 8) will feature Hello Marine’s art on the can, which she illustrated especially for the occasion.

To find out more about Unite Brew, you can visit the website here and to find outo more about Hand Brew Co and Hello Marine, you can visit the website here.