Female brewers reclaim their art

By Debra Townsend
Sun contributor
Stacey Block isn’t about to let big beer companies tell her what kind of frothy ale she should fancy. Stacey is a brewster, as female brewers are referred to, and along with only two other brewsters in Michigan, she is reclaiming the craft that originally began in women’s hands thousands of years ago.
In its earliest days, beer was made only by midwives and nurses that brewed medicines and tonics from plants and roots. In Europe, during the industrial revolution, commercial breweries began to sprout in cities when governments saw the opportunity for taxes and revenues. By 1445, the first “men only” Brewer’s Guild was established. In the years that followed, being a brewster offered a good chance of being hung or burned at the stake. A majority of the women who were condemned to death as witches were listed as brewsters, alewives or midwives. By the mid-nineteenth century, brewing had become a man’s world. In Europe, brewmasters, or male brewers, are trained in schools where processes are standardized, contributing to the comparatively bland homogeny of European beers in contrast to the robust and varied flavors of American micro-brews today.

When President Jimmy Carter legalized home-brewing in the 1970s, people began making beer at home, which increased the diversity as home brewers experimented with various grains, hops and yeasts. The resulting array of brews is broad enough to appeal to all tastes. Just in the last decade, micro-breweries began to pop up in downtown urban revival areas and are quickly spreading across the country.
Stacey, peering into a massive stainless steel kettle where the “mash” begins its journey to the taps in the front room, is currently brewing at Arbor Brewing Company in the college town of Ann Arbor and The Corner Brewery in nearby Ypsilanti. The owners of each of the two establishments, Matt and Rene Greff, say they were thrilled when Stacey came to work for them. Having started home-brewing in five-gallon buckets in their own kitchen 20 years ago, they appreciate the fresh mindset that an early brewer has, someone who’s not afraid to try new things and break away from tradition. Matt and Rene say, “we hoped to find someone with professional brewing experience … but not too much.” Having known Stacey for some time, they hoped she might apply for the job. “Wouldn’t it be cool to have a female brewer?” Rene asked Matt. The idea fermented into a successful brew for all.
Arbor Brewing Company starts a new batch four to six times a week, with Matt scheduling the order of beers to be made. Letting their palates decide how strong the brews should be, they critique the batches with the taste buds of connoisseurs. The strains of hops and grains chosen will affect the finished beer, as do temperatures, process times and any spices that are used. Though the micro-brewery and brewpub together currently offer 22 beers, including the favorites, the cask-conditioned I.P.A. Sacred Cow, the lighter Brassiere Blonde and the Special Bitter Red Snapper, their minds are always brewing up new ideas.
Last October, Stacey (Roth) Block was married on the stage of the Great American Beer Festival in Denver. She and her husband Tom decided to wait until spring to have their wedding reception at northwest-lower Michigan’s own Short’s Brewery in Bellaire. Stacey and Tom have been friends with Joe Short since they worked together at Michigan Brewing Company in Webberville near Lansing, and continue to get together to collaborate on new ideas. Joe worked with Stacey and Tom to make Dan’s Pink Skirt Pale Ale, a 6.7 percent I.P.A., to serve at their celebration and Joe has kept the batch on tap until it sells out. As a model of Stacey’s preference towards a beer that makes your salivary glands sing for more, the Pink Skirt was named by fellow brewer Dan Rogers, and is defined as “not a beer for wussies.”
Stacey’s been in the industry for five years, beginning as a bartender at Michigan Brewing Company, where she says Dan influenced her palate and style. While working in the business, she enjoyed tasting different beers. Although she was studying limnology (water) and entomology (insects) in college, she says she realized her science background was leading her to be curious as to how the beers were made, and not long after it became evident to her that brewing was her passion.
“I love it because its hands on,” says Stacey. “You know at the end of the day you’ve done something … you get to enjoy what you’ve made and watch other people enjoy it too.”
Stacey continued to work in the field in bottling operations, and hanging out with other brewers to learn in her spare time. Eventually, she was offered the opportunity to test her skills at Grizzly Peak in Ann Arbor, where she first began brewing. Stacey admits that she had to prove she could handle the job before she was hired; be able to take on the physical aspects of brewing despite her gender and small stature, including lifting the 50 pound bags of grain to fill the hopper and cleaning the tanks. Her desire to prove herself hasn’t changed much since then. Says Stacey, “I feel like I have to be better than any other male brewer because I may only get one chance to prove myself … and not just be some chick.” Stacey believes it is passion, not gender, that makes a good brewer, and her co-brewers definitely agree.
Now she splits her time between the Arbor Brewing Company brewhouse and the Corner Brewery with Matt and one other brewer, Ryan Hale. With six 10-hour days being the norm, Stacey says she’s glad they not only get along so well, but they all find it easy to pick up where the other has left off. Watching them from just inside the brewhouse, a glass enclosure filled with the kettles and tubing that are the updated version of the traditional cauldron, it’s easy to gauge their respect for each other, and fun to watch how excited they get when they collaborate on a new project. The beers they make are now available at the Grand Traverse Resort, Oryana Food Coop in Traverse City, Shop n Save in Benzonia, and will soon be on tap at other northern Michigan establishments.
The owners of the brewpub and microbrewery say that their clienteles, a diverse and growing group who want more than just average beer, are mostly 20- to 40-year-old urbanites. “Some are here because they have defined tastes, and others are here to taste what defines a good beer,” says one aficionado. The atmosphere is like a community gathering, with as many women as men milling around the room, having friendly conversations about good food, concerts, and of course … beer.
It’s interesting to think that when prohibition ended, beer distributors advised big breweries to make milder beers. Those who are savvy on the subject insist that women were the driving force behind prohibition, and that only by appealing to women’s tastes for smaller beers, could the market be regained.
Stacey might have something to say about that.