A Toast to North Carolina’s Female Brewers!

>>When it comes to wine, I’m perfectly happy with a bottle of Two Buck Chuck from Trader Joe’s. But when the beverage of choice is beer, I am a snob. I won’t touch that common liquid with the weak color and even weaker taste (you know the one – starts with a B, ends with an UD). Give me something with depth and character, and if it’s local, all the better.

Fortunately, we live in the right state for local brew—>>North Carolina has more craft breweries than any state in the American South.  But what I didn’t realize until recently is the growing role women are playing in North Carolina’s evolving beer industry.

There’s >>Kristie Nystedt , president and CEO of Raleigh Brewing. She is also majority owner, which, according to the company website, makes Raleigh Brewing >>the first female-owned brewery in North Carolina . She will soon be joined by three women who are planning to open >>Bombshell Brewery in Holly Springs this summer.

Looking beyond small craft breweries — New Belgium, the nation’s third-largest brewery, is an employee-owned company with a female CEO, and it’s expanding >>its brew headquarters to Asheville in 2015 .

In addition to brewing beer, women are getting together to enjoy the real fun – drinking beer. There’s the >>Charlotte Beer Babes , >>Greenville ’ s Girls Pint Out ,  >>Triangle Pub Girls, and the >>Asheville Beer City Divas . And that’s just from a quick search on Meetup.

Sounds like this may need more research. Maybe an extended business trip so I can report first-hand on women and beer in North Carolina? Save me a seat at the bar, ladies!