Tasty women

[Gob]

BEER-GUZZLING blokes will be conspicuously absent next week when Sydney Craft Beer Week introduces a women-only beer tasting afternoon.

Ales in comparison ... the beer educator Kirrily Waldhorn, right, downs a cold one with the cheese expert Claudia Bowman at Hart's Pub, The Rocks

And despite the stereotypes, the event reflects the fact women are deemed better beer tasters than men, according to breweries.

A third of the brewing giant SABMiller's 1000 advanced-level tasters are females and the number of women tasters has quadrupled during the past 10 years.

For the past two years, the world's best beer taster has been a former secretary from Poland, Joanna Wasilewska. Closer to home, Bluetongue Brewery on the central coast now has two women on their advanced tasting panel of 10.

Women have a better associative memory to help connect thoughts to taste and identify flavours with more sensitivity and clarity.

One theory is that evolution has played a role: for centuries men hunted while females prepared and tasted the food.

''Our palates are more sensitive and adept at picking up a broader range of flavours,'' said Kirrily Waldhorn, a beer educator, consultant and judge who recently collaborated with five others to brew an all-female Belgian tripel beer called Ninkasi's Angels.

She will host the Brewers and Chewers event on Wednesday as part of Sydney Craft Beer Week, a ''meet the brewer'' night at the Local Taphouse in Darlinghurst.

On Saturday, October 29, Higher Tea, the women's tasting event at Hart's Pub in The Rocks, will be hosted by an assistant brewer from the Hunter Beer Co, Jess Wolfgang, who will informally guide women through local and international craft beers.

Women make up about a tenth of the beer market and although Ms Wolfgang says she can count the number of female brewers in Australia on one hand, the tide is changing.

While the amber brew continues its slide in Australia, women may be rescuing beer.

Female drinkers are particularly attracted to craft beers, which are forecast to double their share of the beer market during the next five years despite overall beer consumption falling by 1.7 per cent last year.

''Beer is slowly becoming a little more sophisticated and a little less blokey,'' Ms Waldhorn said.

Australia has about 150 craft breweries, with 10 per cent of those opening in the past year.

''It's clearly a booming market,'' said Todd Venning, the founder of the videoblog Beermen.TV, the organiser of Sydney Craft Beer Week. ''I call it the flight to quality. People want more choice, they don't want to be fed the same two or three beers any more.''

There are seven microbreweries in the inner city but breaking the dominance of the big players and overcoming ''the inertia of Australian history'' is challenging, Mr Venning said.

Sydney Craft Beer Week begins today and ends on Saturday, October 29. See sydneycraftbeerweek.com.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/res ... z1bTQYAwrl

[The Hen]

I must be an untasty woman.

I can't stand beer.

[Crackpot]

My wife didn't either till I introduced her to micro brews.

[BoSoxGal]

My wife didn't either till I introduced her to micro brews.

Same for me - I was lucky to have a boyfriend in college introduce me to microbrews, as previously I'd detested beer. I love wine a bit more, but drink beer more often because it is less likely to induce a migraine.

[The Hen]

UK Ales are far superior to anything I have ever tasted down here. Even their non-micro beers.

But they still leave me feeling bloated and burpy.

I am not a happy Hen with the windy-pops.