No Men Allowed

Cambridge, MA – It’s a tough concept to grasp, but 4000 years ago, the brewing industry was actually more progressive.

Believe it or not, women played a significant role in beer as a majority of the brewers in ancient Mesopotamia were in fact female. Fast forward to 2011 and for the first time in the modern brewing era, three women are collaborating to create a beer produced without the help of men.

Megan Parisi, the Lead Brew at Cambridge Brewing Co. commented on the physical nature of the brewing process.

“It’s not very traditionally feminine,” she said. “If you can do the work, if you have the skill, the creativity, the strength to do it, there is no reason you can’t and no reason you can’t just go home and shower it off like anyone else,” she added.

Though brewing is a bit more labor intensive than cooking a five-star dish, making a good craft beer utilizes the same basic principles – combine quality ingredients with proper technique and the end result will be something consumers can enjoy.

Parisi, along with Stone Brewing’s Laura Ulrich and Victory Brewing’s Whitney Thompson, have managed to do something which, according to multiple respected individuals in the brewing community, hasn’t been done before: an all-women’s collaborative brew.

While collaborations are all the rage in the craft beer industry right now, there have never been three women, from three separate breweries, that come together to make a beer.

The three had only known each other through email conversation, but after meeting over drinks at the Great American Beer Festival they decided it was time to create ‘Project Venus.’

“I work with a great group of guys at Victory,” said Thompson. “But you kind of miss sometimes working with women and it’s nice to have like minds and share experiences with peers who are the same gender.”

They settled on actually brewing the beer at Cambridge Brewing Co, which is the second oldest brew-pub in Massachusetts, and marked the date for Friday January 21st.

On a day that saw about 6 inches of snowfall, Project Venus was born. Venus, the working title for the beer, is a Belgian Dubbel, made with Oranges and Saffron.

“I haven’t seen a beer like this anywhere,” said Parisi. “I can’t wait to taste it myself.”

Venus should be available in February after spending 3-4 weeks going through the fermentation and cold conditioning processes. The beer will only be for sale on draft at Cambridge Brewing Company

Stone and Victory will be receiving some kegs of Venus, but due to Massachusetts distribution laws, they will not be allowed to actually sell the beer. It has yet to be determined if they will host special release parties celebrating the brew.

Cambridge Brewing Company is located at 1 Kendall Sq., Cambridge, MA. 02139.

For more information contact Cambridge Brewing Co. at (617) 494-1994.