The Session: The Hard Stuff

I was invited by the amazing Tasha (or, as you may know her on Twitter: @metacookbook) to join in on a monthly Friday beer blogging event called The Session. I love the idea; every month someone in the online beer community is the host and chooses the discussion topic. Tasha is this month's host and her questions are:

1. What do you want people in beer culture to be talking about that we’re not?
2. What do you have to say on the topic(s)?

These topics may seem a little outside of my realm of food recipes, but it's really not. The online beer community is near & dear to my heart and I want to be more involved in it. I also cook with beer quite a bit and hope to do more recipes and pairings with beer in the future (in fact, if you have a suggestion, please send it my way!). With all of that said, let's dive in.

I would like to see more discussion and inclusion of women in the beer community. Specifically queer women in the beer community. This may seem like a niche group, but there are actually a lot of us! There is a fantastic group in Baltimore called Lady Brew Baltimore, who gets together to brew a new beer monthly, as well as go to a variety of beer events (homebrew competitions, Chilibrew, etc.). This group, by far, is the most accepting that I have encountered. Diverse women - LGBTQ and straight, all different races, all different backgrounds, etc. - drinking, brewing, engaging. Visibility is an important tenant of being part of any community and, if we don't see ourselves represented, we don't believe that we belong. I don't want Lady Brew to be a unique situation; I want women to feel accepted everywhere they go within the beer community.

I am still pretty new to the beer community in some ways - I don't brew my own beer (yet!), I don't attend conferences or conventions, I don't blog often about beer - but I have long been a beer lover and someone who truly appreciates the nuances of the beer community/beer culture. I want to be accepted. I want to accept others. I know we can do that as a community, just buy someone a drink and ask them to tell you about themselves.

Cheers!