Looking ahead to celebrating International Women’s Day here at Goddards on Friday, 8th March. The day has been organised by Julie Jones-Evans, who is the brewster at Boojum & Snark, so she is the perfect person to ask about her thoughts on brewing matters ahead of this exclusive event, honouring women’s empowerment and achievement.
(For those not in the know; brewster is the female term for a brewer. The header image shows our young trainee brewster Aisling.)
Goddards has a long-standing partnership with Boojum, having collaborated on a number of beers, including Barista Breakfast Stout and South Island Pale Ale. It’s brewing kit is now located at Goddards and being used for short-run, experimental brews such as our recent new IPA, launched on 2nd March at The Firkin Deck. It’s a great way to see which beers might make it into full production.
Ladies might not be immediately associated with brewing beer, but Julie and her business partner Tracy Mikich (pictured above) are certainly doing their best to change this perception.
Here are some thoughts on brewing from Julie:
What are your favourite hops?
“It’s like saying who is your favourite child! But my Sophie’s Choice would be Nelson Sauvin, for the delicate grape and passionfruit aroma and white wine notes.”
How did you go about collaborating on Goddards South Island Pale Ale?
“Josh (Goddards head brewer) approached us early on in our brewing journey and his technical knowledge and experience was essential. As a trainee brewer I wanted to do a SMASH beer (single malt, single hop) using Maris Otter malt and Rakau hops from NZ. It was a great success, we sold five 9-pint bag in boxes as our very first beer in May 2020. We then developed the beer adding another NZ and Australian hops – Nelson Sauvin and Vic Secret. I was born in Australia and wanted to bring a bit of my birthplace into the brew. The hops worked really well together but was missing a certain element that we were looking for. We found that when Tracy suggested we add Citra Cryo, a pellet hop from USA. This made the beer hit you with a wonderful fruit aroma and then the three main hops delivered with their delicious stone fruit, grape, passionfruit and citrus on the palate. The resulting beer has won medals and is compared to Beavertown’s Neck Oil quite often. I’ll take that compliment any day! South Island Pale Ale was the name I came up with as it connects South Island in NZ and we brewed it on the south of the Isle of Wight. Brewing is very personal and is used all over the world to connect communities with their place.”
Are brewsters unusual in the industry, what are the challenges?
“Women in this industry are becoming more common now, women have very good palates, are good at combining aromas and flavours and of course traditionally did the brewing. So it’s just reclaiming the space. Great examples of leading female brewers are Kate Hyde from Hand Brew Co, Jaega Wise from Wild Card, Georgina Young from St Austell (via Fullers and Bath Ales) and Sara Barton who established Brewsters in 1998. Challenges can be just fitting into a male-dominated industry, where some values can be outmoded, although I have to say the guys at Goddards have been nothing of supportive as we learn the craft of brewing and they listen to our ideas. Bob Simpson (Goddards MD) was very open to us developing the craft beer range for the new brewery, Tracy’s marketing and business acumen came to the fore and it’s testament to true collaboration. Last year when we wanted to expand our space at Boojum, Bob and Josh were again supportive and could see the benefits to both parties of us moving our brewing kit over to Goddards.”
What do you see are the current trends for craft beer this year?
“Personally I’d like to see the double and triple dry hopped pale ales dialled down a notch, just too much for me. I’ll be refining my “JLo” Another beer that started its life as a single hop ale with Jarrylo American dwarf hops, which is a crisp and dry sparkling ale at around 4%, very quaffable. I want to develop more fragrant and feminine ales and play around with creating a black IPA, having tasted Georgina Young’s Proper Black recently, has inspired me.”
What’s your favourite Goddards beer?
“Only one choice here it’s our collab South Island Pale Ale, which is proving very popular at the Firkin Deck and at Boojum and Snark (under our name Snark) but my Dad loves Fuggle Dee Dum.“
