Today's Observer carries a story about a new real ale designed specifically for women.
19 year old Harriet Easton has spent 18 months and £35000 reserching a beer which she appears to believe will be perfect for women. Working together with Hanby brewery she has come up with a pale 4.2% ABV beer with orange extract.
Confusingly she has named it Harry's Beer rather than the more feminine Harriet's Beer which her name may have led her towards.
I fail to see this as being anything other than an expensive publicity stunt. Firstly I'm not sure women will go for this. If they like real ale they like it for what it is, and I am sure are not searching for a girly version. They will probably try it but will probably not agree it's a woman's beer. And if they don't like real ale I doubt they will try it anyway.
Being brewed by Hanby there's little chance of it getting national pub coverage either so it's all set up to fail.
I would be interested what female readers think. I'm sure you all have sufficiently discerning taste to agree that there is no need for a woman's beer. After all: good beer is for everyone.
6 comments:
As you say, good beer is for everyone. It'll fail in its stated purpose, though it might still be a good beer
A lot of young people have issues with the serving temperatures of real ale, male or female. The way beer is served in unappealing pint glasses doesn't help either.
I think those issues need to be a priority, as opposed to coming up with recipes specifically suited to "the female palate" (as if such a thing really exists).
I wrote about this a while back, when it was announced that CAMRA wanted to make advertising more female friendly.
http://boakandbailey.com/?p=177
My point being that I didn't think there was much difference in the way you'd approach converting female drinkers as you would for male drinkers.
I agree with Stonch that serving temperatures and the look of the beer can have a lot to do with it as well.
A pint unappealing? its one of the sexiest things in the world!
I went to the Salopian on Thurs night to try it, having become intrigued in this 'idea' that was unfolding on my doorstep. The beer was actually very good, subtle in flavour so a good session beer. In response to "stonch", it was nice to see that they had thought about the glassware issues and the 1/2 pints, in particular, were very feminine. A lot of my friends won't drink real ale because they feel unfeminine when they are holding a pint pot, but I think they would feel OK being 'seen' on a night out with these glasses. Personally, I will drink out of a bucket as long as it holds beer!
I've tried the beer and I LOVE it!!!
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