When Gloria Rakowsky was working as the Syracuse brand ambassador for Great Lakes Brewing Company, she continually noticed one thing: The lack of women engaging in conversations about beer.

A beer lover since her early 20s, Rakowsky’s knowledge and infatuation with the drink only grew with time. And in 2013, she decided she wanted to share her passion with other women and started an organization called Syracuse Women of Craft Beer. Embarking on its third year, the group is now more than 120 members strong.

The group’s concept is simple: Once a month, women from around the Syracuse area meet up at different locations and listen to experts and learn about different aspects of craft beer while tasting samples. As she already had a foothold in the beer scene around Syracuse, Rakowsky said it was easy to start setting up tours and talks with different people in the beer community.

A typical meeting is the last Tuesday of the month for about two hours. It will start at 6 p.m. and the woman will take a half hour to chat. Then, around 6:30 p.m., they’ll make announcements and introduce the speaker. The rest of the time is devoted to focused discussions about craft beer.

The meeting locations range from breweries, bars and hop farms while the topics span from ales vs. lagers to glassware to craft beer and food pairings. In light of Saint Patrick’s Day, the group’s next meeting will take place at Kitty Hoynes Irish Pub and Restaurant, and they will discuss Irish beer and which foods to pair with it.

Syracuse Women of Craft Beer’s first meeting in January 2014 only had 14 women attend. From there, Rakowsky started advertising on Facebook and Twitter, and left business cards where she assumed like-minded women would find them. Her methods worked, and today, she said the group is still growing.

Michelle Giraud was one of the women who found the club through a business card. After recently getting into beer, Giraud picked up a card when she was at a brewery with her husband. Fascinated by the idea of learning more about beer, Giraud reached out to Rakowsky and began attending meetings.

When Giraud began to come back from the meetings and teach her husband new, offbeat facts about beer, she said she realized what an awesome group Rakowsky had started.

“Anytime you walk into a brewery, there are mostly men in there,” Giraud said. “And then we can talk beer and probably know more than most of them, and they think it is really cool.”

When Rakowsky moved to Miami in late December, she left the group in her now good friend Giraud’s hands. But just because Rakowsky is a plane flight away doesn’t mean she isn’t involved with the group anymore. After relocating, she came back almost immediately to attend the group’s two-year anniversary party in January.

Both Rakowsky and Giraud stressed that they’ve made some of their best friends through the group. The group has no age boundaries with the exception of being legally able to drink — Giraud’s 23-year-old daughter is a member as well as her 70-year-old mother. Any woman who wants to expand her knowledge of beer is welcomed.

Giraud has plans to continue to advertise and grow the group in Syracuse, while Rakowsky has already started the Miami Women of Craft Beer group.

With efforts like these, popular perceptions of women drinking beer are slowly changing. Today, according to the Brewers Association, women between the ages of 21 and 34 now account for 15 percent of craft beer consumption, higher than ever before.

“Women who perhaps didn’t know anything about craft beer now know about different styles, and are able to know what they like and order that,” Rakowsky said. “We are becoming more visible in the craft beer community, and little by little, we are breaking the barrier.”

Published on March 7, 2016 at 9:12 pm

Contact: ararcham@syr.edu