The beer sommelier Melissa Cole
As a certified cicerone – a well-recognised qualification in the brewing industry – Melissa champions beer. Alongside her new recipe book The Beer Kitchen, about cooking with and matching dishes to beer, she’s kickstarted the Everyone Welcome Initiative that aims to diversify the beer scene via events across the UK. Its manifesto includes ideas like putting baby-changing facilities in gender-neutral spaces.
Melissa fell for all things hoppy as a journalism student, her first job being on a trade paper for publicans. But what committed her to the cause was an invitation to judge the International Beer Challenge. ‘The first beer of the day tasted of rhubarb but the three experienced male judges at the table said I didn’t know what I was talking about.’
Sexist jokes followed and yet, it transpired that the beer was called Ruddles Rhubarb. ‘That was a challenge, but also the point when I made up my mind that not only was I clearly better at tasting than certain men in the industry, I wasn’t going to be bullied like that ever again.’ She continues, ‘It’s not that women aren’t equal to men in my industry, it’s that all too frequently we’re dismissed as novelties or filling the quota, or “trying to keep up with the blokes”, and it’s infuriating.’
Other challenges she faces are in the marketing of beer. ‘For 50 years or so, they’ve been driving beer in the male market and now, in an era of declining alcohol consumption, they’re desperate to win back those people they’ve spent half a century alienating.’ However, she finds the crudest insult the ‘beers for ladies’ ranges, predictably erring on the side of pink and fruity. ‘It gives me rage the only scientific difference between the average male and female palate is that we are better at smelling and therefore, tasting.’ On the Everyone Welcome Initiative, she explains, ‘It’s about tackling the issue of beer being mostly a white, straight, male world. It’s designed to get people thinking about not just being welcoming, but actively inviting people from all walks of life into establishments by signalling that they’re safe and protected when they come to this bar, pub, brewery tap or beer festival.’