Brewery hosts special day celebrating women
Worthing brewery Hand Brew Co ran a fantastic International Women's Day brewing event, attracting women involved in the brewing industry from far and wide.
Kate Hyde, head brewer and production manager at the brewery in Canterbury Road, has been running the event for three years to celebrate women who work with beer and women who love drinking it.
Brewers came from far and wide last Friday, including Birmingham, Oxford and Folkestone, to join local enthusiasts in making a special International Women's Day dark mild from a recipe Kate wrote especially.
She said: "I am a big fan of mild and wrote the recipe based on last year's ruby mild we made.
"It should be ready in midapril and a donation will go to Women For Women International."
As well as getting the women involved in the brewing process, the brewery laid on a whole host of activities, including a book club run by Brighton author Jane Peyton, postcard making with Bitter Women Brewery, a talk on recipe development from Alix Blease from Lallemand, tarot reading with Fiona Coffey, a darning workshop with Laura Wyatt, life drawing with Hand Brew Co director Jen Left, a burlesque workshop with Cherry Shakewell, rap with Phonetic from Audioactive Worthing and an hilarious set from comedian Felix Orlo.
Potter Lucy Young also travelled from Cheltenham with her ceramics, including her specially-designed International Women's Collaboration Brew Day tankard.
She explained that she was following in her father's footsteps, carrying on his tradition of making ceramic tankards for craft beer makers. Lucy said: "My father was making the tankards in a studio we had when I was little in the Forest of Dean in the 1980s. It was the family pottery and I am carrying it on."
She set up in business as Lucy Young Ceramics last year and still uses the same metal stamps her dad used for 28 years.
Kate said the whole day was a really great opportunity for women who are interested in beer to meet and exchange and build a network.
She added: "There's a lot of waiting around in brewing, so I figured filling the day is important but it also breaks up cliques and allows people to mingle more easily when they are all engaged in activities together."
Hand Brew Co launched at the Hand in Hand pub in Brighton in 2015, with Jen running the pub and Jack Tavare fixing up the tower brewery that had been installed in 1989.
By 2019, Hand Brew Co was outgrowing its wonderful but tiny brewery in the roof of the pub and it was time to find a larger production facility. In 2020, they got the keys to the new brewing home in Worthing, capable of brewing batches of 5,000 pints at a time.
In 2022, Hand Brew Co jumped at the opportunity to take over the Castle Ale House near Morrisons and has since created a community at The Toad in the Hole.