How we can try broadening the appeal of beer to female drinkers
AS a regular pubgoer. I have noticed that more women drink beer nowadays.
When I was student, if a woman drank beer at all, it tended to be a half of lager and lime.
I can remember trying to encourage female friends to try bitter or mild (usually the only real ales available at the time), but the image of beer was very much of matey chaps swigging pints while eyeing up the women - even in TV adverts such as “Tetley Bittermen - Join Them’.
The problem isn’t helped by the continuing association of beer with male sport.
I am not interested in sport myself and avoid pubs showing big screen sports with loads of pint-clutching males shouting at the ref on the TV.
While there are plenty of women who are interested and participate in sport, I’ve noticed that not many join in the predominantly male-fest of watching sport in the pub.
Regrettably, there is still some beer promotion that features beer-swilling men in pubs. While things have improved in recent years, this perception still lingers.
A study by Dea Latis, the organisation dedicated to bring women to beer, has found that women definitely don’t want a ladies-only beer (which has been tried) and want to move beyond volume and instead focus on less chunky glassware and lighter, more golden beers.
They would also prefer tastings as standard, with glasses and packages of beer that are smaller than a half pint, but with more interest and more flavours.
The study also showed that matching types of food with beer is an attractive proposition for women but they need to taste, sample, and be enticed by what’s on offer.
A previous study in 2018 reported that only around 17% of women drink beer at least once a week (compared to 53% of men) and male oriented advertising is the main barrier to 27% of women drinking beer; this figure rises even higher for the 18-24 year-old female group to 48%.
It seems to me that some brewers and pubs may well be missing a trick here. After all, just over 50% of the UK population is female, which is a lot of potential customers to ignore.
The national CAMRA website is at: camra.org.uk. The Southport & West Lancs Branch website is at southport.camra.org.uk. Dea Latis website: dealatisuk.wordpress.com.