International Women’s (Brew) Day
Celebrated annually, is on March 8th. If you are not familiar with this worldwide holiday, here is your chance to be enlightened! According to the International Women’s Day website, www.internationalwomensday.com, the day is recognized globally as “celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women…and marks a call to action for advancing gender equality.”
Each year there is a particular theme involved. 2026’s theme is: When we give, we gain, and underscores the importance of generosity and collaboration. The theme at its core emphasizes the power of working together across communities, organizations, and people of all genders, to be generous with their time, resources, education, training, mentoring, donations, and support in contributing to women’s advancement, for the good of all. When women thrive, we all rise, is the motto.
The March 8th holiday has its roots right here in the US as far back as March 8, 1857 when female textile workers in New York City protested unfair working conditions and unequal rights. Another notable occurrence happened on March 8, 1908, when 15,000 women workers in NYC marched through the streets protesting child labor, deplorable working conditions, demanding better pay, shorter hours, additionally laying out their demands for the right to vote. Only a short two years later, in 1910 during the second International Conference of Working Women, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, the first official International Women’s Day was created, and was then honored for the first time around-the-world during the following year, in 1911. This year, 2026, marks the 115th anniversary of the first International Women’s Day!
We have a rich history of fighting for women’s rights in the United States, of which happened to start in our own backyard much earlier, with America’s first Women’s Rights Convention held in Seneca Falls, NY on July 19 & 20, 1848. The convention was truly the beginning of the women’s rights movement and during that meeting, the delegates, that included Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, passed a resolution supporting women’s suffrage. It then took over seven decades(!) to secure a woman’s right to vote, with the ratifying of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution on August 18th, 1920.
How does this all relate to beer and brewing? One paragraph onwards, dearest gentle reader!
Pink Boots Society was founded in 2007 by female brewer Teri Fahrendorf after she embarked upon a coast-to-coast trip across the US visiting 70 different breweries and 3 distilleries. Along the way, she began to think of how to link women brewers and beer industry professionals together where they could share ideas, ask questions, provide and receive mentoring and education, socialize, network, etc., and thus Pink Boots was born. The mission is simple: “Pink Boots Society aims to assist, inspire and encourage women and non-binary individuals in the fermented/alcoholic beverage industry to advance their careers through education.” Today, the Society has expanded beyond the borders of the US chapters as far away as Spain, the Czech Republic, and Australia with thousands of members, and continuing to grow. There are 4 different chapters located here in New York State: Buffalo, Central New York, Upstate New York, and New York City. Visit www.pinkbootssociety.org to learn more!
Every year, the Society celebrates International Women’s Day by encouraging their chapters to partner with a local brewery or business to plan an official Pink Boots Collaboration Collective Brew Day® on (or around) March 8th. This event is held in celebration of the contributions of women and non-binary individuals in the fermented and alcoholic beverage industry.
Yakima Chief Hops, a “100% grower-owned network of family hop farms,” based in the Pacific Northwest, has partnered with Pink Boots for the last 9 years to produce a unique blend of hops to be used in each chapter’s/brewery’s beer brewed on this special day. The beer created can be ANY style of beer, it only must contain the current year hops blend, therefore enabling creativity to abound! 2026’s blend includes Ekuanot®, Centennial, Mosaic®, and HBC 638 which touts a citrus, herbal, woody, stone fruit and tropical aroma profile. Yakima Chief Hops also donates $1 from every pound sold back to Pink Boots Society, which goes towards education and programming initiatives – last year, donations exceeded $100K!
Our local Central New York Pink Boots chapter partners with Prison City Brewing, in Auburn, NY every year for one of these special International Women’s Day/Pink Boots Collaboration Collective Brew Day® celebrations. March 8th happens to fall on a Sunday this year, so the event is taking place on Friday, March 6th. I participated in the 2024 event and it was unbelievably delightful and tons of fun, so much so that I have taken the day off work and headed there again this year!
With your pre-paid $20 ticket, you are privy to an entire day’s worth of activities, beer, drinks, food, education, networking, and guaranteed laughter with a sisterhood who love all things beer. Dawn Schulz, founder and co-owner of Prison City Brewing is an absolute delight who will be your welcoming and informative host for the day. The itinerary for this year kicks off with a 9:30am meet and greet, coffee, snacks, and welcome beers. (I mean, it’s 5 o’clock somewhere, right?!) There will be multiple speakers, beer sampling, tarot card readings, wine tastings, beer and food pairings, beer brewing, more beer sampling, trivia, beer and dessert pairings, and much more right through to 4pm.
Dress is casual with closed-toe, non-slip shoes (you are housed in the Prison City North Street brewery for the day, so safety is a must), and participants are encouraged to wear something pink too! Eventually the beer that is brewed on March 6th will be canned and sold at the brewery, with a portion of the proceeds from sales going back to the Pink Boots Society, so tuck away that tidbit for a future return to the brewery to check out a new beer! Brew Day tickets for purchase and the full itinerary can be found on the Prison City website, www.prisoncitybrewing.com
Additionally, the Pink Boot Collaboration Collective Brew Day at Prison City is a kick-off to a larger weekend celebration: Brave Brews, with an extension into the next week: Brave Women Week, in honor of March being Women’s History Month. The multiple events, including the Fire & Ice Festival, The Real Housewives of Auburn Specialty Tours, and Women in the Woods outdoor education series, just to name a few, are presented by the City of Auburn with collaborators including Prison City Brewing, NYS Equal Rights Heritage Center, City of Auburn Historic & Cultural Sites Commission, Downtown Auburn Business Improvement District, Cayuga County Office of Tourism, and Finger Lakes Regional Tourism Council. All the info can be found here: www.bravebrewsfest.com
Cheers to all the beer-loving ladies! This month is all yours!
