Female brewers craft community through beer

By Lindsay King-Miller

Bess Dougherty, left, shares a beer with Kelissa Hieber.
Photos: Dylan Hochstedler

In a time in which politics has divided many people, two female brewers are using the political angst to raise money for nonprofits.

Bess Dougherty, of the Grateful Gnome Sandwich Shoppe and Brewery, and Kelissa Hieber, of Goldspot Brewing Co., simply invited women brewers to collaborate on a beer that would “use our art to make our voices heard” in support of marginalized and oppressed communities. It got a huge response.

What started as an attempt to promote community engagement and solidarity in the wake of a divisive election has grown into a thriving and ongoing collaborative project in Denver’s brewing community.

As more and more local brewers get involved, the project picked up so much momentum that six months later, it shows no sign of stopping.

“When Bess and I first started the project, we never imagined it would have the response and excitement that it did,” says Hieber. Three batches of “Makin’ Noise: A Pussy Riot Beer,” with multiple variations, have already been produced.

“The first version resulted in record-setting sales days for all of the participating breweries,” Dougherty said. And that’s not just good news for the craft beer business. At least a dollar of the cost of every Makin’ Noise beer sold is donated to nonprofit organizations that benefit the community.

“A brewery and its surrounding community have a symbiotic relationship. The better off the community, the better support for the brewery,” Dougherty said.

And the support for the project has been growing, according to Jess Anderson, the head brewer at 3 Freaks Brewing and one of the first participants to sign on to Makin’ Noise.

“Beer brings people together anyway,” Anderson said. “But now that we’re raising money to be able to give back to our direct communities, people are very on board to join in.”

While Makin’ Noise is far from the first time brewers have used their art to raise funds for a worthy cause, the timing was right to make it extremely successful. Americans in 2017 are more politically engaged than ever, so combining good causes with good beer is an easy sell. Although the brewers don’t have total sales numbers for the second batch, they estimate that Makin’ Noise has raised at least $11,000 for the community so far.

While the first version of Makin’ Noise was a collaboration between women brewers only, the second batch and subsequent versions are open to participation from anyone.

“We’ve had such a good response we’ve actually had to cap the number of breweries that are involved each time,” Anderson said.

Every batch of Makin’ Noise includes several variations on a unifying theme: the first version was imperial saisons, the second was rye beers, and the third, is a Norwegian farmhouse beer called Kviek. While the theme is chosen collaboratively, brewers have the freedom to interpret it however they want. For each new variation, Dougherty and Hieber suggest organizations to donate to, but the final decision is up to the brewers.

“If any of the participants ever have a non-profit they are passionate about and would like to work with, we’ll let them, as long as it fits with the mission of the project,” Dougherty said.

For Goldspot’s contribution to the most recent batch, the charity of choice was Girls Rock Denver (GRD), a summer day camp where girls ages 8 to 18 learn to play instruments, form rock bands and write original songs together.

The title “A Pussy Riot Beer” is inspired by the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot, so it’s particularly fitting that Makin’ Noise partnered with a group working to empower girls through music.

“GRD has been on my radar for a few years,” Dougherty said. “I have always loved their mission and knew at some point I would do something with them.”

While Dougherty initially planned to host a fundraiser for Girls Rock at the Grateful Gnome, the brewery’s delayed opening date necessitated a change of plans, at which point Hieber stepped in to include the camp in Makin’ Noise.

And what does empowerment through music taste like? According to Hieber, the Girls Rock Denver Kviek will include “a lot of orange notes from the yeast and showcase a lot of tropical fruit flavors from the dry hops. A sessionable tropical fruit bomb is what I’m going for.”

Lindsay King-Miller is a writer based in Denver who enjoys great beer.