With International Women’s Day celebrated last week, the empowerment continues for South Okanagan young female students who received a glimpse into the brewery world. Grace Connolly and her friends learned that people of all genders could succeed in a male-dominated industry.

“It’s really empowering,” said Conolly, a Grade 12 student at Penticton Secondary School, at the end of her trip to the Tin Whistle Brewery Co.

Founded in 1995, Tin Whistle invited Conolly and two other female students studying biology to participate in making beer. The program is designed to get more women into the brewing industry and an extension based on the initial project launched by the non-profit Pink Boots Society Canada to mark International Women’s Day.

The Pink Boots Society, which is based in St. Paul, Minn., has 78 chapters globally including one in Canada, supports women and non-binary people in the beer industry in the form of scholarships and public education campaigns.

Every March, the Canadian chapter provides a special hop blend to breweries that are interested in producing a collaboration brew to celebrate gender equality on March 8.

“There’s a ton of science in beer,” said Tin Whistle’s co-owner Alexis Esseltine. “So much of what we decide to do later on comes from what we’re exposed to in our youth, and so just by bringing people into the brewhouse to see this process will hopefully inspire them. “

By inviting young women studying science to see the beer-making process, she hopes to inspire the next generation of women to join the gender-imbalanced beer industry.

“We’re the beer capital of Canada — here we have breweries that are co-owned by women, three or four of them. Unfortunately, there are no women brewers currently in Penticton,” she said.

The three students got hands-on experience, including dumping grains and hop blends into the mash tun, and testing the pH value and alcohol level of the wort.

“Learning a lot of the terminology in the class was useful to be able to understand the processes of what was happening here, understanding the reasons behind why they’re testing the alcohol levels and understanding how the alcohol is made from the fermentation of the yeast,” said Grade 12 student Charlotte Hannah.

“I really just want to see what it’s like working in that type of job and what the different opportunities are,” said Jaimie Samoyloff, another Grade 12 student.

“It’s a great opportunity to showcase the industry and to get more women into the industry,” he said. “It’s basically almost all science and some art, so it’s great to see there’s an interest, especially in the younger generation, into the science of brewing.”

The Pink Boots Hazy Pale Ale beer will be on sale throughout the Okanagan region beginning today. A portion of the proceeds will go to Pink Boots Society Canada.

Photos courtesy of Pink Boots Society Canada and Zameer Karim/CBC