Welcome to the family
What started as a mutual interest in beer has become much more, explains Rachel Benkowski, co-founder of The Beer Babes Family, an organization that strives to support and positively engage all women in the beer community. This includes the casual beer drinkers to the highest level of brewers, Cicerones and Beer Judges.
Women’s presence in the beer industry in North America is ever-expanding, and with this growth we are witnessing women-owned beer businesses pushing boundaries for change and equality. For Roxane (Roxy) Brossoit from Montreal, and Rachel Benkowski from Phoenix, it is this expanding presence of women in the beer industry that inspired a unique business opportunity. What ultimately blossomed into the now international nonprofit organization called the Beer Babes Family, began with a simple mutual interest in beer.
“All of this came to be purely by osmosis. Nothing was planned, and we had no foresight into what the Beer Babes Family would become. We were just two women who appreciated beer, and who loved sharing that passion with other women.”
The Beer Babes Family is a nonprofit organization in the United States and Canada. The organization’s mission statement is to collaborate with breweries throughout North America to help raise money for the Beer Babes Family Grants Fund. This funding is awarded to women in the beer industry trying to improve their beer business.
The Beer Babes Family is a product of COVID. After meeting on social media in the summer of 2020, Roxy and Rachel began an online interaction group for women sharing their beer drinking experiences on Instagram.
As a fun social outlet, they named the group “Beer Babes Family.” As the women in this group from around the globe started using the hashtag #beerbabesfamily, questions began arising such as “What is the Beer Babes Family?” and “How do I become a part of the Beer Babes Family?” While the initial group was just for fun, the growing interest in “What the Beer Babes Family was” brought pause to Roxy and Rachel, and they began asking themselves “what could we turn this small community in to?”
As the online community began to grow, there was outreach from homebrewers and breweries interested in how they could participate. What made the most sense to Roxy and Rachel was to brew beer and have proceeds from the sales go to a woman-focused charity. In February of 2021, the Beer Babes Family’s first collaboration beer helped raise money for the Pink Boots Society.
After this first collaboration beer, there was more and more interest in the Beer Babes Family, and Roxy and Rachel had the serious conversion of, “What if we become our own charity?” Because both women work in the beer industry, and over the years had witnessed many women pursue careers in beer, it made sense to them to create a charity that would help support women in the beer business.
“We didn’t want to compete with the Pink Boots Society, so we decided to focus on business–a place where we felt we could make a big difference for someone. We love seeing women taking the reins and starting their own breweries, taprooms, and other beer-related businesses. Since we are both in the beer industry, that is what we wanted to support.”
After becoming an official nonprofit organization in the USA in April of 2022, and then the same in Canada in December of 2022, the Beer Babes Family has been raising money through collaborations with breweries throughout North America. These collaboration beers are called Babe Brew™. In 2023, the organization will collaborate with one brewery per calendar month (with locations ranging from Montreal, QC to Glendale, CA), with portions of sales being donated. In 2023 their goal is to give $5,000.
“Babe Brew is a series of beers dedicated to the women of our personal lives and of the world: who inspire us, push us, make us think deeper, mentor us and lead by example. To the women who break rules and norms, speak their truth with compassion, live each day with unapologetic confidence, and champion equality for all.”
So what does a brewery need to do to be involved with the Beer Babes Family? It is simple, be a brewery with a good reputation for equality and supporting women and women-identifying people in beer.
Participating breweries brew beer, which is then packaged and sold, with proceeds going to the Beer Babes Family. The Beer Babes Family does not sell directly to consumers. The amount of money donated will be established with each brewery individually, depending on the brewery’s size, costs, needs, etc.
There are no parameters regarding beer style brewed. Individual breweries’ talents and specialties are desired to be showcased. If your brewery does not have the capacity or ability to brew an entirely new batch of beer, that’s ok! Some breweries choose to “rebrand” one of their flagship beers as Babe Brew (for an allotted time chosen by you), and then donate a portion of the proceeds being donated to the Beer Babes Family.
It’s not all about the beer though. The Beer Babes Family continually strives to cultivate their community, and encourages involvement with the charity. For example, on brew day, supporters of the Beer Babes Family are asked to join in on the brewing process. Whenever possible, Roxy and Rachel make it a priority to travel to meet the people who brew, serve, and drink Babe Brew. In 2023 one or both of these women were–or will be–present at each release. Then there’s the party! Each release of Babe Brew is treated as a fundraising event. It is common for supporters to travel across the continent to be at these releases. For example, in April 2023 at the release of Babe Brew 11 in Fort Lauderdale, FL, at Yeasty Brews Artisanal Beer, women traveled from South Carolina, Oklahoma, Washington, Pennsylvania, and Toronto to support the organization.
“We strive to ever-encourage involvement from our supporters. This charity started as a community of beer-drinking women, and we want to keep that as one of our core values. It’s flabbergasting to us how a social media interaction group started during COVID has turned into an international nonprofit. But we are stoked for the future.”
SOURCE: Brewers Journal Canada
PHOTO CREDIT: Roxane (Roxy) Brossoit