One team of 30 women created a brand new beer

An all-female brewers’ collaboration has released a new craft beer limited edition: Rhubarb: A User’s Guide.

In an industry first, the new beverage was available at last weekend’s Edinburgh Craft Beer Festival.

Led by brewing expert Jenn Merrick, female brewers, including current brewers, students and lecturers at Heriot-Watt University created this unique kettle sour in just 24 hours, in a bid to celebrate female brewing, past, present and future.

Described as a crisp and refreshing sherbet beer, it is brewed with Yorkshire ‘Pink Gold’ rhubarb juice and infused with fresh lemon thyme, hibiscus and rose petals and dry-hopped with Huell Melon– the perfect summer drink.

The kettle sour was hosted and brewed at Pressure Drop brewery under the direction of brewer Katie McCain who led the all-female team of 20 brewers, 10 undergraduates and their lecturer from Herriot-Watt’s MSc in Brewing and Distilling.

A hands-on experience, the brewers and students were involved in the recipe design, blending flavours, prepping ingredients and pitching in with the mashing and the boiling.

Heriot-Watt brewing students and tutor, Rachel Sutherland

Jen Merrick, founder of community brewery, Earth Station, said: ‘It was such an inspiring day to see so many women who contribute to the craft beer industry all in one place, making a beer that drew on the skills of these industry leaders and connecting them with the next generation of brewers.’

Greg Wells, co-founder of We Are Beer, the company behind the Edinburgh, London and Bristol Craft beer festivals who commissioned the project, said:  ‘This is a great summer beer that will be a fantastic addition to the Edinburgh Craft Beer Festival.

‘The aim of this limited-edition beer is to celebrate the incredible female talent and influence on modern brewing by creating a collaborative beer with past, present and future female brewers from across the industry.’

Continuing with the all-female theme, illustrator Tara O’Brien was commissioned to produce the artwork design for the label. The craft beer is available in 330 ml bottles at 3.6% ABV.