Craft beer association launches scholarships for women

To mark International Women’s day on 8 March 2017, the Ontario Craft Brewers association (OCB) announced up to six scholarships for women to complete Level 1 courses in the internationally recognised Cicerone Certification Programme.

Set up by Ray Daniels in 2007, the Cicerone programmes train beer sommeliers. The Level 1 course has no prerequisites and only costs USD 69 for the exam, which can be taken online.

Garnet Pratt Siddall, chair of the OCB, said the announcement is the first of many female-friendly initiatives the organization will explore in the coming months.

“The brewing industry is quite male-dominated,” the former investment banker told Toronto media. However, there’s a lot of enthusiasm among membership to address the issue, and the organisation is putting together an ongoing working group to share ideas.

Ms Siddall also said that, while the OCB currently lacks statistics on the gender breakdown of its membership, it will be the next big project they undertake. Collecting these numbers will help establish a baseline to judge their progress, she added.

The OCB currently represents 80 plus small and independent breweries. Ms Siddall, who co-founded Side Launch Brewing in 2014, is the first woman to chair the OCB board.