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Business & Tech

One for the Ladies at Eagle Rock Brewery

A "Women's Specific Beer Forum" offers women a chance to sample beer flights without breaking the bank.

“A woman walks into a bar and asks for a beer. …” 

That may sound like the beginning of one of those numerous “walks-up-to-a-bar” jokes whose subjects span the gamut from sozzled Irishmen to bears, alligators, even balls of string, but according to Ting Su, co-owner of the popular Eagle Rock Brewery, the punch line is often a groaner.

Su, whose husband Jeremy Raub and father-in-law Steve Raub are the brewers and co-owners of Eagle Rock Brewery, has seen too many women walk into the Brewery’s tap room and claim that they don’t like beer. 

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She doesn’t blame the women—she blames the tendency of bartenders to suggest “sickly sweet, nectar-like drinks” to female beer drinkers asking for recommendations. “It’s a pretty male-dominated business,” admits Su about the pigeonholing of—and sometimes condescension toward—women in the beer world.

And she intends to change all that with her themed “Women’s Specific Beer Forum,” which starts this coming Wednesday, March 16, at the Eagle Rock Brewery in nearby Glassell Park. For $10, participants can sample Su’s hand-selected flight of four five-ounce beers grouped around a theme—in a playful jab at the beer community, Su says this month’s theme is “Fru-Fru.” She assures potential participants that the beers will be “light and effervescent,” not cloyingly fruity. “It just seemed like a good starting point.”

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Su has chosen the word "forum" for her meetings because, she says, she doesn’t want women to think they’re gathering “for a class, where I stand up and lecture.” She hopes the event will attract a diverse group of women—from novice beer drinkers to knowledgeable craft brew enthusiasts to the “beer-curious”—who will feel encouraged to share opinions about the beers with like-minded drinkers and then go out into the community armed with knowledge about what they like and don’t like in a beer.

Su has been contemplating the “Women’s Specific Beer Forum” for some time, and with thousands of beers to choose from, she’s been having fun coming up with monthly themes. “April will have a spring theme—the beers will have floral notes,” she says.

To celebrate Mother’s Day, the May flight will feature effervescent “champagne-style beers,” which will be made in the "champenois” style, with champagne yeast. In the future, Su might pair flights with food—she already meets regularly with food vendors such as “I Love Pies,” “Cast Iron Gourmet,” and “The Flying Pie Man” before their visits to the brewery to select a beer that complements the featured food.

A fan of craft beers since she was a college undergrad, Su says microbreweries and artisanal beers could be found around the country in years past, especially the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast—they just didn’t get much publicity until the craft beer movement gained popular.

By contrast, Los Angeles is a “young beer town—it’s always been more of a cocktail town, a wine drinkers’ town,” says Su. But Eagle Rock Brewery, which recently celebrated its first anniversary, may be helping change that image. The brewery, adds Su, was instrumental in getting Angelenos excited about the artisanal beer movement when it became the first brewery in decades to operate within the Los Angeles city limits. 

The Women’s Specific Beer Forum has received such “an overwhelming response” of online RSVPs that Su had to move the location to the brew room. A taproom regular offered a loan of tables and chairs from his dad’s church. “It seems a little sacrilegious but he seems fine with it,” says Su.

Not everyone is happy about the forum. “The guys are horribly jealous,” admits Su, laughing. “One regular said we should have a specific forum for men. But every night at the bar is a forum for guys!  This one’s for the girls.”

Women’s Specific Beer Forum
7:30-9:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 16
Eagle Rock Brewery, 3056 Roswell St., 90065
Price: $10. For more info or to RSVP, click here.

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