As a woman at a beer festival you have two choices: roll your eyes and try to ignore the sexist beer names, or leave altogether and miss out on a fun day.
But now, The Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA), which organises more than 180 beer festivals each year in the UK, is calling for change.
The organisation has banned beers with discriminatory names or artwork from appearing at its flagship event, the Great British Beer Festival, which is taking place this week at Olympia London.
Beers with names like Dizzy Blonde, Leg-Spreader, Village Bike and Slack Alice will no longer be welcome.
The official announcement continues a CAMRA policy launched last year after a YouGov found 68% of female drinkers would be unlikely to buy a beer if they saw an advert for it that they considered to be sexist.
Abigail Newton, CAMRA national director, said the organisation can play an important role in making women feel more welcomed within the beer world.
“We have already been refusing to stock sexist beers at the Great British Beer Festival for several years now, but this is the first time we’ve made such a bold statement,” she said.
“It’s hard to understand why some brewers would actively choose to alienate the vast majority of their potential customers with material likely to only appeal to a tiny and shrinking percentage.”
More than 1,000 beers, ciders and perries available at the festival this week have been checked to ensure they adhere to CAMRA’s charter and code of conduct, which details its commitment to inclusivity and diversity.
Newton hopes the moves will help shake some of the outdated stereotypes that persist around beer: “Beer is not a man’s drinks or a woman’s drink, it is a drink for everyone,” she said. “There is a huge amount of work that needs to be done to overcome outdated stereotypes.”
Jane Frances LeBlond, who launched all-female craft brewery Mothership earlier this year, said: “This is a very positive message in a progressive industry, where the movement to involve more women in craft beer is one of the driving forces of the market.”
This weekend’s festival has also chosen LGBTQ charity Stonewall as its charity of choice and will be collecting proceeds in support throughout the week.
