Venus Rising

ProfileIssue: Virgo 08

Teri Fahrendorf Blazes a Trail for Women Beer Brewers

In 1989, Teri Fahrendorf became the first woman Brewmaster at a craft/micro brewery west of the Rocky Mountains. Now, after 19 years of brewing, Teri has created the Pink Boots Society to help newer women brewers feel connected to their sister brewers and to promote women in brewing. The Society had its first meeting in San Diego last April. Sixteen women brewers and cellarwomen attended, as well as six women beer writers/media to document the occasion.

Born in New York, but raised in Wisconsin, Teri believes that her brewing career was a natural outgrowth of her childhood fascination with yeast.

"When I was nine years old, my family attended our church's rummage sale. I was so excited when I found a small blue booklet titled, 'How Beer Is Made,' that I gladly parted with my weekly allowance of one dime. I opened the booklet and held my breath, certain with sweet anticipation that I'd soon learn the secret of making beer. As I pored over my precious blue booklet, I deflated quickly. The diagrams showed enormous equipment. That was a huge disappointment."

So instead of brewing beer, at the age of ten, Teri made her first two loaves of homemade bread. "My parents were out at an antique show while I kneaded and raised the dough. I had to wait until they got home to bake the bread because I was too young to use the oven without their supervision. Nobody in my family had ever made bread (or beer), but I was a determined kid."

Teri fermented breads and sourdough cultures for the next 18 years. (And she says she is still messing with them.) She also made homemade wines for five years, and she homebrewed for three years. She took meticulous notes on her batches of wine and beer and later converted them into recipes that would become her first professional beers.

“During college, before I picked a business major, I took a year of chemistry, a semester of biology, calculus-level math, and statistics. These classes turned out to be necessary when I began formal brewer training in 1988.”