There was an absolutely wonderful article written for Vermont Kids last week about the importance of family leave to businesses of all sizes, and guess who's prominently featured!

You got it, your friends over at Groennfell Meadery!

Click here or on the photo above to read the article!

​Last week, we found out the very exciting news that Andrea Gagner would be taking over as CEO of 14th Star Brewery in St. Albans, Vermont, and we couldn’t be more pleased.
 
Andrea is a good friend of ours and has basically been running the show there for years, so if for no other reason, it’s a great promotion because she now gets the recognition she deserves. Also, lest we forget to mention the fact that the former CEO Steve has, like, a million jobs and a family and he probably never sleeps.
 
And yet, there’s a larger reason we’re excited about Andrea’s promotion: She’s female.
 
The brewing world is extremely male dominated in America and, as a woman owned and operated brewing outfit ourselves, we are thrilled to have other companies in our camp helping to change face of the industry.
 
Now, we are not saying that men are bad at brewing or should be turned down for jobs. We are also not saying that anyone is intentionally unwelcoming. To be clear, every brewery and distributorship we’ve interacted with is miles from the old boys’ club or fraternity scene you find in movies.
 
Female drinkers now account for about 1 in 3 craft beers consumed in the US, yet the marketing basically ignores women entirely as this article here and this now famous piece from Slate Magazine both explore in great detail.
 
Beyond the marketing of beer, there’s a very real problem if any portion of our population is made to feel uncomfortable – intentionally or unintentionally – in the work place. There are numerous breweries with staffs that are composed entirely of men. While we all love to think that we’re in a post gender-bias world, it can be extremely tough to be the token female.
 
This problem of employee gender-disparity is of special interest in brewing since the craft industry represents one of the few rapidly growing business sectors with high paying positions for individuals without significant formal education. As has been very well documented, the US has a persistent gender-based pay-gap issue, a problem which is compounded by race and education level. Wouldn’t it be nice to be part of the solution?
 
Things are changing, however, as this article from the Washington Times documents. Slowly but surely, women are fighting their way into the industry. Here in Vermont, Rock Art, Fiddlehead, The Alchemist, and others all have women in charge of their operations, and Drop-In Brewery has women working at every level of their business.
 
So, Andrea, welcome to the team! Thanks for all you do at 14th Star and for the industry at large; the world needs more people like you.

Groennfell Meadery was in the news not once, but twice this past week! The first article comes from Jen Smith writing for Localvore Today.  Click here to read "Localvore Pours - Groennfell Meadery."

This second article comes from Joe Cardello of the Colchester Sun, reporting on Groennfell's Black Tie Gala on March 21. Click here to read "Mead me at the Gala."